Through sheer luck and clean living, I found myself driving to Costco last weekend with Sweetie by my side and no kids in tow. Before we even got to the place, I was all giddy at the prospect of chowing down a $1.50 hot dog and Coke combo. Ten miles across town at Safeco Field, home of the Mariners, the same meal would have been ten bucks and not half as tasty. Location. Location. Location.

As I waited in the food line, Sweetie commenced with her shopping, she being more task-oriented than I. Nor is she quite so enamored with the hot dog combo, though I don’t understand why. (Women.)

Left to my own devices, I finished the frank and entered the warehouse flying solo. I hadn’t been to Costco in almost a year and it showed. Even though I’m the most honest person I know, I always get a little nervous showing the retiree my card on the way in and my receipt on the way out. Like maybe they’re going to find some reason to kick me out of their little club. I don’t know.

Right up front, I’m dazzled by the HDTVs – both their size and price. There’s a 48-incher for under $1000. That threw me because I thought it would be four times that much. I check it out and realize it’s the big, bulky one, and not the thin profile one that you can hang on your wall. A few feet down stands the thin one, which really is $4,000. Nice picture, but criminy, four grand to watch reruns of “Who’s The Boss?” I don’t think so. Still, I can’t get away from that great picture. By the time all TVs are equipped with digital tuners (by 2007, according to the FCC), competition will have driven the price down and I’ll snap one up then. And maybe by then I’ll have a wall to hang it on as well.

Next to the TVs are the computers. Not a huge selection, but the ones they have are pretty good deals. One Compaq in particular has everything you want for normal use – 3.2 GHz chip, 512 MB RAM, 240 GB drive, CD/DVD, plenty of USBs – plus one of those glossy 17-inch flat screen monitors to boot. Total cost: $999. What’s not to like, except that it’s a Compaq? And a little duct tape could take care of that.

On the laptop rack, Dell is pushing a pretty little $800 P4, 2.8 GHz proc with an 80 GB drive. Am I mistaken, or is that a really good price? I mean, it’s not like you can order the parts and build it yourself. Eight hundred bucks. (Flashback: I once sold a Packard-Bell 286 laptop to a Realtor for $2,300 – and he was glad to pay it.)
I shouldn’t really be surprised at these deals because everything’s cheaper at Costco. Well, almost everything. Checking out the DVD players, I still didn’t see anything that beat the $25 job I got at Sears three months ago.
Sweetie found me and steered me toward the cordless phones. I had spent $15 on a battery to try to keep our old one going, but, of course, it didn’t work. You pick the receiver up and the display shows a continual “Channel Searching…” Not good.

So we looked up and down the phone aisle and came across several sets by the likes of Panasonic, V-Tech, and Uniden. They were all packaged in those impossible-to-open hard plastic shells that protects everything these days from cordless phones to heads of lettuce. Because we run a wireless network at the house, I wanted to make sure that the phone wouldn’t cause any interference. I remembered something from college about microwave ovens running on a certain band and cordless phones running on a higher band, but my database was failing me and I was forced to seek help from someone wearing a red vest and too many earrings.

“You want to get one with a 5.8 GHz digital spread,” he said. “That’ll keep the signal high enough to be out of the range of your other ISM waves.” (Huh?) I nodded, and offered a knowing look, hoping to convince him that I had some clue as to what he was talking about. I walked back to the phones, repeating in my mind “five-point-eight… five-point-eight… five-point-eight.”

“Did you find out what we need?” asked Sweetie.
“Yeah. Five-point-eight. I knew it was either that or twelve-point-three.” (She didn’t buy it.)
We got home and hooked up the phone. Works great. The old one isn’t even yard sale material, so I chucked it.

Last week’s PCmech newsletter announced an upcoming article about whether you should build your PC or just buy one. Frankly, that seems like sacrilege in a publication geared toward PC hobbyists, who thrive on custom computers made with specialized components. But if you’ve already had the experience of building your own PC, and are looking for a second or third one at a great price, a visit to Costco might be in order. And even if you don’t find the PC you’re looking for, the hot dog combo is worth the whole trip.