all-purpose COSTCO thread (show your membership card and receipt at the door)

yeah i just checked and there's about 5 of 'em encircling the twin cities! guess i need to get to the burbs.

We have our Costco run as pre-planned and efficient as a commando raid

i've been stocking up on the illy canned iced cappuccino -- i think a package of 10 is about $10.

I must confess, Costco is where I buy my Nutella because it costs a fraction of what it does anywhere else.

Father forgive me.

We have our Costco run as pre-planned and efficient as a commando raid

same here. we get in and out of there, no pussyfooting around.

destroy: not accepting mastercard.

some the people at costco seem like they would be better off if they went to the hospital instead

I liked Costco when I lived in CA -- for one thing, CA has rational liquor laws and I could buy beer, wine and spirits under one roof. Also, the buck-fifty polish+drink was a decent cheap dinner before shopping, esp with a couple of bites of dessert from the sample-grannies stationed around the store. Kirkland balsamic vinegar is very good as I recall, if you can figure out what to do with a gallon.

The nearest Costco here is Memphis, and I kept my membership for a couple of years, but it wasn't cost-effective. Sam's Club is a poor substitute.

pre-planned and efficient as a commando raid

My Costco raids are reasonably targeted, except when it comes to buying beer sampler packs and whiskey

i don't find their alcohol prices that special. i always take a peek anyway, just in case, but there's nothing i can't get at bevmo.

one thing i always get is the 3-pack of firm tofu. i love keeping tofu around the house cuz it's so versatile and gets me out of a rut with my cooking. i used some in my pad see ew last night (leftovers tonight! yum!) and made a ma po tofu "gravy" for a tri tip steak dinner last week.

16 posts and no mention of toilet paper.

my dad's really proud because his/my costco was the first costco. it looks like the others.

^^^Same goes for my dad. They said it was "the first" but maybe it was just "one of the firsts." I believe it was in Reno. He used to use the original membership card until they asked him to stop.

The first one opened in Seattle in the '80s. I drive past the Kirkland one every day.

Commando Costco raids otm.

Toilet paper
Heavy duty foil
Giant tub o laundry powder
2-pk dishwasher detergent
SW diced tomatoes
Sundried tomatoes: huge jar 4 cheap
Kirkland evoo for cooking
Aidell sausages
Tritips are good too

I like their bedlinen too. Cheaper than stores, pretty sturdy.

We go maybe once every 3 months...whenever the toilet paper runs low, lol

i too have availed myself of the heavy-duty foil, diced tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, and aidell sausages!

btw, paper products usually are cheaper on sale at other stores, costco just makes you feel awesome by buying a ton at once

Since I started making the cat food, I get 20 lbs or so of organic boneless skinless chicken thighs every 2 weeks in addition to the usual staples: wine, tp, paper towels, heavy cream, sour cream, butter, diet coke, Beecher's and buffalo mozzarella and romano and Tillamook cheeses, olive oil, 2 gallons of white vinegar at a whack. Enormous bags of various chips. The Evergood hot links are tasty. And their aspirin is a deal, since our TJs don't carry it anymore.

Agreed about their linens! Also, bath towels.

My wife likes to MEANDER through Costco, like it's a park or something.

It is, literally, the most aggravating thing in my life right now.

It is, literally, the most aggravating thing in my life right now.

Sympathies, seriously.

Cosctco:

Toilet paper
Paper towels
Dishwasher liquid
pork roast (we cut it in half, freeze half as a roast and make chops out of the rest)
chicken
occasionally salmon or roast beef
duck confit as needed
cheese (good English cheddar, manchego, mimolette - hard cheeses that can last since we're buying a lot plus a bag of Babybels)
pasta
Italian tuna in oil
Olive oil
Sonicare
Razor blades

I have a weakness for their polishes. That's pretty much the only times I eat one.

Btw, that list is in order. We make a beeline for the back of the store and work our way back up to the registers where we often spend as much time in line as we did picking everything up.

Italian tuna in oil

Oh! I hope mine carries this. I've gotten a few good deals by the case on Amazon, but they don't always have it.

We usually buy 2 or 3 cases of bottled water there at a time (and when needed). For around $3.70 a case, you cannot beat that anywhere. 35 16.9oz bottles per case is a great deal. We try to avoid hitting the store on the weekends. Place is nuts. But I must say, that it is a great place to get a cheap bite for lunch -- A large polish hotdog and diet coke for $1.50 is nice.

I spit on people that buy bottled water at mine because we have fucking great tap water

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2235/2415527871_c7097d7449_o.jpg

Thats how I feel when I have to go too. Always so fucking crowded with rude as hell people pushing and shoving.

i know i feel like a shirley manson/kate moss lookalike in black lingerie and a gun in my mouth.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/bzzagent-bzzscapes-prod/chicken-bake--lrg.png

Why can you find these nowhere else? They're better than pizza.

