I shopped at Costco today. I bought Swiss cheese, freshly baked Italian bread still warm from the oven, sourdough bread, fresh strawberries, fresh plums, canned organic pinto beans (for when I don’t have endless hours to cook dry beans from scratch), mayo for my tuna salad-obsessed son, dried cranberries, and pure vanilla extract. Also, some lovely socks.

Yes, Costco sells plenty of sugary beverages, junk convenience foods, deep fried frozen sodium bombs, muffins the size of softballs, and pies huge enough to be mistaken for UFOs. I don’t buy that stuff, not even for special occasions. Though I will cop to picking up 22 pounds of Halloween candy for the throngs of tricker-treaters we get on my street. I don’t disagree with you, but I still love Costco.