• Costco and BJ's Wholesale are both membership-based warehouse clubs. An annual Costco membership costs $60, while BJ's costs $55 a year. 
• Costco and BJ's are very similar, but BJ's is more organized, has a Dunkin' Donuts kiosk instead of a food court, and has a self checkout so that customers can avoid lines.
• But on recent visits, I found that Costco offers a lot more for the price of a membership.

  ---

Costco and BJ's Wholesale are membership-based warehouse stores selling groceries, clothing, furniture, and just about everything else.

Both stores offer eye and ear exams, a pharmacy, photo services, and a food court. Even the return policies are similarly generous, though BJ's stops accepting items after a year, while Costco will accept most items at any time.

Costco's yearly membership is $60, while BJ's is slightly less at $55. The annual cost of a premium membership is double the cost of the basic membership for both stores.

According to a grocery-store ranking from Consumer Reports, the higher membership costs at Costco might be worth it — it ranked higher than BJ's in cleanliness, meat and produce quality, customer service, store-brand quality, and prices of organic items.

To see for myself which store really offered the best deal, I went to a BJ's Wholesale in Jersey City, New Jersey, and a Costco store in Westchester County, New York. Here's what I found:

SEE ALSO: We shopped at Costco and Sam's Club to see which is better — and there's a clear reason why you should join one over the other

The first store I went to was Costco. I was able to walk right into the store without having my membership checked.

The electronics were the first large department of the store, with TVs typically ranging in price from $500 to $2,000. There was an impressive selection of brands and products, ranging from Apple Watches to household appliances. Random tables of clothes surrounded the TVs.

On the wall nearest to the electronics was a one-hour photo station, and nearby was an optical center.

• A former postal worker in Italy is facing charges after the police found more than 880 pounds of undelivered mail in his home.
• The 33-year-old, who complained he "wasn't paid enough," apparently stopped delivering mail three years before he quit.
• Weirdly, this isn't the first time this has happened in Italy — this year.

Residents of Turin, Italy, may receive some backdated correspondence after a former postal worker was found with over 880 pounds, or 400 kilograms, of undelivered letters and packages, The Guardian reports.

The 33-year-old postino was stopped by the police during a routine road check. The police's suspicions reportedly were aroused when 70 letters and a 20-centimeter folding knife were found in his vehicle.

The police went to the man's home, where they found another 40 boxes of hoarded mail. The postal worker had quit his job in 2017 but apparently hadn't delivered any mail for some three years by that time.

"I wasn't paid enough, and so I quit," the man reportedly said. He now faces charges of theft, misappropriation of correspondence, and carrying a weapon.

Bizarrely, this is not an isolated incident in Italy. In January, a 56-year-old postal worker from Naples hid more than half a ton of undelivered mail in his garage. Investigators reportedly said it was the biggest stash of undelivered mail ever discovered in Italy.

In 2013, a postal worker in Sardinia was found with 880 pounds of hoarded post. "I think he just didn't want to work," a local hairdresser said.

According to The Local, the "violation, misappropriation, or destruction" of someone else's post is a criminal offense in Italy punishable by up to one year in prison.

SEE ALSO: A postman collected pebbles every day for 33 years and what he created is astounding

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What the eye in every conspiracy theory actually means

• Eating vegan is a trend that has been growing rapidly around the world. 
• Vegan fast-food chain By Chloe has rapidly grown from a single New York City location to a worldwide chain, with its first London location opening on February 6. It's drawn comparisons to McDonald's because of its popularity and expansion plans. 
• To see what the hype is all about, I went to a By Chloe restaurant to try some of the vegan fast food they offer.

Eating vegan is becoming more and more popular. A recent Nielsen report found that 40% of American consumers are actively trying to incorporate more vegan foods into their diets.

And By Chloe is trying to make the most of the trend. While it may not be "fast food" in the traditional sense, By Chloe serves inexpensive vegan food in a casual setup with a walk-up counter and strict no-reservation policy. Started in 2015 by Samantha Wasser and Chloe Coscarelli (who was later ousted from the company), By Chloe has transformed from a local vegan eatery in New York City to a worldwide fast food chain, with no plans of slowing down soon.

The chain now has 10 stores, including a new location in London, where another is on the way. On Thursday, By Chloe announced it had received $31 million in funding from investors including Bain Capital, Kitchen Fund, Collaborative Fund, and TGP International/Qoot International to expand to 20 locations in the US and internationally.

"We are actively looking for additional international locations but are taking it one store at a time ... we are very careful and intentional with each new location we select, and that will always be the case no matter how large we grow," Wasser told Business Insider in February.

The company takes an eco-friendly approach to fast food by using locally sourced ingredients that are 100% free of all animal products and served in recyclable packaging. The menu has a variety of burgers, pastas, french fries, salads, and sweets, and instead of soda, it offers pressed juices, teas, and coffee. A "Grab & Go" shelf has convenient salads and juices that are pre-packaged and ready to eat. 

The London menu is nearly identical to the US menu, with the addition of local favorites like fish n' chips, shepherd's pie, and sticky toffee pudding. 

I went to the chain's flagship location in New York's West Village to see what the vegan fast-food chain was like. Here's what I found: 

SEE ALSO: 13 popular fast-food menu items that are surprisingly perfect for vegans

The restaurant had a decent amount of people in it when I visited, about 30 minutes after opening. Many were sitting at a large table in the middle, or at one of the surrounding tables for two. There was a crowd of people waiting for food, and food delivery drivers running in and out.

Here's another view of what the inside looked like.

In place of where a traditional fast-food restaurant would have a soda machine, By Chloe had a selection of pressed juices and coconut water next to the to-go salads and dips.

• Everyone's guilty of occasionally telling lies at work.
• Most of us tell lies in an attempt to appear more competent.
• Business Insider spoke with Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert, to discover the most common white lies told in the workplace, and what to do instead.

You're a liar. I'm a liar. Even Hope Hicks admitted she was a liar at work.

