Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Calgary/Okotoks Wins:
Maple Syrup
Agave
Oatmeal
Almond Butter
Peanut Butter
Vegetable gyoza
Amy’s Soups
Vanilla
Giant bags of granulated and icing sugar
Newman’s Own Pasta Sauce
Quinoa
Olive Oil
Sol Cuisine Burgers
Mini chocolate chips
Silver Hills Bread
Organic frozen cherries
Organic frozen mango
Larabars
Clif Bars
Mary’s Crackers

Fails: No tofu, EB, unsweetened milk or Field Roast

And tell me too, I'll send my mom. She goes to the one in Vista.

I'm in MD and there are really only a few things that I think are good.

Quinoa in Rice Aisle
Dolmas, Hummus, Tabouleh in Refrigerated section

They used to sell brown basmati but haven't seen that in a while. I've only seen Boca burgers, no other vegan meat products. I'm jealous of the field roast. Are they in the refrigerated area?

I forgot the Kirkland Brand of extra virgin olive oil is great. BUT it is way too big for me to buy. It will go bad before I get to the second bottle. Costco is not always great for small families. Expecially when half of my 2 person family is an omni.

Other wins: Great prices on booze, wine and beer. Love the Ecos detergent. TP is hella cheap. Clothing can be great sometimes, as are other non-food items

FAIL: gas. Sorry, sometimes it is cheaper, but I just cannot see how waiting in line that long is worth the .05 or even .10/gallon that you save. When gas is at 'normal' prices, it is like maybe .05 cheaper than other places. Long lines (always at least 10-15 minutes around here), but maybe worth it if you have the membership where you get 3% cash back at the end of the year, and have the time to spare to wait in line for gas

BUT when gas prices get really high, the lines are 30-40 minutes long. Sure it is a bit cheaper, but you BURN SO MUCH GAS waiting in line! you can't turn your car off since you have to move forward every few minutes. Also, 40 minutes of my time is NOT worth $3-4 of savings.

I had a HUGE discussion with some people on FB about this, and I crunched the numbers and determined that it is definitly not benefical to get gas at Costco when the lines are longer than 15 minutes long. The only way it would be is if you have a hybrid vehicle and have the time to wait in line for gas. (you wouldn't have to very often, so that would be ok I suppose)

Gas might be better elsewhere, but where I live the situation I described is very typical. Stupid long lines. All the time. People lined up before they open. I did this for a long time when I had a memebership, and worked near a costco. Finally realized I was barely saving any money, and was wasting 15 minutes of my life at 6am once a week. Yeah...not worth the $3 I saved.

Wow, that's nuts about the gas. I've never seen that here, though I don't check often. I don't know how much cheaper it is. The Giants here have discounted gas based on how much you spend, so I think most people go there, since those lines are often long.

I forgot about the olive oil too, and the basalmic vinegar. I get the $10 bottle of fancier oil to use in uncooked things and I manage to use it up before it goes bad. This doesn't seem too hard since I make a lot of hummus and salad dressings. I also buy the $16 jug of cooking olive oil and refill a smaller bottle. I've never had this go bad either. I keep the jug well sealed in a dark, cool pantry closet. I think I buy one every ~year. Do I use a lot of oil?

If you live alone, splitting the oil with a friend would make it a good deal. The last time I bought olive oil in the supermarket, the same brand was $8 for about 1/3 the size. I used to split the jugs with my mom.

My sad letdown...no costco within an hour and a half radius.

Yeah, I'm spoiled on the Peninsula here with the Hodo Soy and they have Gardein too. I bought too much last time and couldn't get through it all, boo. I wonder if they have field roast sausages, I totally skipped that aisle last time. My husband is due for more iced tea (Tea's Tea 12 packs) so I'll have to remember to check it out.

Dang, I'm totally missing out! I always go to San Jose costcos though. Maybe that's why I haven't seen anything, if all the good stuff is on the peninsula.

For those asking, I go to the one near Qualcomm - it's the Friars Rd West exit from I15. 2345 Fenton Pkwy.

Thank you! Ya, that's the one I call Mission Valley.

We'll renew our membership when Mr. Sz gets back from overseas. He loves field roast.

Thank you. I'm not usually down that way, but next time I am I will make sure to go to Costco.

My local Costco has no gas station which is crazy. I've never seen a Costco without one. Also, my Costco is crazy every day, every hour. When I was really into going to Costco, sometimes my husband and I would drive to the one that is about 15-20 miles away because it is nice and calm and they have a gas station. Now I only go to Costco a few times per year.

I love sharing this trick about shopping at Costco when you don't have a card. Have a friend who is a member buy a gift card for you. You can go shopping on the card and pay for the overage per Costco's requirements.

