The Culinary Taste Experience

    We all have that one thing we hate when we go out to eat. Whether it be the waiting service, the quality of food, or even the types of cutleries provided to us, something always bothers us. For me, it’s the absolute lack of available parking space. I guess that’s a good thing if you look at the situation from a business perspective, but as a customer, walking across an entire parking lot in negative-degree weather just to eat my meal isn’t exactly a dream. Outside of that, I look forward to going to Costco every week with my loved ones. With elegant halls to leisurely spend time in, various marketing opportunities, and fine dining to cater to our every need, what more do we need? However, unlike the sit-and-dine experience we’ve all familiarized ourselves with, they’ve decided to appeal in a much different way. By targeting the most connective part of our lives, they introduced Costco’s highly esteemed Culinary Taste experience. They ask their customers a simple question. Why eat a meal in an unfamiliar and cold environment when they can experience that same taste and delight in the comfort of their homes, if not more? To implement this, they present culinary samples of their “Gourmet of the Week” option for customers to try. This allows them to engage with their server and the food they will soon take home. Out of this numerous coursed meal sampling, they are given a chance to purchase their meal and take it home to enjoy. Not limited to only these meals, however, the restaurant also serves a variety of other options, fitting the desires of each customer. This marketing strategy has expanded their sales beyond any others in the dining industry, giving them the well-deserved name they have created for themselves today. This, however, is only a small part of the enchantment behind The Culinary Taste experience. Beyond the food, beyond the expenses, and beyond the elegance remain the emotions it invokes in us. It brings us back to our most precious memories. As we taste a decadent five-layer chocolate cake with ganache whipped to its perfect peak, it gives us a glimpse of our grandma baking in a familiar tangerine-painted room with just enough cracks on the walls, so it feels like home. We can smell the faint aroma of cardamom and nutmeg simmering away on the kettle filled with chai as our mom draws with us on the soft carpeted floor. We can feel the chapati dough in our hands as we knead and roll it out on the marble kitchen counter for our dad to place on the flat cast iron. We can hear our siblings laugh as they get flour on themselves from measuring out too much flour for the fresh bread we’ll be putting into the oven soon. Costco has chosen a dining experience outside of any other, invoking a feeling beyond taste: our memories.