引言：将便宜购物变成昂贵消费的技巧
以下是 Costco 可能将一次便宜的购物之旅变成昂贵消费的十种技巧。
英文原文
Here are ten Costco tricks that can turn a cheap shopping trip into an expensive one.一、1.5美元热狗套餐
第一：1.5美元的热狗。热狗加苏打水只需1.5美元，自80年代中期以来价格一直未变。这让 Costco 给人一种平价商店的感觉。但是便宜的午餐就意味着便宜的电视吗？
英文原文
Number one: the dollar-fifty hot dog. A hot dog and soda for a dollar fifty, at the same price since the mid-eighties. It makes Costco feel like the cheap store. But does a cheap lunch mean a cheap television?假设一台电视在 Costco 售价300美元，而另一家商店同款售价270美元。如果你信任 Costco 的价格最实惠，你可能不加比价就直接买下。你多花了30美元，却依然觉得自己捡到了便宜。这就是其中的诀窍：一个显而易见的实惠，会让你对那些未曾比价的商品价格产生信任。午餐省下的钱是真的，但你只是顺理成章地以为其他所有东西也同样如此。
英文原文
Imagine a TV costs three hundred dollars at Costco, while another store sells the same one for two hundred and seventy. If you trust Costco to have the best price, you might buy it without checking. You've spent thirty dollars more while feeling like you got a bargain. That's the trick: one obvious bargain can make you trust prices you haven't compared. The saving on lunch is real. You're simply assuming the same is true of everything else.二、免费试吃
第二：免费试吃。有人递给你一口披萨，味道不错。接着他们向桌子旁堆放的整盒披萨点头示意。一分钟前，你根本没打算买披萨；而现在，你已经在考虑要不要带一盒回家了。
英文原文
Number two: the free sample. Someone hands you a bite of pizza. It's good. Now they nod at the stack of boxes beside the table. A minute ago, you weren't shopping for pizza. Now you're deciding whether to take one home.刚刚发生了什么？那一口试吃消除了风险，你已经知道自己喜欢它了。而且面前有个人正微笑着看着你，等待你的反应。径直走开会让人觉得有点不礼貌，仿佛拒绝回报一份好意。
英文原文
What just happened? That bite removed the risk. You already know you like it. And there's a person smiling at you, waiting for your reaction. Walking away feels a little rude, like refusing to return a favor.这种方法确实有效。在2014年的一份报告中，一家试吃服务公司指出，在全美零售商中，提供试吃让冷冻披萨的销量跃升了600%，啤酒试吃让啤酒销量提升了71%。只要尝上一口，商品本身就卖出去了。试吃回答了一个问题：你喜欢吃这一口披萨吗？但它从未问过你，冷冻室里是否真的需要塞进价值12美元的披萨。
英文原文
And it works. In a twenty fourteen report, a sampling company reported that, across national retailers, frozen pizza sales jumped six hundred percent with sampling. Beer sampling lifted beer sales by seventy-one percent. One mouthful, and the box sells itself. The sample answered one question: do you like a bite of pizza? It never asked whether you wanted twelve dollars of it in your freezer.三、4.99美元烤鸡
第三：4.99美元的烤鸡。为什么整栋建筑里最便宜的晚餐通常都在最深处？你需要解决晚餐，而 Costco 有不到5美元的整只熟烤鸡。为了拿到它，你得穿过电视区、珠宝区和大罐酱料区。你在一个展位前停下，接着又在另一个停下。还没走到晚餐跟前，你的购物车就已经快装满了。烤鸡负责把你引进来，而这段步行动线则把其他消费品推到了你的眼前。
英文原文
Number three: the four-ninety-nine chicken. Why is the cheapest dinner in the building usually at the very back? You need dinner, and Costco has a whole cooked chicken for under five dollars. To get it, you walk past the televisions, the jewelry and the giant jars of sauce. You stop at one display. Then another. Your cart is filling up before you've even reached dinner. The chicken gets you in. The walk puts other purchases in your path.在2014年，Costco 的财务主管表示，公司每年愿意在烤鸡上放弃3000万至4000万美元的潜在利润，以将价格维持在4.99美元。2018年，Costco 售出了9100万只烤鸡，并在内布拉斯加州投资4.5亿美元建造了自己的禽肉综合基地来帮助维持这一价格。这足以说明，把你吸引进店走上一圈有多高的价值。因此，如果晚餐就是你的全部目的，那就严格当成单一任务来对待：直奔烤鸡，直奔收银台。
