A Word of Advice…
…to those of you seeking the path to peace and tranquility: On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, do not - I repeat - DO NOT go to Costco!
I think the mutated gene which makes Koreans susceptible to mad cow disease has also played havoc with their peripheral vision. I don’t know how else to explain why so many people like to park their carts in the middle of an aisle so that others can’t get around them. God DAMN I cannot emphasize enough how irritating that is. I mean, when I want to stop to look over an item, I make it a point of finding an out-of-the-way spot to park my cart. That is the natural thing to do, isn’t it?
The carts parked (sometimes sideways) in the middle of the aisle combined with people shouting on their cell phones in the dining area was nearly enough to drive me insane. It made me want to go home, lock the door, close all of the windows, turn on the fan, and cook up some American top sirloin. Serious stuff, I tell you. Fortunately, American cow meat has yet to hit the shelves, or I might just have done it.
On a positive note, my home is now restocked with V8 and grapefruit juice.
May 12th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
parking on sidewalks, driving motorbikes on sidewalks, walking four abreast up narrow flights of stairs. why should costco be any different? I love how they also stare into your cart to check out what the foreigners are buying.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
They are reverse goldfish. Instead of having three-second-long memories, they can only think three seconds into the future. Think about it; it explains a lot.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Ken is right. The way people operate their carts in a crowded Costco (or Tesco or E Mart) directly parallels how cars are operated on the streets.
I worked with a German a few years ago who said that Asians have a narrower field of vision, less peripheral vision than Europeans. It has to do with a face that is a little more flat and the position of their eyes, he stated. My response was to say maybe that is true, and perhaps Jews have smaller brains than real Germans.
I wonder if it really is true, or people who live in such a crowded environment simply have the ability to tune out what is happening in the periphery.
Or perhaps if they do not know you, they cannot place you within the Confucian hierarchy, and therefore you do not exist.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
It’s not just peripheral vision. I swear Koreans are genetically oblivious to spatial relationships altogether. In fact, I’ve made the same comments to my wife at Costco, a place which seems to magnify this trait. Mix and repeat for the subway, the sidewalk, any checkout line, etc.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Congrats again with the engagement, we’ll go for a beer soon..
How do you like the famous costco salad? (ground onions with ketchup and mustard). I like to think of it as the American kimchi.
Nowadays I only go to Costco at like 11am on a weekday. I went once on a weekend, and once during an evening. I didn’t enjoy it. It was busy. The experience was somewhat less enjoyable than a bucket of AIDS in the face during my afternoon nap.
Take it easy.. and bring us some more ‘tales’. I like those.
(And this is my first time posting on a blog, so I mighta got it wrong, oh well.)
May 16th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Thank you. Your first post seems to have gone well. Hopefully it won’t be your last.
I dig the Costco salad, providing you add a hot dog and relish and hold the ketchup.