Latest news with #O'Fallon
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Normal Community blanks Bradley-Bourbonnais to move to sectional final
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — Gavin Swartz pitched a one-hit shutout to lead Normal Community to a 2-0 win over Bradley-Bourbonnais in the class 4A sectional semifinal at Illinois Wesleyan University on Thursday. The Iromen advance to play O'Fallon in Saturday's sectional title game at 11 a.m. at Horenberger Field. O'Fallon advanced with a 2-1 win over Edwardsville in the other semifinal in the Bloomington sectional. Kyle Beaty delivered an RBI single in the first inning that scored Gavin Michaels to give Normal Community an early lead. The Iron added second run in the fifth on a Bradley-Bourbonnais throwing error that allowed Swartz to score from third on an infield grounder. Swartz had six strikeouts and no walks in the complete game win. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Bear spotted in O'Fallon; residents urged to keep distance
O'FALLON, Mo. – Officials from the O'Fallon Missouri Police Department are cautioning residents following a bear sighting in the O'Fallon neighborhood. The police department shared the announcement on Facebook just after 6 p.m. Friday. The bear was spotted in the Haycastle Drive area. They believe the animal is moving northeast. Video courtesy of Wesley Dugger Because of this rare sighting, the O'Fallon police are asking people to keep a safe distance from the bear. Locals are also urged to not feed or call the bear. The Missouri Department of Conservation has been informed regarding the incident. The department, however, advised that the bear is expected to leave the area on its own. 'Let's all do our part to keep both the community and the bear safe. Thank you for your cooperation,' the police department concluded on Facebook. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Come for the hot dogs, stay for the gold bars: How Costco hooks shoppers
Last October Ann Watson strolled into her local Costco with a shopping list and a sense of purpose. From the $330 giant Halloween skeleton to the $1,000 backyard playset, her O'Fallon, Missouri, home was already overflowing with Costco bounty. Determined to buy just what her family needed that day, she warned her husband: 'Stick to the plan.' Then she saw the hot tub. Her willpower wobbling, the 37-year-old nurse and mother of three pushed her shopping cart forward, giving the friendly salesman a wide berth. But while waiting in a long line to check out, she couldn't help it. Her eyes wandered over to the vendor's display. Soon her feet followed. 'Oh my God, I'm in trouble,' Watson thought to herself. 'The hot tub was just so sparkly, shiny and beautiful.' Before she knew it, she was the proud new owner of a $23,000 five-seat luxury spa with a salt-water system – by far her priciest Costco splurge yet. Many of Costco's 140 million card-carrying members around the globe can relate. Social media is rife with shoppers' tales of popping in for a rotisserie chicken only to wheel out a basket piled higher than a tractor trailer. 'Yesterday I bought a $300 apple pie,' joked one member of a Costco Facebook group. Replied another: 'Every time I go to Costco.' Think of it as Costco's secret sauce. The popular warehouse chain has perfected the art of the impulse buy. It reels you in with the $1.50 hot dogs and then sells you gold bars. The retail alchemy even has a name: The 'Costco effect.' And it has helped turn Costco into the world's third-largest retailer behind Amazon and Walmart. 'People come in to spend $100 and walk out with $300,' CEO Ron Vachris said during a May 2024 earnings call.A hot tub wasn't even on Watson's wish list. She went in to buy toilet paper and paper towels. But Watson said she has no regrets, especially when she soaks her sore muscles in the bubbling hot water at the end of a night shift or when she watches her 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds splashing away on a sunny afternoon. 'We can't afford a swimming pool so a hot tub is the next best thing for them,' Watson said while munching on chocolate pistachios from – where else? – Costco. 'They love it so much.' Costco stocks far fewer items than most giant retailers but lures shoppers with low prices on high-quality goods, retail analyst Neil Saunders said. 'Costco knows how to entice shoppers. It drives traffic by offering essentials and it boosts sales by tempting people with all kinds of interesting products,' said Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. 'However, the rule is that everything has to be great value for money. Costco sells some very expensive items but they will be cheaper than they are elsewhere. Customers know this so they pounce on the bargains.' And those impulse buys are a vital part of Costco's business. Non-food sales are about 25% of the company's total revenue. 'They are also higher margin than food,' Saunders said. 'So getting people in for food and tempting them to load their carts with other things is really important.' Costco did not respond to requests for comment. Natalia Stefanioutine, 57, who works for a software company and lives in San Jose, California, said she and her husband are compulsive Costco shoppers. 