"Lying in the office is a pandemic," Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job," told Business Insider. "Especially if you consider the amount of tiny white lies circulating in the daily course of business."

According to a University of Massachusetts study conducted by psychologist Robert Feldman, most us lie two to three times every 10 minutes.

Buy why are we lying?

"We bend the truth to make life easier," Taylor explained. "In many cases, we rationalize them as protecting others, thinking 'it'll keep the peace' or 'it's something everyone does.'"

"But mostly lies are told because they're convenient and often a cover up," she said.

It can be hard to detect if someone is lying to you, especially because face-to-face meetings are increasingly rare. But according to Taylor, even that's no guarantee of lie detection.

"The most difficult lies to detect are lies of omission. They're usually discovered much later. The typical conversation would go something like, "why didn't you tell me?" Followed by, "I assumed that ... "

The more egregious garden variety of lies include "massive" and "destructive" lies. A massive lie, for example, is promising an employee a promotion or salary increase and later going back on your word. A destructive lie is spreading malicious gossip about a coworker.

But most lying in the office is not egregious, and tends to fall in the white lie category.

If you're concerned a coworker is lying to you, Taylor suggests treading carefully. In her book, she recommends allowing people the opportunity to save face without going on the attack: "Get them to clarify their position. Ask them, 'Did you mean X or Y?'"

If they're a repeat offender, discuss it diplomatically, and be friendly with the stated goal of improving the relationship.

Taylor also suggests considering how serious the deception is: "Is the confrontation worth winning a battle and potentially losing a war? You don't want to ignore lies, as that will create unwarranted stress for you, but you don't want to hammer people with questions, either."

To help you identify when you're being lied to, we asked Taylor to share some of the most common white lies people tell in the office:

SEE ALSO: You can tell someone's lying to you by watching their face — here are 12 dead giveaways

DON'T MISS: 11 signs someone is lying to you

'That wasn't my fault.'

Taylor says this cover up is perhaps the most common of deceptions.

Some people will do just about anything to deflect responsibility, including blaming others or even inanimate objects like a computer.

'I have to leave work early for a [fill in the blank] appointment.'

This is a common white lie almost everyone has relied upon at some point in their work lives to handle something personal, says Taylor.

But to be fair about "truth in excuses," most managers won't delve into your private life if you abide by their employment policies, so it's a common default.

'It's my first priority.'

This is a charming statement and music to any boss's ears. Thus, its wide popularity.

Of course, most employees have assigned the project as one of several priorities, but according to Taylor, it's told because it bides time and sounds great.

• Kratom is an opioid derived from a plant native to Southeast Asia. It can be consumed in pills, powder, or tea.
  
• On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control issued its fourth warning in just over a month that the drug, often called an "herbal supplement," has been linked to salmonella, bringing the total number of sick people to 132.
• Data from CDC labs and field investigations points to kratom as the most likely source of the outbreak.

The Food and Drug Administration calls it a dangerous opioid, but kratom advocates call their pill of choice a life-saving supplement. Either way, it's been linked with a growing salmonella outbreak that has now sickened over 100 people from 38 states.

Kratom is a psychoactive drug derived from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa, a plant in the coffee family that is native to Southeast Asia. Research suggests the drug taps into some of the same brain receptors as opioids do, spurring the FDA to classify it as one this February.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control reported 45 additional cases of salmonella linked to kratom, bringing the total number of cases to 132. It was the CDC's fourth warning for kratom in just over a month for the bacteria, which can cause diarrhea and abdominal pain lasting up to a week.

'Imminent health risk'

Kratom is increasingly raising eyebrows among several regulatory agencies, including the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration.

Earlier this week, the FDA issued its first-ever mandatory recall of kratom products after those produced by Las Vegas-based Triangle Pharmanaturals were found to be contaminated with salmonella.

As with any unregulated supplement, kratom may be dangerous and even deadly. There's no way to verify what pills labeled "kratom" actually contain.

Nevertheless, some marketers tout kratom as capable of boosting strength, delivering feelings of euphoria, relieving pain, and improving focus. Untainted kratom is also sometimes hailed as a way to treat opioid addiction, which some addiction experts have said is not entirely unreasonable given its opioid-like qualities.

But unlike most opioids, which either are illegal or must be prescribed by a doctor, kratom is widely available online. It was even sold for a time out of an Arizona vending machine.

In his statement about the recall earlier this week, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb added to the sense of urgency surrounding kratom, saying the products produced by Triangle posed an "imminent health risk."

Evidence points to kratom as the most likely source of the outbreak

It's not unusual for the CDC to issue salmonella warnings liked to products like kratom, but this particular outbreak appears to have been spreading for some time.

Since the first kratom-related illnesses were reported in January of last year, the CDC has been continuing to update its total case count and to conduct interviews with sick people across the US.

So far, 57 of 78 people (73%) interviewed reported consuming kratom in pills, powder, or tea in 38 states.

"At this time, CDC recommends that people not consume any brand of kratom in any form because it could be contaminated with Salmonella," the agency wrote in a statement on Friday, adding, "evidence indicates that kratom is the likely source of this ... outbreak," but "no common brands or suppliers of kratom products have been identified at this time."

Kratom is banned in Australia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and several US states (Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, and Wisconsin). Across the US, several reports of deaths and addiction led the Drug Enforcement Administration to place kratom on its list of "drugs and chemicals of concern." In 2016, the DEA proposed a ban on kratom but backtracked under pressure from some members of Congress and an outcry from kratom advocates who said it could help treat opioid addiction.

"I want to be clear on one fact: there are currently no FDA-approved therapeutic uses of kratom," Gottlieb said in November.

SEE ALSO: A mysterious, popular 'supplement' has been linked to salmonella — and the FDA has issued its first-ever mandatory recall

DON'T MISS: The $37 billion supplement industry is barely regulated — and it's allowing dangerous products to slip through the cracks

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Animated map of Mars reveals where humans should build the first Martian cities

• Dustin Johnson and his fiance Paulina Gretzky met through Gretzky's parents in 2009.

