I was today years old when I found out that there's something at Costco people are clamoring to get this holiday season, and it's not the weekend samples. I wouldn't know anything about that though. I don't have a Costco membership any more.

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WHY I DON'T CURRENTLY HAVE A COSTCO MEMBERSHIP

When I buy things in bulk, I end up wasting too much food. I have a small family; it's just me, my 12-year-old, and a fluffy cat who lays around all day and doesn't help pay any of the bills.

The last time I bought a Costco membership was in February of 2020, exactly one month before the whole world came to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I never even got to use my Costco card during the year of the pandemic because of limited shopping hours and social distance safety reasons.

The cost of my Costco membership back then was $40. I heard that now, some 3 years later, the basic membership is $60.

$60?

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I feel like I am Doc in the movie Back to the Future.

How have I slipped into a time when the cost of everything is outrageous? What happened to the 40-dollar deal? Or the 3-dollar gas (that I thought was already too high)?

Sorry, I really got off-topic. I was trying to tell you how shocked I am to see that Google Trends shows the city of Yakima, Wash., is searching for peppermint bark the most in our state this holiday season.

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Who knew that Costco's homemade peppermint bark is all the rage?

Apparently everyone but me!

Yakima is basically the canary in the coal mine this year when it comes to Washingtonians on the hunt for Costco's homemade holiday peppermint bark. The story about customers going loco for this stuff across America makes national business news headlines year after year. Other notable towns typing away in "The Googles" to look up peppermint bark besides Yakima include Medford in Oregon and Eureka in California.

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Sure, you could get a little bag of Ghiradelli Peppermint Bark Chocolate Squares, but that won’t cut it for certain Costco customers.

Kirkland Signature Peppermint Bark

I really want to try the homemade peppermint bark from Costco, yet don’t want to pay 60 dollars just to become one of the Costco "cool kids.”

Would it be weird if I stood outside the front doors in the Costco parking lot and gave somebody some money to buy a bag? I want to take a bite and see if I go crazy for it, too.

Yeah, that would be really weird, wouldn't it? Guess I’ll just ask one of my friends to get a bag for me on their next Costco run. That would be way less secondhand embarrassing for all of you Costco customer cool kids!

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