I am so doing this. What are the requirements? Any weird stipulations? Like you can only use cash or something?

They only accept cash, debit, or AmEx.

I'm a big fan of Costco, too.
Some things I like:
-Nuts (almonds, pine nuts, pecans, cashews, and peanuts) I skip on the walnuts because I get a better deal on better walnuts from a nearby Turkish market.
-Olive oil (I buy the Berio evoo jug just for cooking, but I don't like it for salads/raw applications)
-Produce (berries, avocados, garlic, romaine lettuce, spinach, mushrooms, bananas, the dark purple grapes, big bag of carrots)
-San Pellegrino
-The shelf-stable soy and rice milks
-Organic sugar
-Vanilla beans
-Maple syrup
-Agave
-Roasted seaweed snack packs
-Paper products
-Good deals on some small appliances (on MFG coupon sale, I got the standard Cuisinart ice cream maker for $30 and their smallest food processor for $15, also got my Vitamix 5200s there for $350)

Things I've been let down by:
-Gallon of organic valencia orange juice is hit or miss (sometimes bright and fresh tasting, other times cloudy and plasticky--I don't buy it anymore)
-The Bolthouse Farms three-pack of carrot juice (the two times I've bought it, it had an overwhelming chemical/plastic taste--now I only buy Trader Joe's brand, which is excellent)
-I liked the quinoa until I kept getting grit/rocks in the finished product--it's only purpose now is for making rejuvelac

Things I've bought only once then they disappeared forever:
-A good Lebanese brand of tahini
-Baby kale
-Big bag of raw, shelled hemp seeds

What lavawitch wrote is correct.
I wanted to add that you cannot refill the card and they will make you use it up. So if you want to go back, you have to get a new card.

Also: if you make any sort of major purchase like a TV or a computer, go to customer service first and see if upgrading to executive would be cost effective. They will tell you straight up how much money you would get back.

The executive membership is, I believe, an extra $50 for a 2% merch credit at the end of the year. So if you'll spend over $2500/year it's worth it.

Yup, although it's not just store credit, you can redeem the certificates for cash too. I had the exec membership when I was doing all the costco purchasing for my company. The cashback at the end of the year from that was fantastic. Sadly I do not purchase that much on my own, so it's not really worth it otherwise.

Win: Big boxes of Clif bars, unsweetened Almond Breeze, maple syrup, and NUTS! So many nuts. My Christmas baking involves lots of pecans, hazelnuts, and almonds, so I get overly excited by this at this time of year.

Fail: Perogies that have egg-free dough, but cheddar cheese in the filling. Dammit.

I am supremely jealous of all you folks with Field Roast and EB products in your Costcos.

But they will let you upgrade at anytime and backdate it. They did that when I bought my TV. I was with my mom and they asked us of we had executive, then figured it out. So I bought the tv using hers instead of mine and she got a nice bit back a few months later.

Whoa! I was just visiting my parents in Lethbridge and my mum bought a tonne of vegan Happy Planet soups at Costco. The chili is really good! And I am not a person who particularly loves chili.

Woah, you can backdate it? That's crazy. I mean, I'm glad for you it worked out but I would have definitely waited to see if I'd known I could backdate it later!!! Harrumph. Oh well, I buy so much crepe from there now that I'm sure we spend a couple hundred a month.

One more thing that I totally forgot about until I went to go make rice this evening:
SAFFRON! adorable little corked jar of it, I'm not sure how much of a bargain it was (since saffron is hard to estimate weight vs. volume) but it seems very fragrant and it looked like a decent deal.

I am so jealous of the Costco with Gardein tenders!!

I also remembered another FAIL: have to shake my fist at the Stone Brewery barbecue sauce that looks awesome but has anchovies in it. Harrumph.

I totally forgot about the clothes - I've bought several sweaters for work that are now my favorite sweaters at Costco. Also, diapers!

I think we have the Exec membership and I'm pretty sure we got it because even if you don't get to $50 with the 2% cash back, they will refund you the difference.

Gas at NJ Costcos is very unusual and they're required to sell gas to everybody whether they have a Costco membership or not. I only know of one Costco out of the 4 nearby that has gas. The upside of crazy Costco gas, though, is that during the gas shortage and rationing in NJ post-hurricane, that Costco had enough gas to pump 24 hours a day for days.

Booze is also not at all NJ Costcos and not at the one we go to.

Yeah, we don't buy alcohol but Maryland has some odd alcohol laws. From what I've gathered, national chains cannot sell alcohol but local chains can. So there are small local chain grocery stores that sell wine and beer but any national chain doesn't.

I grew up in California where anything goes but I like grocery stores without alcohol, makes it less crowded.