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

I don't think Ned is carless anymore

they sell those at costco now, really convenient

also the easy answer is: share the membership with a car-owning friend

:( a hero falls xp

To my eternal bemusement, I do now own a car, though I don't drive it.

how were you going to re-enact Tawny Kitaen's part in the "Here I Go Again" video without a car?

It's true I had everything else necessary.

How to be carless and take advantage of Costco intrigues me a little.

― WmC, Monday, October 15, 2012 11:13 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You could get a large foldable grandma cart.

You can also rely on a car service. The manhattan one has cars waiting at all times. You just have to I guess make the trips economical enough (i.e. buy enough stuff/save enough money) that the car service is worth it, which I've never tried to do bc we have a car (although I did figure out that the insurance and gas on our old, paid-off car is more than covered by our grocery savings)

To my eternal bemusement, I do now own a car, though I don't drive it.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, October 15, 2012 10:18 AM (16 minutes ago)

Ned and Not-Ned in one easy sentence.

I hadn't even thought of a car service. Still undercaffeinated.

i miss having a costco membership. a. and i let ours lapse because we just weren't going enough to justify the cost. but it is a good deal if you play your cards right.

yo, i seriously hate costco. but i love BJs. I got a pair of high index eyeglasses for $200, and a lot of cranberries for $7.99

i got my glasses at costco. their eye exams are cheap and i don't think you need a membership to get one. $50 plus $10 for high-res photos of your eyes.

ooh, maybe i can get a second opinion. i secretly enjoy eye exams a lot, except for the dilation.

well you can always ask for a condensed version

people who have memberships: how often do you go?

once every couple of months: whenever we run out of -
- toilet paper
- dishwasher detergent
-laundry powder
or if we need tritips for tailgating bbqs

damn, tri tip sounds good.

they're HUGE is the only thing - usually 3+ pounds per, either in a 3 pack or crazy cryo 10 pack which we've never bought.

but they're usually pretty well marbled and they barbecue up really good. great if you're cooking for a big group.

not super cheap, but a decent price for the quality.

I stop once a week for gas (it's right on my way to/from work). We have a chest freezer and a vacuum sealer, and are highly carnivorous, so we buy large quantities of various meats every few weeks as well as eggs, butter, cream, cheeses, and frozen broccoli. The only fresh produce we buy anymore from Costco is romaine hearts and campari tomatoes since we can get through them before they rot. An occasional case of wine (and now we can buy hard liquor there too! One giant bottle of Bombay Sapphire procured!) and numerous flats of diet Coke.

beer is sometimes good

our new discovery: wiper blades!

Alcohol never seems like it's a bargain there at all. At least compared to trader joes. And the kirkland brand beer is the same price and same thing (rebranded gordon biersch) as the trader joe's house brand beer, at least in CA. But then I guess according to CA law you can buy alcohol at Costco without needing a membership so maybe it's intentionally not discounted.

hard liquor prices are surprisingly lower on some items

yo, i seriously hate costco. but i love BJs.

well really, who doesn't?

right on TARGET.

Our Costco has 24-packs of Kirkland ales for $18.99, which is definitely cheaper than the equivalent TJ beers here ($6 per sixpack iirc), although both are reasonable and of similar quality.

We go once every two weeks - it really works out well as long as you develop a kind of routine and set of staples that you stick to. Costco we get meats, fish, a 24-pack of organic eggs, dried fruit/trail mix type stuff, fruits like apples, pears, bananas, almond butter, hummus, goat and feta cheese, any condiments, paper goods and cleaning products we're out of, etc. The weekends we don't do Costco we supplement with Trader Joe's and the farmer's market. This has kept our grocery bill pretty reasonable ($600-700/month for a couple and a baby in New York City) while keeping us well fed (good fish like flounder, prime steak, organic ground beef, organic chicken, etc.) -- and we barely eat any of our meals out and rarely get takeout.

ooh almond butter is a good call. and hummus too. I'll hve to check those out

Yeah they have a really good almond butter called Maranatha that comes in like a double-sized jar. It's a little hard to stir the tall jar, but once you get past that it's delicious.

weee that's the brand I use already! hmm. I might need to plan a sooner trip.

hummus they carry the sabra brand by us, which I find just ok. The pine nut one is good. The garden veggie one is kind of nasty.

they used to have really good burritos 3-packs years ago, which were good when you were shopping after work and wouldn't have time to cook much by the tiem you got home.

bummed they don't have them anymore

I sometimes get these frozen burritos there called Don something or other, and they're good in that they taste nothing like a real burrito but like the absolute ideal cheesy salty mess of a frozen burrito.

Same with their quesadillas, whose name I also forget.

I had been skeptical of the Costco coffees, especially since buying 2-3 lbs of coffee at once is kind of yuck in terms of freshness (especially if you're the only coffee drinker in your house), but I couldn't really not try the whole bean colombian at around $5.50 a pound -- it was so cheap that even if I wound up not using half I'd be saving money over my fancypants coffee (stumptown, grumpy, counter culture etc.). It's actually pretty damned good!

we may have to resort to that. we're going through a pound a week lately, which is getting hella expensive

Mr Veg scored a jar of Maranatha Almond butter last week - AND a 6 pack of 32oz Almond Milk for $8.89 :D

Is that almond butter super watery for you? Even after leaving it in the fridge it is almost too runny to use.

Not for me. I have been buying the small jars for a long time I've never found it watery? the only tiresome thing is stirring in the oil that first time.

I must have got a bad one. It is way too oily to be normal.

Their organic peanut butter is good too, but they never seem to have it.

There's a lot of oil, def. I have found that an immersion blender helps. It's kinda messy but it mixes in the oil way better than a knife.

Recent purchases included the eternal standbys -- toilet paper and paper towels.

the classics

I use the Maranatha almond butter. I p much go crazy with stirring it and getting all the harder, drier parts off the bottom and properly mixed in, which gets it into pretty good form. Still on the runnier side but not bad.

10-gallon drum of Maker's Mark, casket, socks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XykpZgCO5bA

hahaha, Ann Romney barely able to conceal her disgust at the shirts (which, btw, don't come in "packs" at my Costco?)

I am BACK at Costco. My sister joined and let me be her +1. I am going regularly just for the meat, seafood, spinach and greek yogurt. Since that is like all I eat.

ooh good call on greek yogurt. I might have to investigate that too!

i didn't know about the costco thanksgiving dinner! has anyone tried this?

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2012/11/a_very_costco_thanksgiving_fee.php

Giant bags of baby kale!