Advice for a Costco Newbie

Parent Cafe
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Made a trip to my Costco tonight not in spite of all the thunder, rain and lightning we got but because we did. See, we Californians don’t do rain very well, so it pretty much guaranteed me a near empty store lol!

They had my fave, Haas avocados, from Mexico which was $4.89/bag. I also picked up a super cute $20 secret Santa gift of wool lined ankle boots, a $10 quilted jacket and a $12 Calvin Klein shirt. I also picked up a bunch of $6 Kirkland tubs of chocolate peanut butter cups for coworkers. All in all it was a pretty good trip!

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@BunsenBurner what section did you find the pickled cauliflower? Inquiring mind(s) wants to know!

The seafood thing here…seems mostly on the weekends? Probably when people are entertaining more. Definitely around the holidays and then at other times during the year but I haven’t paid attention enough to know how frequent they are there - they usually set up around the produce/meat area. I’ve got crab legs there for NY Eve. Great that you can get the quantity you want.

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So, how do you know when the seafood thing us happening at your local store? Do local stores send email notification of their sales/events in addition to the company-wide emails?

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The vanilla at costco is still a bargain even tho prices have risen. I LOVE the seasonal plants that our costco sells. The flower baskets are so lush and beautiful and well-priced. I like the blackberries and fruit and veggies. I like their dips, cheese and big bags of chocolate dipped pretzels, nutella packages, granola packages and chicken skewers. With 4 people in our house now instead of 6 i find we don’t always get through everything we buy as its all so big, so i’ve cut back.

@BunsenBurner - i laughed to read your article link about costco chickens. We live about 25 miles from that town. There are big concerns about the effects that the chicken farming will have on the local water quality. My H’s company has been called in to consult a bit on it all.

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@doschicos

No email notifications. Whenever I see them, it’s always been during weekends and not every weekend. Usually around holidays, too.

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They used to list the Seafood Roadshow in the Costco Connection magazine under “Special Events” or something similar. Not sure if they still do as it goes straight to the recycle bin. I didn’t see it listed on the website. My store has a big banner in the meat department announcing the dates. Ours are usually Thursday-Sunday 1-2x a month.

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@doschicos I would call or ask in person at your store. Each store may have some rhyme or reason to when the seafood people are there.

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Go to the Costco website. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. See the “Locations and Services” on the right side? Click on “special events” and then click on your area. Then click on your warehouse to see what’s coming up!

ETA - I don’t see any food related events so maybe they’re not listed here.

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That is only for non-food road shows.

@abasket - we found the pickled cauliflower (2 jar pack) in the isle that houses glass jars of olives, pickles, capers, etc.

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The 1 cent installation plus $70 off of 4 tires for Bridgestone tires is going on at Costco now. So $130 savings total. I doubt if any other shop can match that. Good thru 12/24. However, as mentioned previously, if you’re one that needs tire rotations done by someone else, just remember that Costco (they do it for free for tires purchased at Costco) tends to have very long waits.

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https://www.seattletimes.com/business/agriculture/costco-tightens-standards-for-antibiotics-use-by-meat-producers/

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Regarding the pesto…
We freeze it flat in one or two quart size ziplok freezer bags. Then when we use it we can break off just what we need. If we are making a pasta-chicken-pesto dish we break off a good chunk and if it is a pesto pizza we just need to break off a bit.

Thank you for the idea of cutting the bacon packs in half and freezing them that way!

Recently we tried the Kirkland dishwasher tablets. I don’t recommend them. They have a very strong smell, even after the cycle is done.

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One thing that I find Costco regrettably lacking is that the only form of credit card payment is Visa. No MC, AmEx or Discover.

I’m one of those who uses various kinds of credit cards for accumulating travel, hotel and rental car points. Since I spend about 90% of all my grocery, electronic, tools, etc. needs at both Costco and Sam’s, using such cards to meet the spending requirement is a quick and great way to earn the points. I used, for example, Chase Sapphire and United MileagePlus Visa cards at Costco to accumulate enough points for our family of four to travel to South Korea for nearly a month this past August – all on points. In August, travel to South Korea would have cost us around $2,000 per person for a round trip. While there, we stayed at Grand Hilton in Seoul all on points accumulated from American Express Hilton cards. For accumulating AmEx Hilton points, I go to Sam’s Club, and I still have enough Hilton points to stay somewhere for about a month in the U.S. (points are about triple or more at Hilton outside of U.S., Hyatt points, which I also have, is better for international stays). I purchased about $2,000 worth of laminate woods for my re-flooring project this past summer at Sam’s, so right there AmEx gave me about 150,000 points (for AmEx Hilton cards, you only have to spend $1,000 within 3 months to receive anywhere around 60K to 80K points depending on how generous they feel). An NO annual fees.

