I am still fairly new to the world universe of Costco, and I would say at this point I have a love/hate relationship with them. As you know my resolve is weak, and when I cruise the aisles of Costco in search of items that have become my Costco staples; the organic chicken stock, the Bumble Bee solid white tuna, and the Bamboo Rollers my daughter is now addicted to, these aisles are also filled with insanely tempting items, and sometimes, if I am unaccompanied by a more sanguine person, I throw a few of those things in my cart.
After years of working in grocery stores, I grew accustomed to shopping almost daily, and buying things in reasonable quantities. As you may know the population of my household is one and a half, so you might think I am not a good candidate for membership at a place such as Costco, and you may be correct. We can manage to eat the eighteen apples before they spoil, the organic olive oil is great and the dry goods last into eternity, so no worries there. I have used most of the Meyer lemons I got over a month ago, and the other day I saw Love Beets (which I do love) at an insanely low price, and they are magically dated for May! (I don’t really want to think too much about that.)
My love for Costco is for great buys on produce items (if I can find someone to share them with me, ’cause if you throw half the stuff out you haven’t saved anything), the miles of aisles, and the sheer variety of stuff. I love wandering around and seeing all the new products, and am always blown away by the frozen foods, and though I love to window shop, I don’t buy much frozen food besides the really good wild salmon burgers, and the occasional bag of tortellini. I am not a fan of too much packaging, but putting apples in those plastic clamshells means I get them home unbruised.
There are endless sites that will tell you what you should or shouldn’t buy at Coscto I thought this list was a pretty good one, though my advice would be don’t buy anything at Costco that you wouldn’t buy at your regular market. Advice I need to follow myself, so I don’t bring home such dangerous items as these:
And stick with wiser choices like this:
Life is full of temptations, and Costco is another example of a BIG BOX full of them! Perhaps as I get better at navigating the aisles, and knowing where to find things I will not wander off my path. Sounds like good advice for life as well as shopping. If you can manage to shop at Costco without coming home with unexpected, treats, you deserve a prize—perhaps a six-pack of Toblerone bars?
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Amy - Funny Is Family - The only reason I had kids was to shop at Costco. I’m kidding! Or am I? We buy most of our meat there, package it with our FoodSaver, and freeze it. Great quality, good prices.
Rhonda - I also have a love/hate relationship with Costco. Sometimes it’s hard to pass up some of their great deals.
Pesto. Have you tried the Kirkland pesto? I like to make my own, but in the middle of the winter it really isn’t happening. Kirkland pesto is the next best thing.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Rhonda, Thanks for the tip- I will give it a try!
Andrew M. Potterfield - Agreed – for small households, Costco’s strength is its well-priced offerings of good-quality staples. Otherwise the portions are way too large to be practical and cost-effective. 🙂 Yet Costco’s awesome buying power and distribution system also make available regional or fringe products (excellent coffee beans, pineapples, Kirkland brand wines, cheeses, macadamia nuts, etc.) which are otherwise difficult to come by at such a good-value price. All of this is possible because Costco makes the bulk of its profit on annual membership fees rather than on the sold goods themselves. Costco proves the point: you’ve got to pay to play (however you choose to do so).
Larks - You know, I’m actually a bit scared to get a Costco membership. I’m worried I’d go *nuts*. But I like your rule about not buying anything you wouldn’t buy at your local market.