Thursday, June 12, 2008

Costco Without a Car


Over the two years that we have lived on Roosevelt Island we have managed quite well without a car to patronize the Long Island City Costco location. Generally we walk to Costco and take a car service back with the trunk of the car service loaded down justifying the $6 to $10 fee charged for the short one way trip.

I keep thinking how can we do away with even this added cost? After all we only live across the East River. Walking presents challenges as there is only so much stuff you can stuff into a granny cart or shove into a backpack. Bicycling presents the same challenges along with weight distribution issues on a bicycle being walked back on the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

The answer was provided by Ikea of Copenhagen which apparently offers bicycles with trailers to their customers to carry their purchases home. The trick is now convincing my building to allow me to store a trailer such as those pictured in our bike room. Keeping the trailer in my apartment is not an option. In all seriousness I'd be willing to look into buying such a trailer and sharing the costs with other residents if we could solve the storage and access question.

Perhaps we can convince ZIP Car to get into the bike / trailer rental business opening up the option to all residents?


3 comments:

  1. Hi What car service are you using... We just paid $16 for the same trip ........

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  2. Lately we have been either walking to Costco or if we see a yellow cab grabbing it. When we have used a car service to go to Costco we have used Deborah at 718-726-0600 and from what I recall they were about $10 but I'd ask before ettin g off the phone with the dispatcher.

    For coming back we have used a number of the guys standing at the exit from the store into the lot. Their prices have ranged from 10 up to 15 and if there was a lot of weight for hem to help load / unload.

    I had one guy ask for $30. I had a really heavy shelf system but he did not ask for the $30 until we were back on the island and we haggled until I paid him about $20 just to be done with it.

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  3. What about the mythical "Shoppers Bus" mentioned on the RIOC website? I'm new to the island, and I'd like to give it a try, but the website doesn't give any sort of schedule. Does anyone know more?

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