Best Costco stores have unique items, says woman who visits all

• Ramsey Monroe has visited 226 Costco warehouses in five countries.
• She calls herself the “Costco Connoisseur” and hopes to eventually visit all 776 warehouses worldwide. 
• Monroe says that every Costco warehouse is different and unique, but that the Kirkland Signature brand and the general store layout is a constant in all the locations she’s visited.
• “I just feel at home at Costco so no matter where I am in the world, it’s just comforting,” she said.
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For some people, Costco is just a warehouse. For others, like Ramsey Monroe, its an essential part of living.

The 36-year-old systems engineer has been to 226 Costco warehouses in five countries, including Australia, the UK, and Mexico. She documents her journey towards her goal to eventually hit all 776 warehouses on her website, as well as on her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, the last of which has over 28,000 followers.

Monroe, who calls herself the “Costco Connoisseur,” started her corresponding Instagram in August 2014, shortly after starting her website, where she blogs reviews of Costco products and price comparisons. But Monroe’s affinity for the warehouse chain began long before then. She went to Costco as a teenager but started shopping there for herself in her early twenties. As she traveled abroad for work or vacation, she started visiting different Costco stores that she found along the way,just for fun.

“It kind of became a game,” Monroe said. “And I just really enjoyed and looked forward to, ‘Oh, there’s one I haven’t been to. Let’s go see what’s different.'”

Eventually, the hobby snowballed into a passion. Monroe now plans vacations around areas with Costco stores that she wants to see. But even though she hopes to see them all one day, she said she knows reaching her goal is probably unlikely.

“If I get to them, I get to them,” she said of the warehouses she has yet to cross off her list, some of which are located in far-flung destinations like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Iceland.

Now having visited over 200 Costco stores, Monroe’s title as the Costco Connoisseur is certainly fitting. She says she’s developed a finer understanding of the company that has made her able to notice features a regular shopper might gloss over on a regular visit.

Monroe revealed the most interesting Costco stores she’s seen and explained how she came to understand why each warehouse is unique, yet meaningfully similar in a few key ways.