Super Demo

Okay, so I totally understand why every country on earth hates us. It's taken me awhile, but Saturday at Costco, it finally clicked. First off, yes, I did say two words that together make a deadly combination: Saturday and Costco. Truly, this is the equivalent of those idiots I LOVE to watch that stand outside during category 5 hurricanes and say really insightful things like "Whoa! It's really blowing out here!". I mean, hello!, they have got to know what they're walking into right?

Like those crazies, I thought I knew what I was walking into as well. Apparently I was envisioning a tropical depression and instead I got Katrina. Not only was it Saturday, but it was "Hurry and Grab All the Fried and Fattening Food You Can Find Cause Baby Tomorrow It's the Super Bowl" Saturday. It seems that Costco's marketing department was all over this one. As I approached the rear of the store my cart seemed to be moving of its own accord toward (angelic music here) "The Super Demo". Complete with actual up-rights, there were seriously a good forty samples for the taking. I remember a story my little brother told me once. He had stayed with my Grandpa for the weekend and my Grandpa had said, "Let's go get some lunch. We just need to go by Costco first." They toured the store and ate every demo in sight. As they were leaving the store my Grandpa said, "We don't need to go get lunch now, right?" Well, I sure hope Grandpa made it to Costco on Saturday because this wasn't a lunch - it was a wedding feast!

I'm talkin' chocolate cake, hot wings, meatballs, salsa, bruschetta, just to name a few. But my personal favorite was the carrots. Do we really need a demo to decide if we're going to buy carrots? (What are those strange orange sticks? Can they be deep-fried?) I wonder why we have an obesity problem in this country. I just can't quite figure it out.



Things got a little hairy in the Super Demo. Too many people with huge carts overflowing with food trying to push their way to a free taquito. Sam was walking ahead of me and I almost lost him a few times. He too had the glazed look that can only come when faced with too much free food. He was being drawn like a magnet to old ladies in hairnets with little microwaves. It was sensory overload.



For a moment I was able to see this in perspective. Here are a herd of over-weight, over-indulged Americans willing to get their toes smashed by 200 lb. carts for a chance to taste some salsa in order to determine if they need a gallon of it. Meanwhile, there are people all over the world hoping to have a handful of rice for the week. I was a little disgusted, until I was distracted by the smell of mozzarella sticks. Hey! I'm only human and proud to be both an American and a Costco member.