英文原文
In twenty fourteen, Costco's finance chief said the company was willing to give up thirty to forty million dollars a year in potential profit on the chickens to keep that price at four ninety-nine. It sold ninety-one million of them in twenty eighteen, and built its own four-hundred-fifty-million-dollar poultry complex in Nebraska to help hold the price. That tells you how much getting you through the store is worth. So if dinner is the whole mission, treat it like one. Straight to the chicken, straight to the checkout.四、寻宝式陈列
第四：寻宝游戏。你发现了一件自己特别喜欢的夹克。你本可以考虑一下，下周再来买。但你已经对这个地方有所了解：上周陈列的东西现在已经没了，取而代之的是完全不同的商品。现在等待反而让人感到有风险。心中的问题悄悄从“我想要这件夹克吗？”变成了“它还会在这里吗？”
英文原文
Number four: the treasure hunt. You find a jacket you really like. You could think about it and come back next week. Except you've learned something about this place. Last week's display is already gone, and something completely different has taken its place. Now waiting feels risky. The question quietly changes from "do I want this jacket?" to "will it still be here?"这是刻意设计的。2013年，联合创始人 Jim Sinegal 曾表示，在店内大约4000种商品中，大约有1000种在不断轮换。用他的话说，其目的就是“在顾客心中制造一种紧迫感”。这里不需要闪烁的倒计时，货架本身就已经教会了你东西随时会消失。仓储店从不需要声明“限时供应”，上个月摆放皮划艇的空位就已经替他们说明了一切。这件夹克并没有变得更实用，只是变得更难推迟购买了。想象一下下个月它仍然摆在原地、价格相同，你还会觉得它紧急吗？
英文原文
That's deliberate. In twenty thirteen, co-founder Jim Sinegal said that out of roughly four thousand items, about a thousand were constantly changing. His aim, in his words, was to "create an urgency in the customer." No flashing countdown needed. The shelves have already taught you that things disappear. The warehouse never has to say limited time. The empty spot where last month's kayaks stood says it for them. The jacket hasn't become more useful. It's just become harder to put off. Picture it still sitting there next month, at the same price. Still urgent?五、会员卡与沉没成本
第五：会员卡。这是大多数购物者从未考虑过的一点：在支付了商品成本之后，Costco 每1美元的销售额中大约只剩下11美分用于其他成本和利润。会员费是其另一大重要收入来源。在2025年，会员费收入约为53亿美元，金额大约相当于其营业利润的一半。
英文原文
Number five: the membership card. Here's something most shoppers never think about. After paying for merchandise, Costco has roughly eleven cents of each sales dollar left for other costs and profit. Membership fees are another big source of income. In twenty twenty-five, membership fees brought in about five point three billion dollars, an amount equal to roughly half its operating profit.那么这张卡会对你产生什么影响？你已经付了65美元。这周另一家店可能离得更近，但你已经为这家店掏了钱，不如去把它给“赚回来”。而且大多数人会持续续费，在美国和加拿大有超过92%的会员会选择续费。这些日用品顺带着为你推销了下一年的会员卡。陷阱就在于此：多买一箱商品并不能退还任何会员费，它只是在账单上增加了一箱的开销。无论你买多少，那65美元都已经花出去了，它并不在乎你消费了多少。
英文原文