I got my Amex/Costco rewards thing. It is nearly $300. I apparently can cash it out at Costco, or spend it there. I kind of want a new television. I think I will buy one on Amazon, then cash out at Costco or just buy ten cases of Red Bull.

Costco!

How is this place even possible. I bought this two-pound thing of smoked pulled pork and it was like, I don't know, maybe $8? And it's really good! It tastes like pulled pork from a legit barbecue joint.

our Costco list is still pretty much the same as upthread

add to that list occasionally:
batteries
wiper blades
Brita water filters
Giant block of sliced pepper jack cheese!

they started selling Rosie's chicken sausages, no Aidells last time. Rosie's sausages are pretty gross, I don't think I'll get them again. The chicken is way over-processed, has the consistency of a corndog. Had to cook them with really strong flavored sauces to disguise the icky taste.

my boss has been promising me a membership here for a while, still waiting. MIL took me on a shopping spree at our local costco for my b'day, loved it.

Giant tubs of Buffala Mozzarella! 2LB bags of chocolate covered Acai berries for $7.50! Variety cases of Kirkland brand beer (made by Saranac, I think) for $18.99! I bought a fucking 42-piece snapware set for $24. I bought an HD video camera for $200.

The Don Pedro burritos are pretty good for frozen burritos. The Cedarlane ones less so.

A few weeks ago when I was there an old black dude who was handing out Oreo samples intoned "America has changed, but the Oreo is still the same."

old man otm

their giant bags of green beans are p good come Thanksgiving time

I used to think "this shit isn't for me, it's for people with five kids." But you can make it work if you have even a little bit of storage space in your apartment -- we go every two weeks, and we stash stuff like cans of tomato paste, boxes of chicken stock and rolls of paper towels in pretty much every free nook and cranny of our kitchen. We buy the giant thing of salad greens and make ourselves eat a lot of salad. We buy the six pepper pack and actually use it. We buy a big bag of apples. We buy huge things of meat and fish and divide them up and freeze them -- you get like good flounder for the price of supermarket salmon! Prime steak for the price of choice! Giant loaves of whole grain bread at like $2/loaf!

yeah when I first met Mr Veg he was living in a tiny apartment and every single cupboard/closet in the whole place, kitchen/hallway/bathroom/bedroom were filled with Costco toilet rolls, lol

more like Jerkland

guys they started carrying these containers of dried shiitake mushrooms at very reasonable prices. I bought multiple in case they do not have them later.

Last time I got a tub of goma wakame. It was pretty good.

Wish I could snap my fingers and change the Sam's Club in Tupelo into a Costco.

I wish you could snap your fingers and turn Tupelo into Kansas City

That too! Although if I could have done it a few years ago, I'd be dead of Too Much Barbecue disease by now.

I know of no such disease

I got a 48-count Durex Pleasure Pack for $10 this week.

Then I realized the probable reaction of a girl who sees me reaching into my industrial can o' condoms.

lol

what you should really do is empty it almost all the way so you can reach into it dramatically and fish around like "gee, do I -- have -- any -- left -- aha"

xp:

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_439/1253540304rzws4h.jpg

ws

but their biz model doesnt require as much labor as most box stores

A co-worker's friend once "bought" a huge, top-of-the-line TV at Costco (pre-LCD) for a Superbowl party he threw, and returned it thereafter. I thought this kind of thing had become so common that they didn't allow it anymore. (NB: may have been another chain, Best Buy or something)

Apparently if you get bad veggies/fruit or something like that you can just call them and tell them and they'll refund your money. You don't even have to bring it back!

gf says old people are always returning stuff they let expire

Do they keep track of people in case of abuse of the policy?

Oh yeah. They have all purchases and returns associated w/ the membership

So anyone try the Kirkland Rwanda coffee? Similar bag to the Colombian, purports to be darker roast, which means I probably won't like it, but I have a lot of faith in the Kirkland brand.

I don't get why they still haven't paired with some premium coffee roaster and done a higher-end blend, all their coffees are at ridiculously low price points, like $5-7/lb, and most are not that good. I feel like they could probably have something really good for like $10-11 lb and their customers would love it.