• The PGA star and the pop singer-turned-model didn't go on their first date, however, until 2012.

• They've been together ever since, and now have two children.

Dustin Johnson wooed the entire Gretzky clan long before he took his future fiance Paulina Gretzky on their first date.

In 2009, the pro golfer met Paulina's mother Janet — the wife of legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky — at the Hero World Challenge golf tournament. Afterwards, the Gretzkys had Johnson over for dinner.

GOLF reported that Johnson and Gretzky had "undeniable chemistry" from the get-go, but the timing was off. Both were already in relationships with other people.

"We became good friends," Gretzky told GOLF. "Actually, my whole family became friends with Dustin — my brothers and parents saw him a lot more than I did."

Everything changed three years later, when Johnson and Gretzky met up again at the World Challenge. That's when they went on their first date. The rendezvous turned into a double date when Gretzky's parents tagged along.

"That's how it goes in our family," Wayne Gretzky told GOLF. "Janet and I go out to eat, and we somehow always wind up with seven or eight people at the table. Everyone is invited."

According to GOLF, the couple has been together ever since.

Johnson is currently ranked number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. He won the 2016 US Open and has won five World Golf Championships. Forbes estimated that he has a net worth of $27.6 million. He's currently competing in the 2018 Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

Johnson also acquired a bit of a reputation as the "bad boy" of the golfing world. In 2014, GOLF reported that Johnson received a six-month PGA suspension after testing positive for cocaine. Since then, Johnson has credited Wayne Gretzky with mentoring him and helping him turn things around, according to USA Today.

Meanwhile, Paulina Gretzky has pursued a multi-faceted career as a singer and model, over the years.

Here's a look inside their relationship:

DON'T MISS: A look inside the marriage of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who are worth $540 million, planned their wedding in 10 days, and have spoken every day for 11 years

DON'T FORGET: Inside the marriage of LeBron and Savannah James, who met in high school, had their first date at Outback Steakhouse, and are now worth $275 million

SEE ALSO: Inside the marriage of Barack and Michelle Obama, who met at work and kissed outside an ice cream store on their first date

Johnson may be one of the most successful professional golfers out there...

Source: Official World Golf Ranking

... but his fiance hasn't always loved the sport. "I didn't appreciate golf as much when I was little, probably because my mom put us in tennis camps and golf camps," Gretzky told Golf Digest. "My mom has a video of me when I was really young where I'm saying, 'Daddy, don't go play golf anymore.'"

Source: Golf Digest

Gretzky's parents love to golf. She's become more enamored with the sport since she began dating Johnson. She even took to Instagram to showcase what Golf Digest called a "surprisingly powerful swing."

Source: The New York Post, Golf Digest, Golf Digest

Netflix's library of original content has grown exponentially since it released its first big show, "House of Cards," in 2013.

Over the years, it has proved to be a hotbed for original drama programming, with shows like "Stranger Things" and "13 Reasons Why" becoming cultural sensations.

With so many drama series on the service, however, it can be hard to keep up with which shows are worth watching.

To create a cheat sheet for you, we turned to review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes to rank all of Netflix's original drama series by their composite critical ratings. The shows had to have at least one season designated "Fresh" or "Rotten," to ensure they had a high enough number of reviews.

We excluded shows that were continuations from other networks, like Channel 4's "Black Mirror," and we used audience scores to break any ties.

Here are Netflix's 34 original drama shows, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes critic score from lowest to highest:

SEE ALSO: All 65 of Netflix's notable original shows, ranked from worst to best

34. "Iron Fist" — 18%

Critic score: 18%

Audience score: 75%

Netflix description: "Danny Rand resurfaces 15 years after being presumed dead. Now, with the power of the Iron Fist, he seeks to reclaim his past and fulfill his destiny."

33. "Between" — 22%

Critic score: 22%

Audience score: 67%

Netflix description: "After a mysterious disease kills every resident over 22 years old, survivors of a town must fend for themselves when the government quarantines them."

32. "Gypsy" — 37%

Critic score: 37%

Audience score: 85%

Netflix description: "Therapist Jean Holloway develops dangerous and intimate relationships with the people in her patients' lives in this simmering psychological thriller."

If you're searching for an all-natural way to lift your mood, preserve muscle tone, and protect your brain against the decline that comes with aging, look no further than the closest mirror.

One of the most powerful means of reaping these benefits is exercise — and in many cases, you already have everything you need to get it: your own body.

As we age, two forms of exercise are the most important to focus on: aerobic exercise, or "cardio," which gets your heart pumping and sweat flowing, and strength training, which helps keep aging muscles from dwindling over time. Most of the time, they don't require any fancy equipment or costly classes. Read on to find out how to incorporate both forms of fitness into your life.

SEE ALSO: 14 ways one type of exercise is the closest thing to a miracle drug we have

Aerobic exercises like jogging may help reverse some heart damage from normal aging.

Many of us become less active as we get older. Over time, this can lead some muscles in the heart to stiffen. One of those at-risk muscles is in the left chamber of the heart, a section that plays a key role in supplying the body with freshly-oxygenated blood. 

A recent study split 53 adults into two groups, one of which did two years of supervised exercise four to five days per week while the other simply did yoga and balance exercises. At the end of the study, published in January in the journal Circulation, the higher-intensity exercisers saw significant improvements in their heart's performance. Those results suggest that some stiffening in the heart can be prevented or even reversed with regular cardio.

"Based on a series of studies performed by our team over the past 5 years, this 'dose' of exercise has become my prescription for life," Benjamin Levine, the author of the study and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern, said in a statement.

Strength training moves like Tai Chi are best for preserving muscles against age-related decline.

Strength or resistance training can take many forms, but it typically involves a series of movements geared towards building or preserving muscle.

Tai chi, the Chinese martial art that combines a series of flowing movements, is one way to strength train. The exercise is performed slowly and gently with a high degree of focus and a special attention paid to breathing deeply. Since practitioners go at their own pace, tai chi is accessible for a wide variety of people — regardless of age or fitness level.