I’m sure many others use such point methods for travel and other needs, so I’m surprised that Costco doesn’t realize that more people are willing to spend a lot of money shopping at their stores if they allow other forms of credit card payments.

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Does the Costco auto shop sell and install car batteries or is it strictly for buying tires?

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My husband visited the tire shop on our visit while I picked up my eyeglasses. He said they do both tires and batteries but that’s it.

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Costco accepted Amex until recently, maybe a couple of years ago? My mother uses it for everything but Costco to accumulate Skymiles.

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@raclut My Costco sells Interstate batteries but does not install them.

https://www.costco.com/automotive-batteries.html

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Costco cut a deal with Citi bank Visa, like they’d had with Amex. Lower fees charged to Costco with a guaranteed clientele and usage. We used the Costco visa on our extended vacation this summer and will get hundreds in cash back from it, on top of what we normally get each year.
When I traveled for business while I was still working, my company required me to use the company credit card for everything. They got a kickback, if you will, on every dollar charged to it.

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We prefer to buy air travel with at least part cash to keep Mr. in his chichi status with Alaska… they require actual $ paid for at least part of the ticket and actual butt in the seat for the flown miles to count towards elite status. It makes a difference when he needs to cancel his flight or change it at the last minute. For everything else, there is Costco Visa. Gotta love that cashback in actual $$. No corporate cards here, so Mr.'s thousands in travel expenses earn Costco cashback for us.

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H and I first joined Costco the week before our wedding. It was the first day that the local Price Club (now Costco) opened in our area. We bought all of the paper goods that we needed for the party.

As our family grew to 5 children, Costco was our life saver. along with Restaurant Depot. The prices for milk and other staples were rarely beaten anywhere else. We bought cat food, glasses, clothing and, for almost 10 years, never left without at least one box of diapers.

H and I were there today. Amongst the things we bought were Salonpas patches for my MIL (thanks to a suggestion on the CC thread on how to treat pain in the elderly), generic acetaminophen, eggs (we used to buy 15 dozen at a time at Restaurant Depot, but with fewer kids at home, we now buy the 3 dozen), Lactaid milk, salmon, scallops, shrimp (H used to insist on the local fish store, which is much more expensive, but I convinced him to try Costco), raisin bread, Bounty towels, Scott toilet tissue, crystal light iced tea mix, Sangria, a bag of lemons, potatoes and Taquitos for the boys.

We don’t like the rotisserie chicken’s taste compared to that of our local store (not a chain), but H and the boys really like the buffalo wings so we get those on occasion. We also buy the pre-made Perdue or Tyson buffalo wings for the boys to snack on with their friends. I buy the chicken breasts and grill them to put in salad or make cutlets.

We also buy windshield wiper blades for our various vehicles, motor oil to keep in the cars, socks and underwear. Today, I bought the women’s merino wool socks for my oldest son (the mailman), who likes them better than the men’s because they are thinner. I also got him a box of hand warmers and some 32 brand thermal pants for under his uniform. They are on sale now for $6.99.

I buy Equal, Splenda, etc. in bulk for myself and my MIL. We used to buy the 50 pound bag of sugar but H has cut back and we now buy only a 10 pound bag. We buy large bags of a couple of different rices because we like variety. We buy the pre-made chicken tikka masala and doctor it up by adding our own rice and other things. H also makes soups with leftover rotisserie chicken and the rice.

In terms of cheeses, I buy the mozzarella which is comparable to the stuff that is twice as expensive at our local charcuterie. I also like the Brie and will often buy a wedge of Jarlsberg. Two of my sons like the babybel cheeses, as well as Muenster and Cheddar, so I buy those as well. The kirkland olive oil is very good and I finally convinced H to switch to it.

We use the Kirkland laundry soap but I agree with whoever said that the dishwasher stuff has an aftersmell. I used the cascade packets instead, but they are competitively priced.

We get to Costco, which is about 1/2 hour away, about once a month and usually do a massive, two cart shop for our house and my MIL’s house. When my kids were small, we would sometimes go twice a month or do a trip to Costco and another to Restaurant Depot.

We love Costco.