People really do their grocery shopping there, as a substitute for a Fred Meyer or QFC. Freddies then becomes their convenience store, for that half-gallon of milk or loaf of bread.

They have clothes, as well as tires and gas and car buying services. You can buy a cosmetics and health products, soaps, get prescriptions filled. Lots of baby products, diapers and the rest: it’s just the daunting quantities and restricted choices that make them toxic, for lack of a better word.

We, as people who wear clothes and eat food, are very much their demographic. Based on their own website, they sell:

Produce, meat, seafood, fresh baked goods, flowers, clothing, books, software, home electronics, clothing, jewelry, art, and furniture

.

Everything is just so oversized.

I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be. My impression of big box stores is that their target audience is people who own convenience stores. My dad has a Costco membership because he runs the honors program at his school, and has to pick up mass quantities of candies and baked goods for fundraisers. You and I? We’re not their demographic. (Actually, sometimes Costco has really good deals on consumer electronics, and as long as the item they stock is the item you want, it can be cost effective to buy a Costco membership just for that. But don’t expect much in the way of selection.)

You’ve got a valid criticism right up to the end. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sam’s Club or Costco billed as a one-stop everything-under-one-roof shopping experience and more than I’ve seen PCC billed as a great place to buy kegs of Mountain Dew. Have they started advertising themselves as an alternative to Fred Meyer type stores recently, and I haven’t noticed?