Interesting, I’ll have to look at my local costco!
Also if anyone is wondering “Why does Costco have such a crazy return policy?” the answer is “haha we dont lose money that’s why. The vendor eats the cost of the return. We don’t care if you return a 10 year old product! Cuz its not our problem”
Before you scream “wait wut?” yes that’s basically how costco operates. They have such a wide distribution network and buying power that one of the criteria for getting on their shelves, is that the vendor must eat the cost of any returns to the store. Basically most vendors accept the sell through (the rate at which a product actually sells through to a customer) is high enough because of the sheer volume of stuff Costco sells at microscopic midiclorian margins, that they can afford to eat the refunds. As long as the return rate is low enough compared to your sell through rate its stlil profitable.
Also if you ever wondered “why is this product so weird or hard to use?” its because fundamentally if the buyer from Walmart says “move this play button to the left hand side of the unit because I’m a lefty” prety much every vendor will do whatever the walmart buyer wants because walmart will buy zillions of units so “yeah sure we’ll totally move this button to the left even though it makes literally no sense but I dont care if ti means Walmart will buy a gazillion units”
Anyway retail is really weird with lots of infighting, regional power struggles, really really petty and dumb stuff all around
