Did you check out Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet?

[A Jester]

Hey ya'll,

If you have any memories of our camp, good or bad, I'd love to hear them. We often get feedback years later, and it's nice to get it sooner.

For example: on Friday a lady came up and asked for a blank form. We asked her why. She said she met a soulmate 5 years ago and married him wanted the form as a souvenir. Of course, we are always stoked to hear about the process working like this, but it would have been awesome to hear about it 4 years ago, too. (When the people who interviewed them might remember them.)

Heck, maybe you had a terrible soulmate experience. We'd like to hear about that, too.

I should be honest, this is hot on my mind because someone signed our bar "FIGJAM" and I'm wondering if it's the same FIGJAM as is on this board.

[16fcali]

Costco is one of my favorite things ever. I'm a hyper judgmental person with little tolerance for any degree of spirituality, so I've never made a connection with my soulmates, but I enjoyed meeting a couple dozen people via Costco this year.

I actually did some interviews, too. Had a pretty intense interview with this aspergine girl who was really odd and overly trusting of strangers. In the course of our interview, she mentioned that the night before she'd met a random guy and stayed at his dome. Despite saying she wasn't interested in sleeping with him, when they woke up, he apparently pinned her down and was clearly intending to sexually assault her, but she managed to talk him down. Despite this, she was pretty unphased by the whole deal and was totally fine with meeting more strangers. Good for her.

[anonymousdonor11]

sounding sketchy... a shame people can't control themselves, and some are so stoopid...

[troubledenergy]

No, but I wanted to....I want a soulmate!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bubbavic]

I missed it this year but will definitely be jumping in next year! Does sound like fun regardless of who you get matched up with by the sorting hat.

Lord knows how much I enjoy being publicly ridiculed by bullhorn. ::pants::

[lemur]

Why do you put on the big act of matching people?

my guesss? because it's art and not eharmony..



*not affil withthis camp*

[Ano]

I rode by, asked what it was, and got accosted for being a single male by myself... promptly rode away, not sure if I understood the joke, if there was one. Glad to hear it works for some people, though!

[junglesmacks]

True. Note taken.

[graidawg]

sorry i meant to say i wanted to go here but like so many other things just plain forgot, i havent even opened my www guide yet for fear of what else i missed.

[Bay Bridge Sue]

sorry i meant to say i wanted to go here but like so many other things just plain forgot, i havent even opened my www guide yet for fear of what else i missed.

ROFL!!! Thanks, Grai!!!

[Savannah]

sorry i meant to say i wanted to go here but like so many other things just plain forgot, i havent even opened my www guide yet for fear of what else i missed.

I'm afraid to read my WWW, too!

Usually I read almost the whole thing, circle a dozen things, attempt to find 1 or 2 (i.e., find one).

This year, I really fell down on the job.

[Bay Bridge Sue]

Know what's funny? I get one every year, and I don't think I've read a one of them. Hell, I must have a bunch of those virgin books somewhere... maybe I could sell them to a collector. Or a noob, who wants to sound like they've been going to TTITD for years...

Virgin WWW's for Virgins... there's gotta be some kind of marketing angle here somewhere. Maybe I could put a booth up at CCC? --giggles--

[graidawg]

sorry i meant to say i wanted to go here but like so many other things just plain forgot, i havent even opened my www guide yet for fear of what else i missed.

I'm afraid to read my WWW, too!

Usually I read almost the whole thing, circle a dozen things, attempt to find 1 or 2 (i.e., find one).

This year, I really fell down on the job.

if i had read it i might of met you for more than 20 seconds at the MnG. so lets set a date and timne for next year so we can seriously fail to meet each other. i mean i failed to make it to the conclave ffs

[A Jester]

Some people who "work" at Costco soulmate trading are insecure bullying assholes who couldn't get laid in a whorehouse with a fistful of hundred dollar bills. There is no real matching system, they put the forms in a hat and match up any 2 folks with nothing in common. One friend was matched up with someone 180 degrees different from him, another guy, a straight male was matched up with a gay male, another was publicly ridiculed by an obese douchebag with a bullhorn. Costco is a dogshit camp that only serves to waste its "patron's" time. Fuck you Costco on the Playa. I love the real Costco stores.