Tai chi "is particularly good for older people because balance is an important component of fitness, and balance is something we lose as we get older," I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a recent Harvard Medical School health report called "Starting to Exercise."

There may be a powerful link between regular cardio exercises, like swimming and walking, and a lower risk of dementia.

A study published this spring in the journal Neurology suggested that women who were physically fit in middle age were roughly 88% less likely to develop dementia (defined as a decline in memory severe enough to interfere with daily life) than their peers who were only moderately fit.

Neuroscientists from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden studied 191 women whose average age was 50 for 44 years. First, they assessed their cardiovascular health using a cycling test and grouped them into three categories: fit, moderately fit, or unfit.

Over the next four decades, the researchers regularly screened the women for dementia. In that time, 32% of the unfit women were diagnosed with the condition; a quarter of the moderately fit women did. But only 5% of the fit women developed dementia.

Despite that strikingly positive finding, the research only showed a link between fitness and decreased dementia risk; it did not prove that one caused the other. Still, the work builds on several other studies that suggest a powerful tie between exercise and brain health.

• Wegmans regularly wins the top spot as customers' favorite grocery store in the US. 
• This week, Wegmans received the highest customer service ratings of any of America's retail companies in an annual survey. 
• Here's what it's like to visit the grocery chain with a cult following. 

The best grocery chain in the US is one that most Americans have never visited.

In fact, Wegmans, which has fewer than 100 locations, gets thousands of calls per year from people begging for a store to open in their hometown.

Wegmans demolished the competition in Temkin's annual customer-experience ratings, the research, consulting, and training firm announced earlier this week. 

"With a score of 86%, Wegmans not only received the highest score in the supermarket industry, it received the highest score in the entire Ratings — ranking 1st out of 318 companies across 20 industries," Temkin Group said in a statement. 

The grocery chain has ranked number one in Market Force Information's annual survey of the best grocery stores for the last two years, thanks in large part to its loyal fans.

But we, like many other Americans, had never been to a Wegmans. So, on a recent trip to Charlottesville, Virginia, we knew we had to visit one.

Here's what it was like:

SEE ALSO: We compared the food courts at Costco and Sam's Club — and the winner was obvious

Driving up to the Wegmans in Charlottesville, Virginia, it was immediately clear that this wouldn't be a normal shopping trip.

The impressive attributes of the store shouldn't have come as a surprise. Wegmans was voted the best grocery chain in the US in 2017, based on Market Force Information's annual survey of the industry.

It was when we walked into the store, however, that we realized Wegmans isn't just large — it's a behemoth.

Of all the punctuation marks, the semicolon is far from the most popular. It's fallen in usage since it's heyday in the 1800s. Why was it so big then, and what changed? It might be that folks today aren't as familiar with how to use it. Mary Norris, former copy editor for The New Yorker and author of "Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen" helps to break down just how to use these super-charged commas correctly. Following is a transcript of the video.

Don't you hate it when you're writing and- ARG! You hit….This!

Yeah, I know, you know, we all know it's a semicolon. But when was the last time you even used it?

It certainly seems like we should be using it a lot. I mean look at it on your keyboard. VIP seating. Take that, dollar sign.

So, how should you even use a semicolon?

Think of your sentence as traffic on a road. A period breaks it into different segments, like a red light. A comma is like a green light, it may slow traffic down a little, but it's not going to change the speed dramatically, and a yellow light causes traffic to hesitate, for a moment, to give traffic a little bit of room to just breathe.

A semicolon can break a list-like sentence up into several smaller sections. They stay closer associated than separate sentences.

If two short sentences refer to the same subject, they can be joined up with a semicolon.

"... connect the first part of a sentence with another clause that's closely related to it, without using a conjunction."

But semicolons should never go before coordinating conjunctions like 'and,' 'but,' 'or,' 'so.' That's a comma's spot.

Where did this weird punctuation move come from? You can thank the Roman navy. Early Romans had a phrase "Hasten Slowly." When writing its phrase out, it was represented by an anchor above a dolphin.

In the 15th century, Venetian Printer Aldus Manutius stylized the ancient symbol and adopted it as his printer's mark. Only he was using it as an abbreviation. As the printing press spread literacy throughout the 15th century, punctuation marks became standardized among writing.

Playwright and poet Ben Jonson is credited as the first notable English writer to use the semicolon systematically in his work. He was known for relying heavily on quotes of earlier writers. Many among them were proteges and fans of Manutius' who happened to keep the Venetian's classic mark alive.

Semicolon use surged over the next 200 years. Then, the 20th century hit, and the semicolon started to disappear. What happened?

In a 1993 study for Applied Linguistics, Paul Bruthiaux studied punctuation marks in writing manuals from the 16th century through the 20th. Bruthiaux concluded that a shift from spoken to written words for communication appeared to be responsible for its rise. But a trend towards simplified sentences led to its downfall.

Another emerging technology may have hammered a nail into the semicolon's coffin: the telegraph. Punctuation marks cost just as much as a letter, so short lines were more profitable to send, especially across the Atlantic, when words could cost about $5 each.

Anti-semicolon sentiment became common in writers as well. Despite all that, semicolons have discovered new purposes in modern life.

Early emoticons gave it widespread usage.

Programming languages adopted the semicolon to indicate the end of a statement.

And if you've seen someone with a tattoo of a semicolon, it's taken on a new purpose for them.

Through Project Semicolon, the punctuation is a symbol for suicide survivors, who could have ended their lives, but instead chose not to end the sentence just yet.

So, despite its changing definition, this little punctuation mark isn't going anywhere soon.

Its prominent position on the keyboard is well deserved. There are people who rely on it every day for grammar, programming, or support.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Costco membership provides access to a store known for its deals and bulk quantities.
• Business Insider reached out to Costco employees to find out what they thought were the best deals in the store.
• Employees highlighted a huge range of products, from bananas to hearing aids to the $1.50 food court hot dog.

