A little over a week ago, Sarah and I took another step towards adulthood. No longer satiated by the typical grocery store, we signed up for memberships at Costco.

Yeah, we’re that awesome.

Our friends Jud and Biz introduced us to the awesomeness of Costco. They took us a few times to help us find our way around the place, so when Sarah and I joined it was like we met up with an old friend. We had the basic layout down, but there was so much more to experience.

Up and down each row, we gazed upon giant boxes of microwave popcorn and shampoo sold by the gallon. We greeted each turn with a sense of purpose, visually recording the locations of various goods we would be searching for on later trips. Sarah got lost in the produce area, while I drooled over the wide selection of meats and beer. If there is a better representation of our relationship out there, I would be completely surprised.

I think a lot of Costco’s appeal goes into how they treat their employees and their customers. Employees get health benefits and are paid much higher than their warehouse rival, Sam’s Club. Unions are allowed and Costco even contributes to their employees’ 401(k) plans. They guarantee that nothing is marked up more than 15%, which is always a bargain when compared to the typical 25% mark up you see in most grocery stores.

Plus, they give out awesome free samples.

I think Costco is going to be our regular hangout from now on. When we can’t decide on what to do on a Friday night, it’s going to be a little Costco browsing and a slice of pizza from their in-store restaurant. Who says romance is dead?

I’m even coming up with Costco scavenger hunts we can play with our friends (only those with memberships of course… we can’t just let anybody in). My current favorite is going to be called, “Name That Wound.” We’ll play it on Saturdays when the best free samples are being brought out. Basically, the goal is to be as aggressive as possible at each sample station. When we get back together as a group, we’ll compare battle wounds and try to guess the improvised weapon that was used and the free sample the person was going after (ie: “Wow – nice black eye… it looks perfectly round, so I’m going to guess a large can of peaches while going for the last pizza roll sample”).

Or, maybe we’ll just shop for basic essentials. Who knows?! The possibilities are endless!