Costco has over 130 million cardholders worldwide. Most of them use the membership for one thing: pushing a giant cart past the cereal aisle. Last month I went through everything a membership actually includes, line by line, and I felt like someone who had paid for a gym for years and only ever used the water fountain. There's a pharmacy, a tire center, an optical shop, a travel desk, a hearing aid center, and a gas station, and I had walked past all of them for years on my way to the rotisserie chicken. Costco doesn't make most of its money selling you groceries. It makes a big share of it from the membership fee, which means the whole building is designed to make you feel like the fee was worth it. The problem is that most members never find the parts that prove it. I checked each department against what I'd been paying elsewhere, and a few of the gaps were embarrassing. Here are the 9 Costco benefits most members walk past every single visit 🧵