Costco membership is supposed to bring about some major savings. The retail chain is famous for selling items in bulk, which can help you save money, if you know what you're doing. It also boasts a food court that hawks cheap and yummy eats, and tons of surprising and quirky offerings.

But Costco employees themselves know firsthand which deals are worth it — and which are best to skip.

A Costco employee with 15 months of experience told Business Insider that seasonal items can make for pretty good deals when supplies of the product are running low. "They are marked with an asterisk on signage and can be marked down quite a bit," they said.

But there are plenty of other products that Costco workers think are worth your money. "You just have to pay attention," said one worker with two years of experience at Costco.

Business Insider spoke with 35 Costco employees to get their ideas on what items you should consider buying at the retail chain.

Here are some things you might want to consider picking up on your next Costco run, according to workers:

SEE ALSO: Costco employees pick the 11 most surprising items the wholesale retailer sells

DON'T MISS: Costco employees share 21 things they'd love to tell shoppers but can't

DON'T FORGET: Costco employees share the 7 best parts of working at the retail chain with a cult-like following

Kirkland products

— three Costco employees with 10 years of experience, 25 years of experience, and nine years of experience, respectively

The $1.50 hot dog from the food court

—  three Costco employees with three years of experience, two years of experience, and 19 years of experience, respectively

Cheese

— a Costco employee with five years of experience

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Doogee created a smartphone that's almost all display by putting the camera on the back layer of a slider phone that moves vertically — a retro-move reminiscent of the Palm Pre.

Doogee is a relatively unknown company in the US, but those who have heard of it, know its phones for their affordability and minimal bezels. And the forthcoming Mix 4 model is no exception. Although the phone is not available yet, UK tech YouTuber Arun Maini (known as Mrwhosetheboss) got hold of a non-functional prototype. 

While we still don't know anything about how the phone's software works, the dummy prototype provides the first up-close look at its industrial design and durability.

Here's what we know based on his review:

SEE ALSO: Here are the 6 most important things we know about Apple's rumored foldable iPhone

This is the prototype for the Doogee Mix 4, and from the front it looks pretty minimalistic, sleek, and has plenty of display.

Doogee has four lines of smartphones, but this one is part of the Mix series — or the "bezel-less Smartphone." The first one came out in June 2017. 

When the back of the phone slides up, it exposes everything that would be included on a notch, including the camera lenses.

The additional layer makes the phone a little thicker than other leading smartphones on the market.

It's worth noting that a few manufacturers — including Apple and Samsung— are reportedly working on foldable phones that are also expected to be thicker than their predecessors. 

Reactions to the Mix 4 could tell us whether consumers are ready for a thicker phone, now that product designers have done everything they can to make them slimmer.

• The most effective way of becoming someone's best friend is by spending more time with them, according to new research.
• You have to clock about 200 hours before you're worthy of the "BFF" title.
• Of course, no relationship boils down to maths alone, but it could increase your chances.

It's a high honour to be called someone's best friend — just look at the way characters in sitcoms like Friends and How I Met Your argue over which of the gang is their best friend. But the criteria for someone fitting the role of "BFF" is hard to define.

Until now, that is, as a researcher from the University of Kansas thinks he has cracked the code.

In a new paper published in March in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, professor of Communication Studies Jeffrey Hall defined how long it takes to make a friend, and how long it takes for people to typically make their way through the different stages of friendship. In his previous research, he found a person's brain is capable of handling about 150 friendships at once.

Hall and his colleague developed an online tool to assess how close people were to their friends. In the first part of the study, they analysed 355 survey responses from adults who had moved within the last six months and were looking for new friends.

They were asked to think of someone they had met since moving, and how their friendship had developed. They had to divulge how close they were and how many hours they spent together, as well as where they would rate the relationship in one of four categories: acquaintance, casual friend, friend, or close friend.

Through this, the researchers could estimate the number of hours where people can level up to different stages of friendship.

In the second part, 112 KU freshmen students were asked about two people they had met since starting school two weeks previously. The researchers followed up after four and seven weeks to see what friendship achievements had been unlocked.

Results showed it takes about 40 to 60 hours to form a casual friendship, 80 to 100 hours to be upgraded to being a friend, and about 200 hours to become "good friends."

"We have to put that time in," Hall said in a statement. "You can't snap your fingers and make a friend. Maintaining close relationships is the most important work we do in our lives — most people on their deathbeds agree."

Young people find it particularly easy to make really good friends, Hall said. In other words, they fall for people hard.

"When people transition between stages, they'll double or triple the amount of time they spend with that other person in three weeks' time," he said. "I found freshmen who spent one-third of all waking hours in a month with one good friend."

You can't force someone to be friends with you, and of course no relationship can be watered down to numbers alone. But if you want to be best friends with someone, the best way of doing it is to spend more time with them.

"Make it a priority to spend time with potential friends," said Hall. "If you are interested in a friendship, switch up the context. If you work together, go to lunch or out for a drink. These things signal to people that you are interested in being friends with them."

SEE ALSO: Here are 13 signs your friendship with someone is toxic

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NOW WATCH: How to use a semicolon properly

• There are some health "facts" that many people have heard so many times that they just assume they are true, ideas like "juice is healthy" or "gum will stay in your stomach for years.
• But many of these "facts" are really myths about health.
• Here's what the science really says about these health myths.

There's something about health and nutrition folk wisdom that's resistant to truth.

Common health "facts" include the ideas that MSG will make you sick, that a juice detox is just what you need after a week of indulgence, and that sports drinks like Gatorade are totally fine since you need the electrolytes.

None of these things are true. They, like many other folk sayings and tips, fall into the category of health myths that are totally — or at least mostly — wrong. 

Here's the truth behind some of those health claims you've heard all your life, but might not hold water at all.

SEE ALSO: 10 survival myths that might get you killed

MSG in Chinese food will make you sick.

The myth that MSG is bad for you comes from a letter a doctor wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968, where he coined the term "Chinese restaurant syndrome" to describe a variety of symptoms including numbness and general weakness.

