A lot of Costcos also have a complete pharmacy and an onsite optometrist and optical shop.
Apologies, I got it wrong. :smack:
You’re quite right, what I should have said was “wholesale” and not to the general public
It made sense to me. “They cater to the retail trade” meaning they cater to retailers, i.e. store owners. Maybe it’s a British vs. American English thing.
The local super walmart has these, along with a bank and a hair salon.
As butler1850 alluded to, CostCo started out that way but then it changed. It used to be you had to be a business owner to shop there, then some companies could offer membership as a ‘perq’ for their employees* and it’s still kinda like that. If you’re not a member, and an employee, and your employer doesn’t have membership privileges, then you have to find a current member to ‘recommend’ you. Given the penetration into the general public, it’s not difficult to find a friend who’s already a member.
One small vestige of that is there are two classes of members, Business (with a black card) and Gold Star (white with a [wait for it] Gold Star). The first three hours the store is open, eight to eleven for my local store, it’s business members only. From that point to closing it’s everybody.
*I put perq in quotes because the employer doesn’t pay the membership fee (currently $45 per year), just the right to apply.