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Why is Costco such a big deal in Quebec?

Costco is dominant across all of Canada, but Quebec has a special relationship with the warehouse chain. The province’s Costco membership rate runs noticeably higher per capita than the rest of Canada, and Quebec families often plan a “sortie au Costco” (“Costco outing”) as a weekend event with a hot-dog lunch built in. Quebec speakers casually use Costco as a verb-flavored noun: “on va au Costco”, “j’ai pris ça au Costco”. The combination of bulk pricing, French-language signage, and Montréal-area family-driver culture cemented the love affair.

This clip is a Quebec shopping run: a couple buys sept pièces de plage and ends up at quatre cent vingt-six dollars canadiens (“four hundred twenty-six Canadian dollars”). The total reads as classic Costco math.