'Everything in our house from the furniture to the dishes is from Costco,' she said. All week they add items to their Costco shopping list. Once inside the warehouse, they each grab a cart and set off in different directions. While treasure-hunting up and down those well-traveled aisles, that $150 shopping expedition magically doubles, even triples. 'It's just like some kind of spell gets cast after you swipe your membership card,' Stefanioutine said. 'We sometimes forget to buy the things that were on the list.' Cristal Hernandez, 35, who lives in Stockton, California, and works for the state's Medicaid program, said she and her husband shop at Costco for practically everything: furniture, groceries, tires. While most purchases are planned, others – like a new mattress in 2020 – are picked up on a whim. 'I think it's something in the air Costco probably puts in the ventilation. We can never go for one or two things,' Hernandez said, adding that it's hard to say no to deals when the quality is high and she gets cash back rewards through her Costco credit card. All of this is by meticulous design. A gleaming flotilla of high-end goods from big-screen TVs to diamond rings greet shoppers from the moment they walk in the door. Sale items compete for attention along the periphery. The distractions don't end there. Vendors hawk deals on cell phones and patio furniture, causing minor traffic jams. 'Part of what they're trying to do is get you to consider something but also to slow you down,' said Paco Underhill, author of 'Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.' 'The pricing of some of those things triggers the thought in your head about what great bargains there are.' The basics – milk, toilet paper, those rotisserie chickens – are relegated to the back of the store, ensuring shoppers will pass temptation after temptation – many of them new additions in the ever-changing lineup of some 4,000 warehouse items. With no store maps or signs above the aisles – and the way the merchandise seems to hopscotch around the warehouse from visit to visit – shoppers are incentivized to get their steps in and explore each row or risk missing out on something they didn't even know they craved. The endless cycle of unexpected finds only available for a limited time increases the sense of urgency and keeps shoppers coming back week after week, according to Underhill. 'They do tend to move stuff around, which I don't love, but as you're looking for the thing that used to be over there you then find this new thing which is now over there that looks delicious or interesting,' said Karen Morrison, 61, who is retired and lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Morrison's closest Costco is over an hour's drive away, so she makes sure to stock up during her monthly visits. 'I will go with a list of five to 15 things, depending, and I will leave with 10 to 30,' she said. Usually, that means a few impromptu snacks. But in 2019, Morrison and her husband decided a hot tub marked down from about $3,700 to $3,000 was too good a deal to pass up. It was a fortuitous purchase. The hot tub helped make COVID-19 lockdowns more bearable and the water stored in the tub came in handy when Hurricane Helene cut off their water supply. 'For about three weeks, our toilet flushing water came from the hot tub,' Morrison said. Costco can sell goods at wholesale prices because it makes a substantial amount of money from membership dues. The average item is marked up 11% at Costco versus 25% to 50% elsewhere. And, even in the face of inflationary pressures and the Trump administration tariffs squeezing household budgets, Costco is trying to keep a lid on prices. But the economic storm clouds may not spare Costco. Recently, shoppers have been more cautious, according to Gary Millerchip, Costco's chief financial officer. 'They are still showing that willingness to spend but they're being very choiceful where they're spending their dollars,' Millerchip said during a March earnings call. That could mean fewer big-ticket purchases and more buyer's remorse. Scott Goldstein, 41, a marketing director who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, owes a prized possession to a Costco outing to pick up groceries in 2017. Goldstein said he and his wife had been dreaming of buying kayaks but were put off by the price tag. Then he spotted a $299 sale at Costco, less than half the price of kayaks they had looked at elsewhere. So he crammed the kayak into his SUV. 'I was so excited, I completely forgot to buy groceries,' he said. Later he went back to buy a second kayak for his wife. But other impulse buys have been harder to justify, he said. Of the $300 he spends at Costco every month, he joked that he returns a third. 'I bought a drone, and my wife was like, 'You can have it, but will you really use it?'' Goldstein said. 'That went back pretty quickly.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Costco gets you to shop 'til you drop more money Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
