Bursting Bubbles

Let me just give you a small piece of advice.  If you're a Costco member, and you plan to move to Chicago, go ahead and cancel your membership.  It's not that Costco has anything amazing, but I've always been able to spend more there than I really needed to or planned to any day of the week.  Whether it's movies, or books, or household stuff or food or wine...I have rarely gone into Costco at home and come out with less than - okay, realistically - $50 worth of things I didn't plan to buy.  And most of the time it was much more.  Enough that they insisted I have an Executive membership.  Enough that my AmEx rewards for 2 years was close to $100.

Wouldn't you just expect that everything in the big city is bigger and better?  So far, everything I've come across has been worthy of this fair city; the food, the shops, the transit systems, even the familiar stores.  All just a step or 3 above what I can find at home.  Today, Gypsy (my GPS) and I headed north to the nearest super membership warehouse.  Not far away, just up near Lincoln Park.  With anticipation of great things to come, I grabbed a buggy - excuse me - cart, and made my way into the store.  The layout was different; I never did locate the household cleaning products, but I didn't look terribly hard.  The one positive thing I'll say is that the wine selection was much, much larger.  Everything else was, well, a disappointment.  It's like they tried to jam so much more into the store that they ended up with less.  Less selection, and Costco has a limited selection as it is.

I'll not carry on about a subject that means little to me or anyone else, but I just wanted to express that my bubble has been, if not burst, well, made a little smaller.  Or less shiny.  I can handle traffic, and weather (although winter is far away), and being away from anyone I know.  But to learn that not everything is bigger and better just makes the city a little more common.  Common isn't bad except when you expect more.

Oh - for maybe the first time ever, I left Costco with nothing.  It was such an unusual experience, I couldn't figure out how to get out of the store without going through checkout!  Now I know.