The Costco theory of the internet

[Brad]

Good read.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-costco-theory-of-the-internet/

Costco never promised perfect quality or the best product in every category; and it isn't doesn't claim to be a temple of taste. It sells enormous muffins, bulk socks, patio furniture, protein shakes, car tyres, petrol, hearing aids, rotisserie chickens, appliances, and tubs of dip large enough to drown any and all sorrows.

But more than that: Costco sells a higher floor.

[rcjordan]

>hearing aids

I was in an antique RV club populated with dozens of elder, gifted, techie, mechanics (lots of engineers) that also tended to be 'just the bullets' type.  I was in my mid-60s & knew my hearing was fading so I asked what they were using. The answer was
- go to Costco
- get the $1500 set
- don't bother with the phone app as you'll soon find that to be a bother
- it doesn't filter background noise, no hearing aid does no matter what they say
- restaurants are a problem but it's easy to turn down the volume with the button

There, now you have the bullets.  I joined Costco just to get the hearing aids. Still a member.

"Costco's hearing aid centers have been one of the biggest success stories in the hearing aid industry over the past decade. From 2011 to 2017, sales at Costco hearing centers grew at approximately 20% per year, and Costco has now emerged as the nation's leading hearing aid retailer, making up about 16% of the US retail market in 2025. That suggests only the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dispenses more hearing aids in the United States."

https://www.hearingtracker.com/hearing-aids/costco

[ergophobe]

I've been thinking of this a lot lately and seen other takes along these lines.

The basic idea is that being alive in the age of consumer capitalism is fatiguing.

I often ponder how, in the sixteenth century, people had comparatively fewer choices. For the most part, that was bad. Not having a choice between, say, the contaminated water in the river or the safe water in the tap is a bad thing.

The fatigue of the sixteenth century made sense though: bad choices could very quickly lead to bad results, like death.

The fatigue of the 21st century is manufactured by somehow getting us to believe that the differences between sixteen different brands of identical-looking 200W portable solar panels matters. And so, in a fatiguing quest, you waste a lot of time comparing things that are not actually different. Except that sometimes they are, because....

>> The internet's problem has moved from access to trust.

Lately, I've been thinking about how this infects other domains. It seems like more and more people think that their health and fitness depends on a new gadget. And I don't mean a new gadget like an insulin pump or a CPAP. I mean a new gadget like something an Oura Ring or our a power meter pod for your shoe.

The thing that underlies all that, is they make you think the last 1% of optimization is the most important percent, equal in importance to the other 99% all put together. People will tell you up and down that they do an 80/20 analysis. Then you watch them shop or you watch them read up on a "new" workout routine, and it's clear that they (and sometimes I) get stuck in a 99/1 analysis.

It leads in the end to what I call...

The Sadness of the Optimizer

If I'm comfortable that I didn't get the best price or I didn't find the best cast iron griddle in the world or my workout isn't 99.7% optimized, I can live a good life. But that last 1% really kills you.

"I say the last 10 percent of the way to perfection takes so much of your life that it isn't worth the effort... Specialization, when indulged in by true geniuses liek Mozart, Babe Ruth, or Bernd Arnold can create great art that elevates mankind above the lowly beasts. But you and I can evolve more quickly by putting that energy into more than one direction."
  -- Yvon Chouinard, "Coonyard Mouths Off, Part II" Climbing Magazine #100 (1987)

That essay spoke to me deeply when I read it in 1987 working my dead-end warehouse job whose only real benefit was that we had a company subscription to all the climbing magazines and discounts on climbing gear that I mostly couldn't afford to buy even at half price.

[rcjordan]

>you waste a lot of time comparing things that are not actually different. Except that sometimes they are

I've found that Amz's AI (once named Rupert, now Alexa) can help shorten the process of plowing through the clones.  One prompt I'm using lately;

List the three Product Xs that have the highest sales and have 4+ stars. Sorted by total sales descending.

[Rupert]

Interesting name choice! Probably only to me, but certainly unusual.

I guess it was a word not often used.

I start with www.which.net