Costco Soul Mates... find one?

[silkkat813]

Has anyone had a good experience with Costco Soulmates?

I am not bashing the camp nor the "service" they provide. I love it actually. Took my boyfriend to it last year. I just wonder if anyone found anything positive from the person they met.

First year, I was matched up with a guy that preferred guys. I never found my other match.

Second year I couldnt' find my match. Went to his camp and left a message but he never looked for me. It didn't matter cause it pissed off my boyfriend that I went looking.

This time, not sure I still have a boyfriend (shocking?) so considering using their low-cost services again.

[bluesbob]

I haven't tried it. We can skip the middleman.

[C187]

Never even heard of them.
I think you'll live.

[decoverite]

Hi, I'm the President of Retail Operations for Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet which means I oversee the public side to our camp. CSTO works best when you undertake the process with little to no expectations. A watched pot never boils and an overly anticipated soulmate ends up being a yahoo with poor personal hygiene. Which doesn't mean that we sabotage the process for the overly eager, it just means if you focus too much on the end product you miss out on large swaths of the experience we offer.

Yes, you can find true love or true lust through CSTO but really, it's not like we have a monopoly on dispensing that. If you can find those things through CSTO you probably can find them on your own as well. However, come visit us at 9:00 and Florence and we'll see if we can help with your quest for new playa connections.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Costco-So ... 6792643819

[WallstreetPanic]

Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet is responsible for over 25 marriages and only half as many divorces.

[C187]

Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet is responsible for over 25 marriages and only half as many divorces.

Now that is a bad troll. No troll feed for you!
--

Hey decoverite,

How do you prevent the service from becoming a complete straight hot-dog-fest? Legit question, by the way.

[WallstreetPanic]

Troll??
I'm a proud Costco employee since 2001!

If we facilitate a marriage or divorce, that's relationship progress!
That's something we are proud of.

And to answer your question, we prevent a sausage-fest by requiring our customers to bring in a member of their preferred gender, i.e. a het male customer needs to bring in a het woman, a gay male brings in another gay male. It all balances out in the end. Our customer satisfaction profile is one of the highest in the industry.

[Gage]

Without setting any expectations, I think Danielle & I may be over in your area sometime on Monday to set the randomness ball in motion...

[BurningBribe]

This is one of my favorite stories from one of our loyal customers: About mid day Wednesday this guy approaches me and says he has to tell me a story. Luckily I was on one of my OSHA mandated 15 minute breaks and had some time to kill. He had two friends at the playa in 2008. One friend was from college and lived In Maryland and the other was a work friend from the Bay area. They had never met, knew nothing of each others existence, and on separate days just so happened to utilize our soulmate matching services on different days. Out of the millions of customers were serve each year our highly advanced computer algorithms matched these two together. They had a wonderful playa romance and parted ways, but something in their gut told them that they couldn't let each other slip through the cracks. After a year of dating long distance, the gentleman moved to Maryland, and they lived happily ever after. At least that is the official version I was provided of the ending to this story.

[decoverite]

I'm partial to this story:

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/80dates/

Although I don't think they were "official" soulmates.

[silkkat813]

Well, I tried Costco Soulmate search again. And it didn't really help me, but posting this topic on ePlaya helped.

hope everyone had a great burn!

[bluesbob]

I never even found CostCo.

[Sinja]

I first participated in the Costco Soulmate Trading Post in 2007 and had an amazing experience meeting my Soulmate (he found me). We spent an afternoon together conversing and surviving a white out at his camp. I did not manage to connect with my other Soulmate (we kept missing each other).

This year in 2010, I participated again and found my Soulmate. We had a brief conversation and interaction on Sunday, but I never was found by my other Soulmate.

I really enjoy the experience of connecting with people during the Soulmate experience, from sitting and chatting with other interviewees, to being interviewed and interacting by Costco staff members, and seeking out my Soulmate and hoping to be found by another Soulmate. A great experience overall.

[zcassidy]

I didn't try it this year but two of my male neighbors did and they were very happy with the results. I met their soul mates as well and they became welcomed friends at our camp.

[silkkat813]

oh and a few of my campmates that I took to Costco did meet people and had a good time.

Just a suggestion Ms CostCo President: On the surveys, add "when do you plan to leave BRC?" It would save people time searching on Sunday for someone that left on Saturday.

[raftin]

A friend of mine was dragged into your camp and ended up doing the questionnaire. She ended up meeting a guy and spent the rest of the week with him. She is flying to London in a couple weeks to visit him in his home town. They sound genuinely happy. She will be there 3 weeks. PM me and I will tell you how it went.

[silkkat813]

since this will be my 4th year on the playa, can I go to Costco twice to try to get 4 soul mates?

[gyre]

How many souls have you got?

[silkkat813]

depends on my regligious beliefs I guess?

or if you calculate I have been there 3 times and only met 2 of my potential soulmates.... and one was gay... I guess that leaves me a lot of exchanging of souls? (2 visits says chances of 2 soul mates)

Last year was a cute guy.. but he tasted like smoke.... and he was part of Green Tortoises and knew nothing about BM until the week before. Can that be another question added to questionare this time?

Along with "when do you plan to leave Black Rock City?"

can you add "how long have you been wanting to come to BRC?" or "know about BRC?"

I really don't think a noobs would be my soulmate. Nor guy with a serious gf back home. But I have faith that Costco will improve!

[graidawg]

depends on my regligious beliefs I guess?

or if you calculate I have been there 3 times and only met 2 of my potential soulmates.... and one was gay... I guess that leaves me a lot of exchanging of souls? (2 visits says chances of 2 soul mates)

Last year was a cute guy.. but he tasted like smoke.... and he was part of Green Tortoises and knew nothing about BM until the week before. Can that be another question added to questionare this time?

Along with "when do you plan to leave Black Rock City?"

can you add "how long have you been wanting to come to BRC?" or "know about BRC?"

I really don't think a noobs would be my soulmate. Nor guy with a serious gf back home. But I have faith that Costco will improve!

No fair! i will be a birgin this year! ok i will probably taste of smoke and smell of white gas (or whatever i use on my devil stix) but its possible

[silkkat813]

it is not that it is not fair! I am sure you will find many noobs. And some that like smokers! But that is not my idea of a soulmate. And nothing against my noob from last year besides his smokey breath and that smoking made him look a lot older than he was. He was a good kisser. But I guess I have a prejudice against the noobs on the Tortoise Bus that are there as part of their USA tour. I want someone that is a "real" Burner. And I prefer non-ashtray tasting people.

But this is not for eplaya to figure out! This will be left to the gods and goddesses of Costco Soul Mate Camp! I trust them to get it better my fourth year!

[graidawg]

I'm not looking for a soulmate on the playa anyway. ner ner lol
I'm having enough fun just getting my ferret on crack impersonation down pat