San Francisco resident Anthony LaVia says he sees a difference between the items and excursions his parents will spend money on and what he, his wife and their friends choose. "My parents take frequent vacations and buy the newest cars and junk," LaVia said. "This is a typical boomer mentality that, to me, seems frivolous. When my parents visit, I think it's ludicrous that they'll spend a hundred dollars to buy us dinner at a restaurant like California Pizza Kitchen, exactly like what they've got at home.... For my wife and me and our friends, life is all about being scrappy and inventive. We buy only things that last.... You'll find almost no single-use or disposable goods in our house.... To us Costco is mostly a money pit. What's the use of getting such a great deal on a giant box of Goldfish crackers if they go stale before you eat them all?" Koslow wrote that after speaking with LaVia, she "sheepishly went to my refrigerator to evaluate the monster hunk of cheddar that I'd been enticed by at Costco two months earlier. Moldy."
