Tested my T3 flat iron acquired at Costco yesterday. Wow, it is a timesaver!! Into the garbage the old one went. It was indeed 1/2 dead, lol.
@doschicos , start a Costco thread, start a revolution. 
A peaceful one though - people including me love to talk Costco!
Re: bigger sizes/quantities. I think it’s all how you approach it. Any meats you can put into smaller packages. Don’t buy 5 different fruits or vegetables just buy a couple for the week and enjoy those and the prices savings. Cheese well taken care of lasts a long time.
One of the sample ladies gave me a good tip last month. She was sampling the enormous fresh Costco chicken pot pies. H loves them but they are so big unless people are coming over it doesn’t make sense to buy. I was telling her that. She said, “take the pie home and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Take it out and with a good knife, cut the pie into 4 quarters. Put it back in the freezer. When you want 2-4 servings, take a quarter out and bake it in the oven. Allows you to have the pie 4 different times”. It works! For about $16 we got 4 generous meals out of that pie that is very generous with chicken and vegetables.
So, be creative how you use the items and they can work for your small family.
Well, Costco love does seem to be non-partisan - a rarity these days! 
I decided not to go today after warnings about December weekends. Plus, it’s very dreary and rainy. Good day to hibernate.
It’ll be interesting to see how much I’m tempted to buy. We do have our shopping quirks - husband isn’t a big lover of leftovers, we never freeze meat, there are certain products where I am very loyal to certain brands because of how/where they are made (Cabot sharp cheddar or other local cheeses, locally sourced eggs/maple syrup, King Arthur Flour, cane sugar vs beet, only ground meat that is ground in-store, etc.)
Thanks for all the thumbs up on Costco tires. One of our vehicles will need a new pair soon.
FYI, our Costco does carry some Cabot varieties and I buy the Sugar In The Raw there - a 6 pound bag for $8ish??? II’m estimating). They sometimes have Bob’s Red Mill products too which I Iike.
@doschicos if you can, you should try and time your tire purchase with the 1 cent installation sale. That saves you an additional $60. Other tire stores such as America’s Tire will match Costco’s tire prices when it goes on sale, but won’t match on the installation ($15/tire). This happens for a 2-3 week period every 2-3 months if I am not mistaken.
One slightly bad thing, especially when the 1 cent sale is happening - if you want to do a tire rotations (they are free for Costco-purchased tires) waits can easily take 2-4 hours on weekends and they don’t take reservations.
Beechers cheese here, a local favorite. I think they try to cater to the local crowds as much as possible. The store in Kirkland where there are a lot of techies from India live (MSFT, Google etc.) carries a lot of Indian foods that are not available at the other Costcos we frequent.
Re: weekend crowds. We found that at least for us, Monday evenings are the best times to shop. Weekends can get nutty. Our store was a real zoo yesterday! Every other car leaving the parking lot had a tree sticking out of it or tied to the roof!
No Beechers here but our Costco has BellaVitano and Cypress Grove cheese.
There are some products that you just can’t find elsewhere (or are much more expensive if you can). Among the staples in my house:
Harmless Harvest Coconut Water in the refrigerated section.
Açai Roots Açai Sorbet. Sold in a 1/2 gallon-is sized tub (the packaging on 1/2 gallon ice cream tubs has gradually shrunk over the years, so I’m loathe to say its a 1/2 gallon. Açai Roots isway better than Sambazon).
Paper goods – Toilet paper and paper towels.
Fresh and dried fruits, including both Medjool and Deglet Noor (pitted dates), nuts, Kirkland brand Kind bars.
Just had a frozen vegetarian French Onion Soup that they sell (6 individually frozen single single servings) – it’s delicious (way better than the Trader Joe’s brand)
Cheezes, Smoked Salmon, Appetizers for parties, Roasted chicken.
Fresh bread.
As much as I love all things Costco - I’ve stopped purchasing their tires for the reason given in #84. Yes, great pricing. But, when it comes to the free rotation it takes 2-3 hours on a weekday. There is ALWAYS a long wait.
This is a case where we’ve switched to a local, independent shop where the prices are just a tad bit higher. But they are in town where we can easily do a drop off. Or, we get the tires rotated with each oil change.
Can anyone comment on whether wrapping paper at Costco is the thick, sturdy kind or not? That’s all I buy. I really dislike flimsy paper.
I should clarify, I use Costco for certain things (mosty in it for the chicken) :). But I actually hate going there. Parking lot and store are always a zoo. And I do not want to rewrap things to freeze them. I only go 3-4 times per year.
I think I’ve only bought wrap once or twice at Costco (just happened to get it other places) and mine was thick. Also, mine was printed on both sides - one pattern on one side, one on the other. They may not all be like that though. I would think the packaging would describe a double pattern.
Yes, the wrapping paper is high quality and thick.
Even we emply-nesters find ourselves going to Costco more often for many of the items mentioned earlier. This season, they they have big containers of cream puffs that work well for company or pot lucks, and a reasonable price on macarons (first time I’ve seen them). Among our staples are the big bags of organic strawberries, stems removed, that we have every breakfast (blueberries are great too, but not organic) and the big bags of frozen squash, which I find are better for soups and the like than fresh. They also carry good frozen pierogies in several flavors that show up at random times during the year. We are also hooked on their “hamburger rolls” that are more like tasty ciabatta or an Italian sourdough.
It helps that our Costco is close by and their employees are competent, helpful, and seem happy.
My neighbor who is single offered to take me with her to Costco so that we could split some of the stuff.
My mom thinks that some of the Costco prices are such a deal. However since she lives alone she can’t always use the bigger size. I often offer to split a quantity with her. Yesterday she wanted pecans but only 1 pound, not two. I just split the bag when I got home. Same with the two container soups. She is thrilled when I bring her one container of the various flavors - then I use my container for work lunches.
S wanted a Nest for Hanukkah. Went first to Home Depot and they were out of stock so looked at Costco. They had the Nest thermostat bundled with a Google Mini for $239 I think. Not an exciting present but it is was all he could come up with. @jym626 someone in our family will now have a Nest.
@raclut I thought you were going to tell a Costco-related love story!
I eat my weight in the frozen organic cherries each year. I mix them in plain yogurt or make pies or jam. I’m a little afraid to tell anybody else about them, though, because I don’t want more people buying them. There are only so many cherries harvested and when they’re gone… they’re gone. One year the harvest must have been lean because our Costco ran out of the cherries early and it took something like three months before they got more. Very traumatic.