If you can, it wouldn't be a bad idea to shop at Costco...

[Bigredhunk]

99. Copied/Pasted My Post From The Other Thread Re: Coralville, IA Costco

I hate their weekend hours, but we rarely go there on weekends. I also hate that they ditched their exclusive hours. Used to be that Executive members ($110 membership) could shop from 10 AM - 11 AM alone. Gold lever members ($55 membership) could begin shopping at 11 AM. It wasn't much, but it helped. They got rid of that in 2009 or 2010, I think. Now the hours are all the same for everyone. It's a real PITA, as most Costcos are TOTAL ZOOS. You can barely navigate through the place(s), especially with the samples (everyone stops and congregates around the freebies, clogging up traffic). That's the only thing Scum's Club has on Costco. If you pay for the expensive membership at Scum's Club, you can shop from 7 AM - 10 AM. The standard members may begin shopping at 10 AM. It helps if you can have exclusive hours. I'm a people person, but I hate being around people when I'm shopping/going to movies/etc...

We've had a couple of Costco memberships in our family for 10 years now. It started when I spent the summer in Seattle in 2001. My family lives out there, and I got to experience some of the cool things you always hear about (Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc...). Coming back to the midworst sucked. It was like moving to Iowa Shitty from Columbus, OH when I was in college. Columbus had great movie theaters, shopping, restaurants, concerts, sports. Iowa Shitty had NOTHING. It still blows, but it's better (drive-thru Starbucks, Noodles & CO, Chipotle, Costco).

We ended up getting our own Costco membership and shopping at the Costcos near Minneapolis in late 2001. They had the St Louis Park location open already. We joined the Coon Rapids location just after it opened. (Now they have 6 - Eden Prarie, Maple Grove, Maplewood, Burnsville - They're getting 2 more in the fall). My sister was teaching in NW WI. We'd go up to see her. We'd drive 60-90 miles into Minneapolis and load up, then drive home. We did this 3-4 times a year. Costco opened in West Des Moines in August of 2004. We'd load up there once and a while (sister now teaches in S IA, so we'd go from her house). Madison (Middleton, actually) opened in August of 2008, so we started going there. Now we'll probably go to Coralville. We'll still hit Madison, as they have Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

We went to the grand opening in Coralville on Wed, 6/27. We should've gotten there at 8 AM. We got there about 10 instead. MADHOUSE! It was nuts. On top of that, they only had 2 handicapped/motorized carts (although we only ever saw 1). We got into a fight with someone over the one we found/used. It helped already having a membership, and not having to wait in line to sigh up for one. I now know to avoid Costco on opening day. It's way to big of a deal for us midworsterners. We'd been to the Madison location on opening day too. That was also insane. My sister went back to Coralville on Thursday, 7/6. She said it was just as busy. I hope it doesn't stay that way, because it makes shopping miserable. Or hopefully Costco gets the message and builds more warehouses. People LOVE the place, and most of them aren't even doing it to support a "Blue State" business.

Costco does incredibly well, kicking Scum's Clubs butt in sales each year, even though Scum's has a lot more warehouses. I know they're never coming to Dubuque, but I hope they can branch out and get to the QC. The QC Scum's needs competition (way too busy). DPort needs much better stuff (they do have a Chipotle now!). It seems that West Des Moines got the message that Iowans actually want cool sh*t (they have Costco, Trader Joe's,...Whole Foods opened last Wednesday - WITH A LONG LINE OF PEOPLE WAITING TO GET IN, and they're probably going to have another Whole Foods). Hopefully other Iowa cities follow.

I live outside of Dubuque now. Our Costco's are roughly:

Coralville, IA - 100 miles away
Madison, WI - 115 miles away (Sun Prarie, WI is getting one in October...that's a few miles further)
Des Moines, IA - 250 miles away
Naperville, IL - 160 miles away

One of the few complaints I have about them (in addition to not having extra hours for exec members) is that they congregate around big cities, and have few warehouses anywhere else. I know it works for them. They stay in affluent areas. But if they'd just branch out a little bit it would help. I mean, there are something like 17 of them around Chicago, and none in the rest of the state of IL. There are 3 in the entire state of WI (soon to be 4). There are 2 in the entire state of IA. People love Costco, so they have to keep up and build more. This new one in Coralville has been VERY busy all 3 times I went there (although the 1st time was on opening day). I'm hoping this shows them that their stores will flourish in Iowa, and we can get one in Davenport, IA (60 miles away). I'd drive there once every 7-10 days and load up. So would my parents. As it is, I'll be hitting the Coralville one as much as possible.