Well kinda, most of our insecure bullying assholes actually do a pretty good job of getting laid. I don't know if you've noticed, but Jerks can pull some trim. There is definitely a matching system, which I would never share with a non-employee. However, I like the hat idea.

180 degrees different? Who was standing on their head?

Dude, if we hooked up a straight dude with a gay dude we must of thought both of them were pretty cool.

That obese douchebag with a bullhorn is one of the best people I know. His heart is bigger than your snarkiness. I don't mean to imply that you shouldn't try to be snarkier though, keep trying.

Please feel free to find your soulmates at the default world Costco, it seems like that's working out better for you.

Jester wrote If you have any memories of our camp, good or bad, I'd love to hear them.
I gave him honest feedback and he didn't want to hear it. Don't ask if you don't want to know.

I do want honest feedback. Who told you I didn't want to hear it? Now I'm starting to wonder if you were looking at something that said "Costco" when someone with a bullhorn got under your skin.

Best feedback I've seen so far goes to

I rode by, asked what it was, and got accosted for being a single male by myself... promptly rode away, not sure if I understood the joke, if there was one. Glad to hear it works for some people, though!

that's because sometimes a group of dudes will come in hoping to get hooked up with chicks. In order to keep it from being a sausage fest, we make them bring in one chick each. But I can see how someone Greeting might just start messing with someone.
I'm not sure if there's a way we can change our system to make that not happen, or if we just have to deal with rubbing some people the wrong way.

Why do you put on the big act of matching people? The soulmates are just two random burners you handed each others forms to. Don't lie and pretend otherwise. We meet much more compatible people in person at places like distrikt and it doesn't take hours like your weak lame system.

nah, we have a whole system we use. Though, after camping across the street from Distrikt I can see what you mean. Most of the people I interviewed who had come from Distrikt I quickly tried to match up with someone else from Distrikt. I called it the "Board shorts and bikini tops" rule.

[bubbavic]

that's because sometimes a group of dudes will come in hoping to get hooked up with chicks. In order to keep it from being a sausage fest, we make them bring in one chick each. But I can see how someone Greeting might just start messing with someone.
I'm not sure if there's a way we can change our system to make that not happen, or if we just have to deal with rubbing some people the wrong way.

So like the name implies bringing in someone to Trade is a requirement for entry? (snark away with the "duh" responses ) Like Ano, I probably would have randomly come across the camp and wanted to participate just to see who I got matched up with and meet someone cool. I guess I'll have to plan out my visit next year which is too bad because I'd rather plan less and discover more.

[theCryptofishist]

that's because sometimes a group of dudes will come in hoping to get hooked up with chicks. In order to keep it from being a sausage fest, we make them bring in one chick each. But I can see how someone Greeting might just start messing with someone.
I'm not sure if there's a way we can change our system to make that not happen, or if we just have to deal with rubbing some people the wrong way.

So like the name implies bringing in someone to Trade is a requirement for entry? (snark away with the "duh" responses ) Like Ano, I probably would have randomly come across the camp and wanted to participate just to see who I got matched up with and meet someone cool. I guess I'll have to plan out my visit next year which is too bad because I'd rather plan less and discover more.

You have the opportunity to come across the CSMTO and standing in front soliciting for someone who will do it with you. Think of it as another wrinkle in the whole experience.

[Ugly Dougly]

If I had a willing female with me, I wouldn't need Costco, now would I?

[Snow]

Didn't make it there as I'm not really needing to find a soulmate, but we shared a village with you a few years ago and it seemed like people were having fun. Lots of megaphone action and even a big BOOM to start the week off. You taught me that when someone yells "fire in the hole" at BM you RUN, no questions asked.

[A Jester]

Whatever could you mean?

(Does feigned innocence work here?)

[mgb327]

I also ran into someone closely affiliated with the camp, but when I asked about it, I was "politely" told that I was not welcome unless I brought a woman to "trade in". I had no interest in the place after that, thought it might have been fun, but couldn't meet the requirements...Plenty of other things there this year to enjoy. I think one must be a part of Costcos inner circle of friends, sorta like the default world, you need a membership card to get in.