I feel like this is Trader Joe's thread fodder but I got it at Costco:
http://mycostcoreviews.blogspot.com/2015/03/maya-kaimal-coconut-chicken-curry.html

not bad at all for prepackaged curry imo

We occasionally get the packed prepared foods from Costco -- for a while they carried a really tasty carnitas but that's gone. They have an angus beef thing that's ok, and their chicken skewers are surprisingly good. None of it beats home cooking, but it's all clutch with kids in the house.

btw

http://luckypeach.com/the-official-costco-food-court-power-rankings/

They have a cooked sliced roast beef from Cuisine Solutions that's kind of awesome when pressed for time or put on a salad for cold lunch.

they used to have pretty dope burritos but they are long gone now :/

Before reading that site, I would like to do my own power-ranking:

Plain pizza
Turkey Sandwich (the one with the provolone and pesto mayo and red onion on the torta roll
Sausage Sandwich
Combo Pizza
Hot Dog
Swirl Ice Cream
Chicken Caesar

not a fan of the berry frappe thing

have not tried the beef sandwich or the chicken bake

not too far off from the luckypeach ranking, although it sounds like maybe the writer just got a bad sandwich? I fucking love that sandwich and it's nothing like what was described.

I wish Costco had standalone food courts, I really want their pizza now.

foodcourt gives me bowel spasms just walking past, let alone eating there

not a fan imo

I wish we had that turkey sandwich, sounds chill

The chicken bake sounds awful when you consider the whole of its existence, but I want to try it

Yeah it's probably good but it's so disgusting in theory.

me irl

the chicken bake thing is foul

Sort of embarrassed to be excited that the new Costco visa has better rewards than the old Costco Amex. Costco visa plus exec membership means we get 4% back

our costco has huge tubs of jellybellys :D

have to love workplace convo that is just you and coworkers talking about Costco credit cards and benefits and what is best to buy at Costco

That's like my replacement for ( non nba) sports talk

Costco Travel is great too if you're looking at relatively standard destinations and non adventurous trips.

Man, Costco travel (and car rental) made us our membership money back in one purchase, essentially. We had booked a cruise to Alaska via the cruise line, and not only was it easy to just transfer the booking over to/through Costco instead, the move instantly earned each of us $500 in trip credit. Car rental, too, we've essentially saved more on a rental than our membership costs. The 4% back credit card is a great development, and Costco gas prices (really sympatico with the credit card) here are typically around $0.30 less a gallon than at the public pump. More awesome Costco: our vision insurance (like that of many) covers one check-up and pair of prescription glasses a year, but of course my kids' eyes are changing quickly, so we decided to go out of insurance to Costco, where they have an independent eye doctor who was awesome, and whose prices were more than fair. And they were fast, with new glasses in just a couple of days. And where us can you get a good quality birthday cake that feeds 48 for just $20? Plus Costco has the best return policy on basically anything, which is more or less worth the price of admission.

I love Costco. They're apparently good to their employees, too.

i love costco more than i should and i need help

i used to buy FAGE greek yogurt bc i liked the full fat stuff but costco greek yogurt is so much cheaper and has the same protein content that it persuaded me to switch to 0% fat yogurt. it's more watery though. also the huge bags of frozen blueberries or strawberries. every day i microwave some of them + plop on some greek yogurt it's like a dream breakfast

perhaps in a move to take some wind out of Citi, the Chase Freedom Visa is offering 5% rewards on Costco purchases, July thru September. It's one of those thingies you have to "activate" on the credit card website.

whoa i still have a chase freedom that i never closed, i think? would probably be shut down as suspicious activity if i tried to use it though ;)

tuscan pork tenderloins: a bit too salty but too economical to turn down. i cook about 8 at a time and freeze about 8 in each of two vacuum seal bags. takes 15 min to cook and great cold the next day at lunch!

just got "organic no-salt seasoning" and i'm putting it on everything, too

yo yeah that stuff is great

We also bought some kind of steak seasoning mix there and H made rack of lamb and roasted vegetables with it a couple weeks ago, and it tasted like food from a good steakhouse.

is it the montreal seasoning? my father in law swore by that, his tri-tip was from the gods

oh yeah, that's what it was!

It was off the chain, seriously

yeah it's dope

that and mustard powder: boom

http://www.kiro7.com/news/couple-got-married-in-a-costco-food-court-and-it-looked-surprisingly-beautiful-1/615981960

they have these cookies at the moment that are craaaazy good - mix pack of oatmeal raisin, white choc macadamia & chocolate chip
idk who makes them but they’re my favorite rn

and Einstein bagels! but have to freeze them asap, they go stale really fast :/

The one by me seems to be trying to up its coffee game a bit. For a while they had this stuff called Parisi, specifically a light-to-medium roasted Bolivian coffee that is the first Costco coffee I've found good enough to make in a french press. It tastes like a pretty good approximation of some of the fancier light roast single origin coffees and is only $7.50/lb. Then they suddenly stopped carrying that again, but they had this new organic mexican medium roast that I'm about to try.