Costco Culture

I am actually at a loss for words...not really (like that could ever happen to a Steward). But I am close to being at a loss for words. Here we sit on the other side of the world and the Price Club/Costco crowd has made themselves known. Not the Stateside version of pensioners who time their stops at these mega-stores to be the first to sample the free give aways...but their Greek counterparts.
The View from the Promenade


I used to walk the aisles of Costco on the West Coast and be amazed at the "survival of the fittest" mode that people adopted as the "Spicy Turkey Weenies" were coming off the grill on those little toothpicks...they would jostle, push, shove and joust for position as if it were the last food they would be able to take home to their starving family. It seemed all elements of decorum and grace were abandoned...reputations squandered....all for the passion of a heat and serve gastronome.

Tonight as I compose this dispatch I am sitting in the lobby of the Makedonian Palace in Thessaloniki watching the same set at work. There is a Greek Wedding taking place and while there is a considerable "Big & Fat" element to it...it is the little old ladies who are wandering through the lobby, not part of the Wedding Party... who are cleaning off the cookie trays and stashing them in their large LV purses. One old bird has made her 5th pass at the Divinity Puffs and is gearing up for another.

So...even though the location has changed...the impulse hasn't...when it comes to free party food....the game is afoot.
High Tech Travel Laundry