I do not understand why people aren’t satisfied with the uppermost (open) case of whatever when there’s a large stack (and, let’s face it–everything is stacked at Costco). I watch them struggle to lift 4 or 5 cases so they can pick one box of raisins from the 5th level down. I get if there was one left on top that was crushed or some other moron opened…but, really?
The other one is the family of 5 that walk next to each other (think front line of an NFL team) while pushing the cart as slowly as possible down the ‘wrong’ side of the aisle.
The digging deep into a stack is likely an attempt to get a package of whatever that has a later expiration date. I see folks do that with milk all the time…
I’ve found that at my Costco, the front pallet of milk is usually a day or two fresher than the one behind it, probably because they know everyone grabs from the back.
Based on my observations, I don’t think it’s about that. I get the sense that it’s more likely some primitive, brain-stem thing that somehow something from the 5th layer is fresher or better. (I’ve watched customers dig for apples with this same behavior at conventional grocery stores.)
Most stores practice (or should practice) FIFO, or First In First Out. As long as the store is adhering to proper practices and the current product is not all from the same shipment, then yes it should be fresher the further back you go.
Well it is true that old stuff gets put on top or at the front but it’s ludicrous to think any of it stays around that long at costco.
I am guilty of this with the avocados though, after watching people toss bags they don’t want back on the pile as if they don’t bruise or something.
Can’t say I’ve ever noticed an avocado at Costco that was ripe enough to bruise.
Congrats. When everything takes longer to get to your stores by sea, things are different. Sometimes I have to avoid bags of avos that are already well past their prime.
And before anyone asks: yes, I live in Hawaii, where avos grow but are not always in season, or it’s a low yield season, or they’re expensive AF for some reason this time around, or it’s just more convenient to pick them up when I get everything else.