[A Jester]

I also ran into someone closely affiliated with the camp, but when I asked about it, I was "politely" told that I was not welcome unless I brought a woman to "trade in". I had no interest in the place after that, thought it might have been fun, but couldn't meet the requirements...Plenty of other things there this year to enjoy. I think one must be a part of Costcos inner circle of friends, sorta like the default world, you need a membership card to get in.

nope. No one, not even the camp organizers, can get a membership card without trading in a soul. It's a soulmate trading outlet, that's the whole point. It's also one of the easier things ever, frankly.

We have people on the street helping you. If you don't feel comfortable just walking up to a stranger and asking them to go do something with you, you're the perfect candidate for the process.

But, I'm liking the feedback that this part isn't the easiest for people to understand.

[theCryptofishist]

It translates to Okay Cupid and sex parties. Men pay or bring a woman. Otherwise the sex ration would be totally skewed 65/35 maybe. I think women are supposed to bring in men, too, but if men don't bring in women, they'd never get a soulmatedate.

[A Jester]

You lost me for half a second with the "sex parties", but yeah. You have to bring in the type of soul you want to be matched with. Sometimes people don't care, and that's fine. But you have to bring in a soul of some sort.

[theCryptofishist]

I shoulda just used "orgy" instead...

[A Jester]

I thought you were talking about something that happened in my camp. And then I thought, "Was this person there? Do I know them? Biblically?"

[theCryptofishist]

I'm not going to give you chapter and verse.


(The fact that I originally wrote "verst"--was that some sort of freudian slip?)

[decoverite]

Oh, the annual "Does Costco work?" convo. You'd think I'd be used to this.

Yes, Costco is serious and yes, Costco works. The thing is - you have to understand what "works" means in our lexicon. Did you get laid through Costco? Did you meet the One Twue Luv of your life through Costco? Great! That's fucking awesome but it totally wasn't on purpose. Well, not really...

Costco is about getting people to open up and form connections. Have you gone though the process? Think about how many people you interacted with from start to finish. Think about how hard that application form was. Think about how indepth that interview was. Think about what it was like to first interact with your soulmate(s). That act of reaching out and connecting, those moments of self reflection, those awesome fireworks of understanding are what we strive for. Everything else is incidental - even if those incidental things are occasionally fucking awesome.

My credentials? I ran the soulmate trading for four years and camped with Costco for another two. That's six burns thinking about how best to match people, about how best to play with and challenge them during interviews, and about how to make them happy. Believe me, it'd be so much easier to just throw all our energy into our bar. Would we have as much fun? Probably not. The soulmate trading is pretty amazing.

-Feral
Retired Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet Store Manager

[AKDMAN]

Costco Does work!! I had no soulmate, but easily solicited one off the street. I quickly befriended her and her friends while filling out the survey. I got quite tipsy at the bar while waiting for my interview. I had fun tracking down my soulmate on playa, and when we finally met it was kind of akward. After breaking through the akwardness I guided the entire camp towards their destination because they had no clue how to get there. We partied, saw art, and had a great time for the rest of the week. Even though we come from different sides of the world we were strangely alike. Costco paired me well, and finally I do believe that they might actually be using a real system to pair soulmates. I thought it was a joke, but this year I was shown some pretty real looking computer gear that was said to be used to upload applications to their program that does the matching. I also approve of that board shorts and bikini top pairing method. Thank You Costco

[wh..sh]

You have to bring in the type of soul you want to be matched with. Sometimes people don't care, and that's fine. But you have to bring in a soul of some sort.

Interesting! But I am quite confused how the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet works.
If I already have a soul that is close to what I want, why would I trade them?

Sorry if I am being acute, I ReaLLY want to understand so I can check out CSTO next year.

[Zhust]

I tried it my first year (2004) and, being an attention whore then (still, but maybe tempered a little differently), I liked the attention of the interview. (Come to think of it, I don't remember anything about my interviewer, not even gender.) Aside from that, I found it to be kind of stressful and unrewarding. I haven't been back. I kind of see it as a form of play that I don't know the rules to, and therefore do badly at. That, in turn, reminds me of 51-week world, and I don't like to feel like that at Burning Man.