Costco Culture

Walking into Costco on a Saturday afternoon is truly one of my favorite things. I love all of the big screen TVs, samples, and packs of meat that could feed a small army. It makes me think every time, though, what is it about American culture that allows Costco to succeed. America is truly the land of plenty, and we celebrate our wealth every day with super sized McDonalds meals, all-you-can-eat buffets, and of course, Costco sized packs of food. This is all a reflection on how American culture differs from the rest of the world.

Now, some of it is purely logistics. America is, simply put, very spread out. Urban Sprawl is a very American phenomenon - most European cities are much more compact and densely populated. The European culture is such that people will go to the grocery store a couple of times a week. Since everything is so densely populated and people live in very close quarters, there isn't enough room to store food for weeks, so they will purchase only what they need for the next few days. Refrigerators tend to be smaller, kitchens are smaller, and there is less storage space. All of this adds up to places like Costco simply not being needed in Europe. In America, however, the story couldn't be more different. People are much more spread out, and have the storage space to keep food for months. Also, since Americans are generally located further from a store, trips to the store generally occur with lesser frequency than they do in Europe, causing Americans to want to stock up when they do go to the store. That's what makes stores like Costco so powerful in the American society.

Europeans are even blown away by Wal-Marts for their sheer size. They are more used to smaller stores with a more limited selection, rather than the one place with everything. In the end, though, American culture values places like this. Europeans consider this to be overkill, but we like things big, we like knocking out all of our shopping in one trip, and we would rather make one trip to the store per month than three trips per week.

Team Expectation

Live up to all deadlines.
Three strikes policy.
Maintain consistent communication when unable to meet a deadline, etc.

In the UK

The beginning topic of this class is a very interesting one for me, because I just got back from spending a semester living in London. The United Kingdom as a whole, and especially London, is a very interesting place. Its culture is certainly different from that of the United States, but is also very different of mainland Western Europe. In a sense, it almost acts as a middle ground, taking some aspects of American Culture and some aspects of more traditional European culture. The biggest difference in the two cultures, and something that you notice immediately upon stepping onto British soil, is the difference in politics. The UK, and all of Europe, have very different attitudes politically than do Americans. I will highlight some of these main differences below.

"Big Brother"
In America the idea of having security cameras on every corner seems unthinkable. Americans value privacy to a very large extent, and do not like the idea of our society turning into one that is ruled by the proverbial "Big Brother" talked about in George Orwell's novel 1984. In the UK, this view is very different. Granted, they probably don't like the reality suggested in Orwell's novel, but many life activities are subject to surveillance in the UK. On nearly every street corner, there are cameras - what they call "CCTV" - watching your every move. Nothing goes unseen in London.


Guns
The second amendment in the Bill of Rights of our constitution states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." This has consistently been interpreted in the United States as meaning that it is legal for individuals to keep and bear handguns, rifles, and other weapons to use as a protection against the government. In the UK, the laws are quite different. It is, in fact, illegal to own guns, and not even the police officers have guns in the UK. Instead, they just carry extra long knight sticks, that they use to subdue criminals if necessary.

Sport
In the UK, and most of the world, the biggest sport is Football. In America, the biggest sport is also Football...but they mean two entirely different things. It's my belief that Sports are a huge part of culture, and act as a unifying (or divisive) force between people - but their existence alone is extremly important in any culture.











Social Services
In the UK, they have the NHS, which provides free health care to all citizens of the UK. It's a nationalized plan, that is paid for by the government. In the United States, for better or for worse, we have a privatized system whereby individuals pay for their own health care to private companies. While this has certain benefits, such as creating a higher standard of care, it has the drawback of leaving many Americans without health insurance.