But though the doctor blamed these feelings on monosodium glutamate, MSG, the research doesn't back it up. The scientific consensus according the American Chemical Society is that "MSG can temporarily affect a select few when consumed in huge quantities on an empty stomach, but it's perfectly safe for the vast majority of people."

And this makes sense — MSG is nothing more than a common amino acid with a sodium atom added. The placebo effect is more than strong enough to account for the negative effects sometimes associated with MSG.

Coffee stunts your growth.

There isn't a whole lot of evidence on this, but most research finds no correlation between caffeine consumption and bone growth in kids. 

In adults, researchers have seen that increased caffeine consumption can very slightly limit calcium absorption, but the impact is so small that a tablespoon of milk will more than adequately offset the effects of a cup of coffee. 

Interestingly, advertising seems to be largely responsible for this myth. A breakfast cereal manufacturer named C.W. Post was trying to market a morning beverage called "Postum" as an alternative to coffee, so he ran ads on the "evils" of Americans' favorite hot beverage, calling it a "nerve poison" that should never be served to children.

Bundle up or you’ll catch a cold.

Being physically cold isn't what gets you sick; exposure to a cold virus does. There's no evidence that going outside with wet hair when it's freezing will make you sick by itself — provided you avoid hypothermia.

But there are some scientifically sound explanations for why people catch more colds in winter. Because we spend more time in close quarters indoors, it is more likely that we'll cross paths with a cold-causing virus spread from another person during the winter. And for several reasons, we may have a harder time fighting off cold and flu virus particles in winter.

But being cold itself isn't what makes sick, and some argue that cold exposure can actually improve your health.

• Zika, the mosquito-born virus that causes birth defects, is still an issue in 2018.
• Zika is prevalent in tropical climates, but some warm locations are safe to visit this year for those worried about the risk of Zika.
• Zika-free destinations can be found in parts of Africa and all over Europe, according to the CDC.

The last thing you want to bring back home from a vacation is a serious infection.

Zika has found its way to many destinations, and the CDC keeps track of where the infection has spread.

Cases of the mosquito-born virus have been reported from Texas to Brazil to India. Zika occurs in mostly hot climates, but there are Zika-free destinations with beaches and high temperatures.

While fears over the global health emergency have dissipated since the peak Zika period of summer 2016, it is still worthwhile to exercise caution with the disease when planning a vacation. Zika is especially dangerous for women who are pregnant, nursing, or may become pregnant, as it can cause birth defects.

When in doubt, double check with the CDC for the most up-to-date list of countries that have reported Zika cases. If you want to take a vacation where Zika hasn't spread, check out these nine Zika-free destinations for 2018.

SEE ALSO: The 13 cheapest holiday destinations in the world for couples

DON'T MISS: The definitive, scientific answers to 20 health questions everyone has

Santiago, Chile

Only two countries in South America have no known risk of Zika infection — Uruguay and Chile. If you wanted to go to Brazil or Argentina but are worried of infection, Santiago is a great alternative.

The Bahamas

Much of the Caribbean is at risk of Zika, so you may have to cross Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico off your list. Fortunately, the Bahamas has the perfect sandy beaches of your dreams — and it recently joined the list of Zika-free destinations on the CDC website. 

Colombo, Sri Lanka

India and the rest of the Asian subcontinent are not the best places to avoid Zika. However, travelers can visit the island nation of Sri Lanka off India's Bengali coast with peace of mind.

• Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world for housing.
• The dire housing situation has spawned tons of increasingly tiny apartments.
• Many bathrooms in tiny apartments have a combination shower-toilet, which is as strange as it sounds.

I knew Hong Kong apartments were small. I didn't realize they were that small.

I had booked what I thought was a studio apartment in Mong Kok, a neighborhood on Kowloon island reputed to be the most densely populated place on earth.

Mong Kok, which literally translates to "busy corner" in Cantonese, has a population density of 130,000 per square kilometer, according to the Guinness World Records.

The apartment was more of a sub-divided room off a sectioned-off hallway. Inside was enough space for a queen size bed, a small nightstand with a TV on it, and another small nightstand with a hot water heater.

If I was standing next to the bed, there was not enough room for another person to stand next to me, which became particularly difficult to manage as I was traveling with my girlfriend. If the suitcases were open on the floor, there was no room to stand. I ended up working on my laptop from the bathroom if I needed a place to sit.

And, while all that might be expected of any small room — even in some shoebox apartments I've lived in in New York City — it was the bathroom that drove home the size of the apartment.

After a long day of traveling, I figured it was time to take a hot shower, but the bathroom was only big enough for a toilet and a small sink.

Where was the shower?

That's when it hit me. The shower was right above the toilet. They even shared piping so that it appeared that the same water used for the toilet was used for the shower.

In order to shower, one had to either sit on or straddle the toilet seat. It was, let's say, an experience.

But while I only had to deal with such a strange situation for a few days, the reality is that's the bathroom setup is extremely common in the city.

The city has been ranked the least affordable city for housing in the world for eight years running, according to the Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.

Most Hong Kongers (read: not wealthy expats) live in tiny apartments with an ever-proliferating range of colorful names that bely the reality: micro-flats, nano apartments, coffin apartments, and cage homes.

The room I stayed in was positively large compared to the living situation for the city's poorest residents.

According to a survey conducted by Kwai Chung Subdivided Flat Residents Alliance last year, the average living space for the city's poorest residents was about 50 square feet, about half the size of a parking space and equivalent to that of those living in shared dormitories in correctional facilities.

Nano apartments — apartments with a square footage less than 200— are becoming more popular due to their affordability, according to the South China Morning Post. But affordability is a relative term. Many sell for as much as $500,000.

Carrie Poon, a guide who took me on a tour of Sham Shui Po, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, told me that most young Hong Kongers have all but given up the idea of owning an apartment due to the housing situation and are resigned to renting tiny apartments, as they are the only thing they can afford.

"We'll probably be renting forever," she said.

The housing situation has even spawned new inventions like the OPod, a 100 square-foot "tube home” designed by Hong Kong architect James Law and made from repurposed concrete water pipes.