So what does the card do to you? You've paid sixty-five dollars. Another store might be closer this week, but you've already paid for this one. You may as well get your money's worth. And most people keep paying. More than ninety-two percent of members in the US and Canada renew. The groceries help sell you next year's card. That's the trap. Buying an extra box doesn't refund any of the fee. It just adds a box to the bill. The sixty-five dollars is gone either way, and it doesn't care how much you buy.六、低价汽油引流
第六：低价汽油。假设 Costco 的汽油每加仑便宜20美分，加15加仑就能省下3美元。加完油，仓储店就在眼前。你心想既然来了，顺便拿提厨房纸巾吧。一次加油就这样演变成了一场购物之旅。
英文原文
Number six: the cheap gas. Say Costco's gas is twenty cents a gallon cheaper. On fifteen gallons, you save three dollars. You finish filling up, and there's the warehouse, right there. You could grab the paper towels while you're here. That's how a fuel stop becomes a shopping trip.厨房纸巾带着你走过了零食区、袜子区和一个非常棒的烤架。离开时，你带走了一张60美元的收据，以及那附带的3美元优惠。Costco 正是指望这一点。在2021年，其财务主管表示，前来加油的人群中有一半以上会进店购物。汽油约占 Costco 销售额的十分之一，其年报中明确指出，汽油业务能够将人们吸引到仓储店中。这3美元是实打实省下来的，并且你已经拿到手了；你大可不必把它带进店里，看看这究竟会让你付出多大代价。
英文原文
The paper towels lead you past the snacks, the socks and a very nice grill. You leave with a sixty-dollar receipt attached to a three-dollar saving. Costco counts on this. In twenty twenty-one, its finance chief said that more than half the people who come for gas go on to shop inside. Gas is about a tenth of Costco's sales, and its annual report says plainly that it brings people into the warehouses. The three dollars is a real saving, and you already have it. You don't have to take it inside and find out what it costs you.七、缺席的导购标识与动线设计
第七：缺失的标识。为什么咖啡总是换地方？你知道它平时摆在哪儿，你已经在这里买过十几次了。然而今天那个货架上摆了别的东西，而且没有任何标牌告诉你咖啡移到了哪里。于是你走过一条通道，又走过另一条。你注意到一个可以换新的平底锅，还有一款没尝过的零食。在你找到咖啡之前，这两样东西都已经进了购物车。哪怕寻找只花了五分钟，那也是在原本没打算逛的过道里多逛了五分钟。
英文原文
Number seven: the missing signs. Why does the coffee keep moving? You know where it lives. You've bought it here a dozen times. Except today that shelf holds something else, and there's no sign telling you where the coffee went. So you walk one aisle, then another. You notice a pan you could replace and a snack you haven't tried. Both are in the cart before you find the coffee. Even if the search only takes five minutes, that's five minutes of aisles you never planned to see.一位在 Costco 工作了13年的前员工表示，商品的移动是故意为之。一位 Costco 仓储店的设计师将这种布局描述为“赛道”，旨在将更多商品呈现在你眼前，日常基础必需品则被放置在极具诱惑力的陈列区之后。一个迷路的顾客就是一个在顺带浏览的顾客。没有人向你推销，缺失的标识替他们做到了这一切。
英文原文
A former employee who spent thirteen years at Costco said products are moved on purpose. A designer of Costco warehouses described the layout as a racetrack, built to put more merchandise in front of you, with everyday basics placed beyond the tempting displays. A lost shopper is a browsing shopper. Nobody gave you a sales pitch. The missing sign did it for them.八、超大容量购物车
第八：巨大的购物车。把苹果、鸡蛋和几样杂货放进购物篮里，感觉像是一次完整的购物；把同样的东西放进 Costco 的购物车里，看起来就像刚开始挑一样。商品并没有变，变的是周围的空间。有了这么大的空间，多加一盒商品看起来只是个微不足道的添头，即便它的价格一点也不便宜。
英文原文
