Managed to get out of CostCo without buying anything else.
Impressive. Teach me your ways.
My strategy is to not get a cart - mostly to save time but it also means I can't get anything extra. I'll happily be that moron carrying around 35lbs of dog food (that I buy for a friend), 2L of olive oil, 4lbs of bacon, half a gallon of heavy cream, 4lb of frozen broccoli, and 2 dozen eggs.
The trickiest part is holding/balancing all that shit while trying to show the receipt to the person at the door on your way out.
Sorry, I don't find anything admirable or believable about ketchup's so-called strategy. We just shopped at Costco today and dog food was on the list, so I call BS. Even if one manages this feat, Costco is always busy. The risk of someone bumping into you while you're balancing all this "shit" is too great. If a distracted person with a huge cart accidentally jostles you and that two- or five-dozen pack of eggs hits the floor, whose fault would that waste of resources be? Use a cart, a list, and exercise a little self discipline. You can achieve the same goal without being a menace to those around you and without jeopardizing the safety of the items you've just deployed a good-sized platoon of your little green soldiers to acquire.
Everyone moans about their total Costco bill, but they love how much they're saving on each individual item they select. If you do it right, the total might be high, but the value is even higher. I keep a running list of items I buy at Costco on my sorta smart phone. Before I leave home, I check off the items I need. At the store, that's what I buy. Easy. Hell, I'm just happy when my total is low enough that I don't have to sign for it.
Sidebar alert: One of the reasons Costco checks your receipt is because they sell a lot of items that must be picked up after paying at the checkstand. An amazingly large percentage of people pay and forget to pick up their item, so that's a key thing they're checking for. Another reason to highlight the receipt is so people can't buy something, take it to their car, then re-enter the store, grab another of the same item and use the first receipt to exit without paying. Also, highlighter colors are rotated. Different color every day, for the same reason. I'm 100% fine with this, because it saves me money and hassle in the long run. It is in my best interest that Costco makes just enough profit that it continues to exist.
Back on topic: I quite agree that your strategy can be quite effective in other situations. We also stopped at Lowe's today We bought the four items on our list and easily carried them in our hands. The items were lightweight and the store in our area is required to charge for bags. On this leg of our retail odyssey, the strategy you endorse saved us actual, not just theoretical, money.