My Idea for a Column

A look at "Costco" one of the retail giants and endless money pitts. What drives people to pay $50 to have a membership to shop where you buy items in such bulk it lasts a year, spend no less than $100 every time you shop there, stand an endless time in line, and blow your diet because you never get out without buying a hot dog from their snack bar.

My three sources:
1. Shopper at costco:
2. Manager
3. The gate keeper "door employee"

Questions:
1. What makes someone want to shop at Costco so much that you pay $50 for a membership?
2. Does anyone ever leave without spending at least $100?
3. What are the door employees trained to do when someone who does not have a membership card tries to enter the store?
4. Why every time someone tries to buy in item they purchase a couple of weeks before it is not in the same place.
5. How much revenue is generated for the Albany Costco in membership fees and what is their marketing strategy.
6. What is it about their hot dogs at the snack bar that they are so darned good (okay that six but I was really curious)
7. Why don't they ever have an express lane?

Three Links
Costco Albany Store
Purchasing a membership card
Where to buy those hotdogs