yep this,
I've even seen the staff do this for you while the person in front of you is finishing up.
while i can't say i enjoy the endless roaming the aisles experience, the checkout process is super efficient

At the inception for an IT project I said that we would be under the gun, we'd have to go at the work like we were the Costco check out people. No one understood "under the gun", that's too ethnic, but everyone caught the Costco reference.

They usually walk along the queue and process the goods in the cart at Christmas, when they are very busy. That’s where I got the idea from.

Do it.
The only bad thing about Costco is that you always leave with more stuff than you went in for.

ugh.
The wine area looked okay and the fruit and veg section, but everything else? Reminds me of a horrible Kwiksave I went in once.

Yeah that downside to Costco is traversing through a warehouse that is just concrete and exposed metal shelving, not really a nice aesthetic.

It sells ordinary stuff for ordinary people in a functional setting, it's not pretending to be Fortnum's. It's not a good shop if you're poor and not interesting if you're rich. It's a place for people who have a car and a freezer and storage space who know they'll work their way through 50 bog rolls and 24 paper towels and 3 chickens and 2 gallons of Pinesol and who don't want to bother with going shopping often for such routine items.

The market is a different experience, it's aesthetically pleasing and sells gourmet stuff. Horses for courses, innit? I don't want three pints of caviar sold to me in 20 seconds from a metal shelf at a knock down price but that works ideally for three pints of mayonnaise.

Believe me the architect got paid once.

Totally agree with dbd's assessment of Costco.

On another website forum I participate in related to architecture/land development/real estate/city building etc Costco is often dismissed by the 'elites' who find it a depressing place to shop. They prefer to pay high prices as shop assistants fawn over them and stroke their egos. When I want to buy a lifetime supply of feta or 5 kg of Nutella I know the Kirkland boutique will serve my needs and I won't be judged for going there.

Other than the ice cream in a cone, to me the rest of the food is pretty awful...but I think they keep at the prices from 20 + years ago.

Wasn't trying to say Costco is a bad store because of the warehouse-look, but it is an undeniable aspect of shopping there. I'm happy to accept it to save money on diapers and other things, as are many others.

The difference in experience/quality between my two nearest Sobeys is startling.

One is a delight to wander around, the checkout staff are really good and wonderful at packing, like they have a degree in it and it has the advantage of being next to the liquor store.

The other, my 'local', frequently displays the wrong prices, often doesn't have stuff in stock even in the first hour of a new flyer week, not very good at packing and now they no longer have an olive bar But it is convenient for Canadian Tire.

And both stores do have the Belgian bread - the bestest bread I have found.

Did you get any elk or bison?

Haha, I love that bloody stuff.

Our local Safeway/Sobeys is slowly being run further and further into the ground. Most of the staff are still good, especially the ones that are hold-overs from Safeway before the sale. But sale items are often not available, stuff just disappears from the shelves and is never seen again.

They seem to decide what they think we should buy, not what we actually want to buy. For example, they only carry Everready batteries, haven't seen Duracell since shortly after the take-over. More and more of our friends are complaining that they can no longer find on the shelves items that they have bought for the last umpteen years.

They had elk and bison in the flyer, but I didn't go in that week so I don't know if it was actually there.

The meat section does have some very nice fresh sausages that are not in packs. I think they are made"locally", ie BC or Alberta, but they are sold by the butcher behind the meat counte and wrapped in butcher paper. The usual ones are Herbed British Bangers and Mild Italian (which are actually quite spicy sometimes!).

The Safeway/Sobeys at a mall about 5 kms away is better for a lot of things, but the mall is in chaos as they are building 40, 50 and 60 storey towers all around it on the parking areas. It's hell-ish trying to work your way round all the blocked areas and then trying to find a parking space. The mall isn't much good for anything else unless you are size 0 and have loads of money to spare ............... the stores are being replaced by shops like Coach, Michael Kors, etc etc.

Daughter gave up on Sobeys in Metro Halifax long ago, they prefer Atlantic Superstore. The only time they go to Sobeys is when we visit because they carry a couple of lactose-free items that the Superstore doesn't have.

She really commiserated with us when Sobeys bought out Safeway.

There isn't much that rhymes with baklava or he would have mentioned it. I went once with a friend who had membership, grazed a bit, and on my 3rd pass baklava lady was starting to give me hard looks. It was really good.