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Costco is a

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magical place,
but you don't have to take my word for it.

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Contributor Alex Beam counts the ways.

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Before I tell you how much I love Costco,

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I have to talk about the great
Irish novelist Colm Toibin.

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He's a sensational writer,
and he's the author of two

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very approachable
novels, Brooklyn and Long Island.

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But to my point, he loves Costco.

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Why? One, Because Costco sells his books.

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As he explains in a TikTok,
they're sold in between water

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and underwear
and your barbecue, your charcoal.

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And two, Toibin is simply blown away
by Costco's $4.99 cent chickens.

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Quote. Just have a look at this chicken.

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Look at the size of it.

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That's Toibin raving on Instagram.

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Quote the amount of chicken
this in the chicken dinner.

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The size of it.

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The amount of chicken.
This in the chicken.

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I do like Costco, but it's not like I'm
a member of a secret society.

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I'm sure you know them.

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They're a membership discount
warehouse club where you pay a little over

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$60 a year for the privilege of buying,
say, a 20 pound bag of figs.

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But not just any figs.

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These are delicious figs.

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Just like the chickens
at a ridiculously low price.

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Costco does a lot of things right.

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They pay their employees well, and
as a result, they have very low turnover

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and very little of what's called
shrinkage.

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That's retail industry jargon for theft.

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Costco has never had a layoff.

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Their in-house brand, Kirkland Signature,

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is a bigger business than all of Nike.

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Costco turns out to be the world's
largest seller of fine wines,

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defined as bottles that sell for between
$20 and $300.

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Okay, I admit it. I'm a bit of an addict.

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I even bought a car
through their auto program.

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It's not a fantastic deal,
but it's a guaranteed deal.

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In my case,
they knocked about $1,000 off the mSRP.

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I was once in the office of a super high
end eye doctor.

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He told me to buy my glasses at Costco

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because the quality was as good
as anywhere else at half the price.

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Yeah, okay.

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They look a little nerdy, but believe me,
they help me see people

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my age are making a beeline to Costco
for their hearing aids.

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What's next?

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Hip surgery.

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Anything is possible in Costco land.

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I'm globe contributor Alex Beam.

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For daily access to Boston Globe today.

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All segments and episodes are available
on demand in the Boston

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Globe app by clicking Watch.