Richard's blog

We were talking about Costco in my brand management class so I had to go and check it out for myself. Thanks to my friend JB and his wife E for showing me around the joint.

It is another world that exists according to another logic entirely.

In my world, I look to buy the smallest size of anything in groceries because I live alone and don’t use a lot of stuff. In the Costco World, sugar comes in 25kg bags.

In my world, $5699 Cartier watches are found in a luxurious branded environment where the retail experience is at least part of the brand associations. In the Costco world a $5699 watch is mere paces from the twelve pack socks.

In my world, you buy a Royal Doulton figurine, a treadmill, 10kgs of dogfood, artisan bread, a pair of jeans and a $150,000 emerald ring at different stores. In the Costco world there is no reason to leave the building.

In my world, you pay for things when you shop. In the Costco world you pay to shop: an annual membership fee. There is a fair bit of membership card flashing (to get in, at the register, at the entrance to the booze section, etc.)

From a cultural level, consumption at this level of conspicuousness is quite confronting. Supermarkets by comparison seem tame. The amount of product in a supermarket seems somehow manageable or imaginable. The sheer quantity of product at Costco is a monument to the project of consumption in our society and the sheer logistics of catering to the consumption habits we have. Of course, Costco deliberately sets out to generate patterns of consumption (there is nothing like buying in bulk to get you to consume in bulk). At times I felt a sense of revulsion and at others a profound sense of wellbeing. Costco may not be pleasurable, but it is certainly arousing and invokes feelings of human dominance.

All my photos here.

1. Starting from 5pm tomorrow I get a five-day break. Good.
2. I need more tartan in my life.
3. Knowing how to make consumption work for you is key.
4. I am within striking distance of my Japan weight. For some reason this is important.
5. I just got stamped by Catherine Deveny.
6. Want to finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and re-read Building Strong Brands.
7. Tutoring is good fun. But I need to get sidetracked less.
8. Running is dope. I wish I was more flexible.

I went to a chapel service last night where the address was about the value of theist institutions (whether in healthcare, education, etc.) in terms of strengthening diversity. The basic idea was that these institutions provide the private good of services in tune with the beliefs of that community. This also has a promulgatory or buttressing function for the religion. Perhaps essentially this is a reification of religion qua community.

Well what of distinctive atheists institutions? We cannot look to the state, at least not in Australia. Religion is pervasive in most aspects of state-sponsored life. I don’t think we can look, unfortunately, to private enterprise either. To embody and communicate the community values of atheism I think is beyond the scope of enterprise – I think it takes the authentic community in itself. (I could be wrong here of course. There are some very powerful community-backed brands these days.) Atheists could also annex the institutions of essentially atheist religions (i.e. Buddhism) but this is unlikely to appeal to all.

Recent atheist convention aside, atheists are a disorganised lot, some even hold such disorganisation as a strong point in resisting religiosity. But I wonder how such institutions might be developed, and if indeed they are a prerequisite for strong communities and the kind of promulgation that I think most atheists would like, but perhaps lack the zeal to propose?

There is a new Ron Mueck exhibition at the NGV International on St Kilda Rd. The detail on these works is mindblowing. Must see.

Sun in eyes at tennis