Inside Bethenny Frankel's Love Affair With Costco
In a bit of "media figures are human too" information, Bethenny Frankel, by her own admission, loves Costco. At least, she did so while she penned a 2010 entry for her Bravo blog, stating "I live for bulk stores in general, but Costco is, as I said, my religion." The doctrine behind this religion is that you can stumble upon great things there, and it's a good location for a big family or person preparing for a large gathering. However, its main purpose for Frankel was to stock on goods she consistently used, like toilet paper or olive oil, the essentials.
Of course, Frankel isn't the only famous person to love Costco, as articles like this slideshow assembled for Business Insider show. Everyone from the Jenners to Rudy Giuliani have frequented the wholesale store. The takeaway is that the people who love Costco love it for more or less the same reasons as everyone else does, because famous people are people as well.
People may prefer the bulk buying
While Costco does have many great deals, such as its famous $4.99 rotisserie chicken, one of its biggest appeals may play upon consumer psychology. In 2014, The Atlantic reported on the results of a study conducted by the Journal of Consumer Research; the findings of the study revealed that people were more comfortable buying huge bundles of goods than the same amount in individual packets. For example, a 16 pack of paper towels would be bought while 16 individual paper towel rolls would rarely appear in a shopping basket.
The same proved true when the researchers tested a preference for variety. In a case of choosing between a massive box of soup cans and buying individual brands of soup, consumers showed a general preference for buying the big box. When they chose between different cans, they bought a larger variety but a smaller total amount.
So, while Frankel is right about buying some goods only for families or fetes, her habit of stocking up on essentials at Costco seems to be something plenty of folks enjoy as well.