I visited Montreal's Costco and found amazing French baked goods and a shockingly disappointing poutine

• Richard Truong is a 26-year-old software engineer who has been a Costco member since 2016.
• On a recent trip to Canada, Truong visited a Costco warehouse in Montreal to see the differences.
• He loved the premade food options but found the food court's version of poutine unsatisfying.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Richard Truong. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I work as a software engineer for a large insurance company, and I've been a member of Costco since 2016. I started taking pictures of the signs and the prices because that's how I would budget my food expenses in college.