The housing situation is the most visible result of the city's widening wealth gap, which hit record highs last year. The richest 10% of Hong Kongers earn 44 times the poorest families, according a government report.

SEE ALSO: Inside the most expensive part of the world's most expensive city, the Hong Kong billionaire enclave where Alibaba founder Jack Ma reportedly bought a $191 million mansion

DON'T MISS: Inside Hong Kong's lawless 'walled city' — the most crowded place on Earth for 40 years

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NOW WATCH: Here's why some Hong Kong skyscrapers have gaping holes

• Friends are important for health and happiness — but they don't just materialize out of thin air.
• A new study suggests it takes 50 hours before an acquaintance becomes a casual friend; 90 before they become a friend; and more than 200 before they become a best friend.
• During that time, conversations focus on catching up and meaningful issues — not small talk.

Teaching someone how to make friends is like teaching someone how to ride a bike — you say this, you put your foot here, do you get it now?

That is to say, it's all kind of intuitive: When it's working, you'll know.

But a new scientific paper, which was published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and cited on Psychology Today, provides some more concrete direction for students in the school of friend-making.

According to the paper, you need to spend about 50 hours with someone before they go from an acquaintance to a casual friend, about 90 hours before they go from there to friend, and more than 200 hours before they become a best friend.

The research was led by Jeffrey A. Hall, a communications professor at the University of Kansas. Hall ran two studies: one with 355 adults who'd recently moved to a new place and one with 112 college first-years.

In the first study, Hall asked participants to think of someone new they'd met since moving. Participants described how much time they spent together, how close they felt to that person, and where the person fell on a scale from acquaintance to best friend.

In the second study, Hall asked participants to think of two new acquaintances and then followed up with the students twice over the first nine weeks of the academic year. At each point, students indicated how much time they'd spent with the acquaintances and how they characterized their friendship.

Results showed that the more time people spent together, the closer they were. But it wasn't simply occupying the same physical space that seemed to cinch the deal.

If you're trying to make a friend, engaging in small talk won't cut it

In fact, Hall found that spending a lot of time together at work or at school predicted less friendship closeness. On the other hand,  "hanging out" together, watching TV or playing games, outside these realms predicted greater friendship closeness.

The content of people's conversations turned out to matter a lot, too. People who engaged in a lot of small talk wound up getting less close over time. By contrast, people who spoke more substantively: "catching up, checking in, joking around, and meaningful conversation."

That finding jibes with other research on the importance of self-disclosure in the early stages of friendship: Revealing details about your life (slowly and selectively) can help strengthen the bond between you and another person.

It's worth noting here that the link between how much time people spent together and how close they became is correlational. It's possible that people were inclined to hang out because they clicked — not that they clicked because they hung out.

Also worth noting: Some people may simply be better equipped to make friends than others. Research suggests that people who are agreeable, open to experience, and conscientious are more likely to experience "friendship chemistry," or an instant connection.

Ultimately, this research suggests that making a friend means making a substantial investment of time and energy. Neither of those are unlimited resources, which may be why most of us can count the number of close pals we have on one hand.

SEE ALSO: There's a limit to how many close friends you can realistically have at once

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NOW WATCH: Here's why we give better advice to our friends than we give to ourselves

• Marvel New Media, a division of Marvel Entertainment, announced new digital content at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo on Saturday.
• Marvel New Media vice president Dan Silver talked to Business Insider about Marvel's digital push and how it focuses on true stories.
• The content includes a variety of new podcasts and video series — "Women in Marvel," for instance, is a podcast that focuses on the comic industry from a female perspective.

As an entertainment company with a bevy of fictional characters at its disposal, Marvel isn't exactly in the business of telling true stories. But a new digital push hopes to change that.

Dan Silver, vice president of Marvel New Media — a division of Marvel Entertainment — told Business Insider that Marvel is a "lifestyle brand" now, and should be telling stories that appeal to anyone. That means telling "real" stories, too.

Silver comes from a nonfiction background. He's been with Disney — which owns Marvel — for a decade, and helped start ESPN Films, which produces sports films such as the "30 for 30" documentary series.

While at ESPN, Silver worked on the documentary "1 of 1 — Genesis," which he said was about "the crossover between the world’s greatest athletes and the world’s greatest superheroes."

"We interviewed athletes about their own ‘origin stories’ and created video comics for it," he continued.

It's these kinds of stories — "stories that represent Marvel in the real world" — that Silver ultimately hopes to capture with its new digital content.

"There are so many stories nowadays [for example], of people buying out theaters to go see 'Black Panther,' and we should be a participant in those stories in telling them," he said.

"Women of Marvel," for instance, is a bi-weekly podcast re-launched in February that focuses on the comic-book industry — an industry largely dominated by men — from a female perspective.

During a panel at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) on Saturday, Marvel New Media announced this and five more new digital series.

What does all this digital content mean for Marvel's comics line? Much of the content will still be inspired by the comics, Silver said, so fans shouldn't worry.

Cooking show "Eat the Universe" will be hosted by Justin Warner, who is not only a celebrity chef (he was a winner on the Food Network series, "Food Network Star"), but also a huge Marvel fan. Dishes on the show will be inspired by Marvel comics and characters.

"My hope is that what we’re doing forms a symbiotic relationship with our comics just as there is with all of our lines of business," Silver said. 

Silver also teased that the content won't be the only thing that's new, but the platforms — like Marvel.com — will be changing, as well.

"Over the next few months you’ll start seeing improvements in the products our audience is consuming," he said. "That includes places — that’s a bit of a tease."

All of the content is currently or will be available on Marvel.com, Marvel's social media, or its YouTube channel.