Number eight: the giant cart. Put apples, eggs and a few groceries in a basket, and it feels like a real shopping trip. Put the same things in a Costco cart, and it looks like you've barely started. The groceries haven't changed. The space around them has. With all that room, another box looks like a small addition, even when the price isn't small at all.此外，购物篮会迫使你做决定：你拎得动吗？能塞得下吗？而巨大的购物车消除了这些顾虑，永远都能多装一件东西。一包48卷装的手纸放在购物篮里是个大工程；放在巨大的购物车里，它不过是个微不足道的搭客。遗憾的是，空余的空间并不是商店的购物补贴。100美元的杂货无论装满一个购物篮，还是在车底空荡荡地晃荡，它都要花100美元。
英文原文
And a basket forces a decision. Can you carry it? Where will it go? A giant cart removes the question. There's always room for one more thing. A forty-eight-roll pack of toilet paper is a project in a basket. In a giant cart, it's a passenger. Unfortunately, empty space isn't a store credit. A hundred dollars of groceries costs a hundred dollars, whether it fills a basket or rattles around the bottom of a cart.九、单一超大规格包装
第九：单一的大规格。你需要花生酱。假设一小罐是5美元，而三倍容量的大包装卖12美元。买三小罐要花15美元，这确实省下了3美元。那么套路在哪呢？Costco 的商品种类有限，专注于快速售罄的规格。虽然每盎司单价更合算，但前提是你必须买下更多的盎司。
英文原文
Number nine: the one big size. You need peanut butter. Say a small jar is five dollars, and the big pack holds three times as much for twelve. Three small jars would be fifteen. That's a real three-dollar saving. So where's the trick? Costco carries a limited range and sticks to sizes that sell fast. You get a better price per ounce, but only by buying a lot more ounces.然而结账时并不是按盎司扣费，而是当场收你12美元。如果你只需要价值5美元的分量，这笔买卖只是推高了本次行程的账单。省钱与否取决于你实际用了多少。如果那一大家庭装的菠菜在吃完前坏掉了，你所谓优惠的一部分就已经变成了堆肥。食品储藏室深处放至变质的那罐食品，并不会因为你扔掉它而变成免费的。
英文原文
And the checkout doesn't charge per ounce. It charges twelve dollars today. If five dollars' worth was all you needed, the deal just raised this trip's bill. The saving depends on how much you actually use. If that family-size bag of spinach goes bad before you finish it, part of your bargain has become compost. The jar that goes stale at the back of the pantry doesn't become free when you throw it out.十、2%会员返利机制
第十：2%的返利。在收银台，有人会向你推销黑钻卡（Executive 会员）。每年多花65美元，符合资格的消费可获得2%的返现。听起来像是边购物边赚钱。但你要消费多少才能赚回这65美元呢？在符合条件的消费上，每年需要消费3250美元——汽油和熟食广场并不算在内。而且每年返利上限为1250美元。要想拿满全部返利，你得在 Costco 消费62500美元。
英文原文
Number ten: the two percent reward. At checkout, you're offered an Executive membership. Another sixty-five dollars a year, and two percent back on eligible purchases. Sounds like getting paid to shop. How much do you have to spend to get the sixty-five back? Three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars a year, on purchases that count. Gas and the food court don't. And the reward tops out at twelve hundred and fifty dollars a year. To earn all of it, you'd have to spend sixty-two thousand five hundred dollars at Costco.如果你计划内的合规支出本身就能覆盖升级费，这项返现确实有用。问题在于，当为了赚取更多返现而变成多买东西的理由时，麻烦就来了。多花100美元只换回2美元返现，还有98美元依然流出了你的口袋。更高的返现通常意味着更高的账单。在升级之前，先核对去年的收据和你能用到的其他权益，而不是在升级之后。如果你想了解价格标签本身是如何改变我们对“实惠”的感知的，请观看《定价心理学：商店对你使用的每一个技巧》（Pricing Psychology: Every Trick Stores Use on You），就在这里。