You will never.. or very rarely see a Costco with out lines. It is part of the business plan. They constantly monitor door counts, ave. shopping cart price, and payroll and then cut/add hours to a very efficient ratio.(usually on the understaffed side)

If sales are down, they send people home. If sales are up, they call people in early. They consider it a huge waste of payroll to have cashiers and boxers/baggers standing around waiting for shoppers to check out.

Most Costco’s will have decent waits in lines, it is better to judge how many lines, and how much and what is in the cart.

This is also the end of the fiscal year, and payroll bonus do play a factor if you see longer lines lately. That being said, sales are edging down lately.

On another note, an old RE agent I used to work with said he was applying to Costco due to the “horrible” RE market. He blamed the newspapers and media for scaring consumers with bad news. I told him they are probably putting it mildly. Another old friend says that most of the business from the saloon that she works at has all but dried up. People are beginning to get it.