My Trip to Costco

On Monday, my daughter-in-law took me along with her on her shopping at Costco. This was the first time in over 2 decades since I'd be in a Costco, so I was very curious about what I'd find there. I had a budget of $30 cash that I could spend. With the super large packages at Costco, I knew $30 would not go far. Here's what I bought and some price comparisons with my regular stores.

Brussel sprouts -- 32 oz bag, Costco $4.99 or $2.49/lb. This week at Fred Meyer -- $3.69 for 24-oz bag or $2.46/lb.

2.5 lb bag pitted dates, Costco $7.99 or $3.20/lb. I'm not certain on WinCo's price for pitted dates in bulk, but somewhere around Costco's. WinCo's bulk section is where I buy pitted dates.

brown mushrooms -- 1.5 lb container whole Baby Bella mushrooms, Costco $5.99 or $3.99/lb. Fred Meyer has fresh, whole Baby Bella mushrooms in 16-oz containers for $5.69.

40-oz uncured turkey bacon -- Costco price $10.59 or $4.24/lb. Fred Meyer has cured turkey bacon for $2.79/12-oz package or $3.72/lb.

So, some products were more expensive at Costco and some were less expensive. The bacon wasn't really an apples to apples comparison, as the uncured bacon is considered to be a premium product compared to cured bacon. Mushrooms were absolutely a better deal at Costco, over $1 in savings. I lost a few pennies on the Brussel sprouts and probably came out even on the pitted dates. (I'll be going by WinCo later this week and for my own curiosity, I'll be checking their price on pitted dates in the bulk bins.)

My thoughts on shopping at Costco

You have to know your prices and package sizes for calculations. For example, turkey bacon at Fred Meyer comes in 12-oz packages, while the turkey bacon at Costco was sold in a bundle of 4 10-oz packages. So, to simply find the price per package for comparison wouldn't work. Costco does provide unit pricing, but sometimes the units are less helpful, such as price per ounce when I'm recalling price per pound from other stores on most food items. I would still need to multiply by 16 to get the per pound price for making comparisons. The inconsistent unit pricing is not just a Costco thing. I see this often in Walmart.

I was surprised at the limited selection within each category. At a traditional grocery store, I might have  a dozen or more choices in a category. Whereas at Costco, there may be 1 to 3 choices in a similar category. I'll use fresh mushrooms as an example. This week at Fred Meyer, there are 23 different kinds and sizes of packaging choices for fresh mushrooms (sliced, whole, brown Baby Bella, brown crimini, whole/sliced white, portobello, organic, shitake, mixed gourmet, 4-oz, 8-oz, 16-oz, 24-oz, or bulk). At Costco, (if I remember correctly) I had my choice of 3 types of mushrooms (white whole, Baby Bella whole, Shitake, whole) each in 1 size. With pitted dates, at Fred Meyer, they carry 5 choices in brands/sizes of whole pitted dates. At Costco, I found 1 choice for whole pitted dates. This limited selection reminded me somewhat of the selection at our restaurant supply, but is very different from traditional supermarkets.

My daughter-in-law tells me that Costco stores in different regions carry different selections. Some items in my area stores may not be available in other locations across the country and vice versa. I was surprised to find so much organic and natural/specialty foods. For example, Costco carries a ghee (clarified butter) baking spray. I've never seen this product before. They also carry Waygu beef, both the Japanese version ($99/lb -- yep, you read that right, almost $100 for a pound) and American Waygu beef (much, much less, but I'm not sure I read the package correctly, it may have been under $20/lb). My Fred Meyer doesn't carry Waygu beef products at all. Costco also had a large selection of packaged products that were made with alternative ingredients for specific dietary needs, such as gluten-free and keto friendly. 

Would I want a membership? For me, I would have too much envy of others who buy the items I would like to have, but are out of my budget. And I'm talking beyond the foods. I would love to have a good single-cup coffee maker, like a Keurig. However, even if I received a Keurig as a gift, the k-cups are pricey and out of my grocery budget. Even with a refillable k-cup, I wouldn't be satisfied, as the time-savings of having a Keurig would be minimized if I had to spend time filling and emptying the little plastic cups. I also saw a computer monitor that I thought was beautiful, as those items go. Every time I passed that section, I know I'd have a feeling of longing for that item, even though the computer I have is a laptop and having a separate monitor would negate the primary benefit of a laptop -- high portability. 

The shopping carts are huge. What makes a trip to Costco so expensive are the large packages of everything. I bought 4 items and spent $30. These were treat purchases. I wouldn't normally buy 1.5 pounds of mushrooms at a time. I would buy an 8-ounce package of mushrooms for less out of pocket, and we would eat lesser expensive foods when the mushrooms ran out. Ditto on the pitted dates. I'm guessing we'll go through those dates fairly quickly. If I were buying dates at WinCo, I'd buy a small baggie of dates. When we ate them all, we'd switch over to fresh oranges (which are inexpensive right now) or home-dried or frozen, home-grown fruit (which is basically free to us).

I enjoyed the time with my daughter-in-law and getting a peek inside a Costco. I'd love to go with her again in a few months, perhaps just before my husband's birthday. I did see some special food items that would make a great dinner at home for him, perhaps not the $99/lb Japanese Waygu steaks, though. 

I'm glad I got this chance. I now know what I'm missing and what I am not.

What I'm Grateful for Today

I'm grateful that peanut butter comes in straight and smooth-sided jars with large openings.

The other night, I had this strange dream. I had ordered a case of natural, chunky-style peanut butter online to be shipped to my home. I had gotten a stellar deal on this purchase. When the case arrived, I opened the box, and to my surprise, the "jars" were tall, narrow, plastic squeeze bottles. I could only imagine the squeeze nozzle would get blocked by a chunky-style peanut fragment on the first squeeze. So I set out to decant these bottles into a large jar. Only, the insides of the squeeze bottle were convoluted and ridged, like a cross between a Gatorade bottle, a plastic applesauce jar, and a Honey Bear honey squeeze bottle. I used my most flexible, narrow rubber spatula, but was only able to get about 2/3 of the peanut butter out of the squeeze bottle. And I was picturing myself scraping out the natural peanut butter from every single squeeze bottle in the case.

Fortunately, I woke up about this point. But I did find myself surprised by my initial thought upon waking, "I'm so glad peanut butter doesn't come in narrow squeeze bottles."

I'm writing about this today, in part to amuse you. But also, I was thinking about what I would do if this did happen to me. A sane person would simply return the case of squeeze-bottle peanut butter. But remember, I had gotten a great deal on that peanut butter. The frugal side of me wouldn't want to lose the "savings" of such a deal. I would get out the most flexible and narrow rubber spatula from the drawer and begin scooping and scraping as best I could. I would probably then try shaking the remaining peanut butter up with a liquid for making a smoothie or adding to a peanut sauce. I am certain that I would spend more time extracting as much peanut butter out as possible than my own time was worth. And I would console myself with the dollars and cents savings.

Weird dream. But it did make me think about the efforts I'd likely go to save food and money. What would you have done? Would you have returned the case to get a refund, or would you have tried to scrape the peanut butter out of the strange bottles?