Costco knows best

...even better than I know myself sometimes. Plus: the Texas floods against the backdrop of "Washed Away" and a mid-year report on the state of The Inside Edge.

Costco Wholesale has me at hello. It’s more like “Hello, we’ve been waiting for you, step right this way.”

Not only does it have an excellent reputation for treating its workers fairly—strong wages and generous benefits, by industry standards—but it knows my needs and wants better than I do.

Even when I think I’ll only need to get an item or two, I’ve learned that it’s prudent to grab one of its gargantuan shopping carts on the way in. Because, you know, just in case. Or just in three or four cases, maybe.

Yeah, there’s the bulk purchasing thing, of course. But there’s also the variety of stuff that seems to expand with each visit. And then there’s Costco’s knack for absolutely knowing what I need—or want—before that feeling has even entered my consciousness.

Yesterday brought a twist on this phenomenon: Costco has also apparently hacked my smartphone so that it can access my most recent photos, then scramble to stock that item, in spades, just past the entrance.

Think I’ve gone crazy? A conspiracy loon?

Get a load of this: below is the picture I snapped at 9:16 a.m., to serve as a reminder of what I needed to buy soon:

And at 4:56 p.m., a few paces inside the store in Melrose Park, Illinois, this is what greeted me

I purchased the Twin Towers of Eye-Caring Power. Not only are these 16-ounce multi-purpose solution beasts big enough to take care of my contact lens¹ needs into the 2030s, but they’re accompanied by a 2-ounce travel-size version that’s clutch for traveling by plane. And I didn’t mind the $5 rebate, even if it is more marketing gimmick than a true “rebate.”

All in all, to have strolled on past without depositing it in my cart would’ve been criminal.²

About Those Texas Floods…

How heart-breaking it all is, the death roll rising to 120 as of last night. With at least 173 still unaccounted for, that figure is sure to rise.

It’s an eerie echo of a book³ that I’m reading, Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever.

Written in 2013, on its centennial anniversary, this is a wonderfully researched, intimately written account of Mother Nature unleashing her fury on so many parts of the United States—encompassing 14 states. At the time, the state of the media and communications generally were such that many Americans regarded these in silo fashion, as one local or regional event after another.

While zooming in on the numerous lives affected by the storms, Washed Away also places it within a national context.

Mid-Year Report

The past two years, I’ve provided year-end roundups that include a listing of my most-read columns. Here they are, if you want to take a gander:

But I’ve never done a halfway-through-the-year report. Here’s a quickie:

A shade over six months into 2025, I’m happy to report that 55% of my approximately 300 subscribers open up The Inside Edge each week.

No matter what I do, I can’t seem to crack 60%, thrice attaining a 59% “open rate” and five times having 58% of subscribers take a peek (or more, I hope) at The Inside Edge. So far in ’25, only one column hasn’t hit the 50% mark—and that one’s at 49%.

In case you’re wondering (and even if you’re not): My most widely read column of 2025 came on February 1st, my account of the benches-clearing brouhaha that prompted me and my referee partner to call off the remainder of a youth basketball game that had gotten too chippy.

If you missed that one the first time around, here’s another shot at it:

Game over

A little more “inside sports”: On January 4^th, with my “Top 4 of ’24” column, I related the timeline of reaching 100, then 200, then 300 subscribers. I’ve plateaued since then, actually trickling down from 303 on New Year’s Day to 295 at this writing. (My paid subscriber tally has held steady at 17.)

Would I love to have 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times those numbers? Sure, so why doesn’t everyone just take it upon themselves to get 10, 100 or 1,000 friends to sub… but I also count it a privilege and honor to have about 170 people each week who take the time to read my musings.

Regularly, folks offer feedback that tells me this is a valued part of their weekly rhythm and routine. The most recent time, in fact, was yesterday afternoon, a few minutes before my Costco contact lens cleaner encounter.

To each and every one of you: thank you!

1. Yes, I have a lens—singular, for my left eye, the way it has been for 40 years. My right eye is rendered uncorrectable by a stigmatism, so my lens-wearing time and money investment has been halved these past four decades.

2. Also criminal would be Costco hacking into my phone. It should go without saying, but just in case there is a conspiracy loon reading this: I was joking about that. It was just uncanny timing.

3. The author of Washed Away is Geoff Williams, a journalist and author who I’m also grateful to call a friend for the past 20-odd years. He’s the author of other books, including one that was my favorite birthday gift when I turned 40: C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Footrace: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America.