A full list of new content is below:

This Week in Marvel
A weekly podcast offering a behind-the-scenes look at Marvel. (Relaunching this month; originally launched in November 2011)

Earth’s Mightiest Show
A weekly variety web-series focusing on fandom and Marvel culture. (Launched in March)

Women of Marvel
A bi-weekly podcast that looks at the comic industry from a female perspective. (Relaunched in February; originally launched in June 2014)

Marvel’s Voices
Released bi-weekly as both a podcast and set of video clips, it features interviews that focus on a variety of cultural topics. (Launching this month)

Marvel’s Eat the Universe
Celebrity Chef Justin Warner — who's also a hardcore Marvel fan — cooks dishes inspired by Marvel comics and characters. (Launching this month)

Wolverine: The Long Night
Marvel's first scripted podcast, starring the X-Man Wolverine. (Launched in March)

SEE ALSO: The mystery behind why a beautiful movie theater in the town created by Disney World has been closed for almost a decade

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• The perfect gin and tonic recipe is all about high-quality ingredients and simple mixology.
• It all starts with good gin — or a gin that you really like.
• Ideally, avoid using a cheap, too-sweet tonic.

The gin and tonic is just one of those cocktails.

Lore has it that the concoction was created by British colonists in the 1800s when they mixed antimalarial quinine tonic with gin and sugar. Over the centuries, it's become a default cocktail of summer: cool and refreshing.

Gin is essentially vodka that's flavored with herbs and botanicals, often juniper berries. This innately flowery quality caused it to fall out of favor as the base of both G&Ts and the more lordly Martini, supplanted by vodka. In recent years, however, gin has staged a comeback, with numerous premium brands hitting the market.

Like many classic cocktails, a gin and tonic is so basic that you need to focus on the ingredients. Traditionally, a gin and tonic includes gin, tonic water, lime, and ice. The problem is that the gin can be lousy, the tonic far too sweet, and the ice not added in the right quantities.

I got a chance to revisit the gin and tonic when a company called Prairie Organic Spirits sent me some gin to sample. Prairie is a brand owned by Minnesota's Phillips Distilling Company, and the focus is on obtaining high-quality organic corn from family farmers in the state. Some distillers boast about how many times a spirit is run through the still or how many times it's filtered, but Prairie seems to play it by ear.

The company also makes an organic vodka, as well as an organic cucumber vodka, both of which are tasty.

I have no problem with boldly flavorful neo-gins, but Prairie isn't one of these, and if the reactions of my gin and tonic test group over several months was any indication, the company made a good call. This is a light gin, with delicate herbal flavors and a soft, smooth texture.

This isn't the typical flavor profile for a great gin and tonic — the spirit needs to stand up to the bitter tonic.

But Prairie performs a neat trick: it integrates with the tonic, creating a pleasing whole.

The result is one of the best gin and tonics I've ever mixed — and one that countless summertime guests also oohed and aahed over.

You don't have to seek out Prairie gin — a number of high-end gins are on the market, and if you don't want to go for one of those, you can use my go-to widely available gin, Beefeater.

But here's the thing: you have to stick to my gin and tonic recipe. 

Why? Because I do everything possible to up the refreshing aspect and dial back the sweetness. In practice, this means I use a good amount of lime juice, a good amount of ice, and very small amount of tonic.

The perfect gin and tonic recipe

1. Start with a stemless wine glass, which helps to get the mix right. I prefer to mix these G&Ts one at a time, in the glass, but you could use a pitcher to make them in volume. Fill it one-half to two-thirds with ice cubes.
2. Then squeeze the juice of one half to a full lime over the ice and give it a swirl. A traditional ratio for G&Ts is one part gin to three parts tonic, but I prefer two ounces of gin.
3. Now for the hard part. Add a splash of high-end tonic, like Fever Tree, which conveniently comes in small bottles. Mass-market tonic will do, but it's always too sweet for me.
4. Then you fizz it up three-to-four ounces of soda, effectively diluting the tonic, stir, and garnish with a slice or wedge of lime.

Yes, this might be more accurately described at a strong gin and tonic spritzer. But the dance of delicate gin, a touch of tonic, the bubbles, and the additional "watering" that you get from the ice takes the refreshing quotient to new heights.

We've become gin and tonic addicts at my house thanks to this libation. Prairie is available nationally, but I wasn't able to find any in my neck of the woods, so I just had my favorite local wine shop order me a few bottles ($20 for 750ml, which is very reasonable in the boutique-gin world). 

The beginning of summer is supposed to spell the start of gin and tonics. But we're not opposed to getting started early.

SEE ALSO: This all-American vodka adds a serious bite to classic cocktails

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• Costco workers shared their stories about the weirdest and worst things they've seen on the job with Business Insider.

• Some Costco workers reported that colleagues and members can occasionally make life a bit difficult.

• Many Costco employees cited the chain's generous return policy as a source of unexpected situations.

Costco jobs aren't always easy. The retail chain isn't just known for selling some rather unexpected products.

Sometimes, surprising situations crop up as well. The retail chain did make Glassdoor's list of best places to work in 2017, but that doesn't mean it's immune to odd and frustrating scenarios.

Business Insider reached out to Costco employees to find out what strange or bizarre situations they've witnessed on the job.

Many of the stories centered in around what one Iowa-based Costco worker called "abuse of Costco's generous return policy."

"Oh, the stories we could tell," said one Costco employee from San Diego. "Smelly socks, 20-year-old refrigerators, stained mattresses, we've seen it all."

Other anecdotes focused more on bad behavior from members and Costco colleagues. And some stories are just about bad luck or unusual circumstances. A total of 35 employees shared their stories with us, and we picked 18 of the wildest tales.

Here's what Costco workers had to say about the most bizarre things they've seen happen in the store:

SEE ALSO: Costco employees share the 15 things they wish shoppers would stop doing

Dairy-related violence

A worker at a Costco in Ontario once witnessed a "fist fight over a cheese sample."

Bowel movements

"Someone pooped on the floor in the clothing department and tracked it all the way to the bathroom," said one Costco employee based in Chicago.

A shocking fall

"A guy fell through our roof," a Costco employee from Oregon told Business Insider. "He was working on the roof, sat down on the edge and somehow fell backwards. That’s why now Costco requires bars on the sun roofs."