<p>I did find a kids extra large down vest that fit me yesterday, but the coloring made it look too much like a kids, think i will wait and get a kids down vest at Rei cause they have the same colors as the adult line.</p>
<p>Some of the mens stuff though is only xl or even xxl. My H wears a medium in most things cause of his shoulders, but even a large would be humungous.</p>
<p>“I really, really dislike going there, though. It is overcrowded with too many bottlenecks in the store.”</p>
<p>This must be an older store. The store in Kirkland is just like that, but the newer one a few miles north is much more efficiently designed - Mr B is driving me there as we speak. :)</p>
<p>I was in Costco quickly today. Wow, you could buy thanksgiving turkey (breast?) already stuffed and ready for the oven, large sides of mashed or sweet potatoes oven ready with pats of butter on top - haven’t seen these at the holidays before! Plus the 5.99 gigantic pumpkin pies!! Wonder how many people take advantage of these Costco conveniences at the holidays??</p>
<p>The Gloria Vanderbilt Jean’s they carry are really inexpensive AND they for me perfectly! </p>
<p>The nearest Costco is 45 minutes away so we are not members. My good friend who was a member, moved away 
we used to go on a Costco outing every few months.</p>
<p>The waist on the GV jeans is REALLY high on me. Just got a pair of cords and they were also really high. YMMV – I am hard to fit for pants.</p>
<p>I will admit to having bought one of those pumpkin pies in the past – and eating it all myself. What was I thinking???</p>
<p>That waist is below my waist…but NOT really low! But then, I’m very high waisted!</p>
<p>I try to hit Costco at 3PM on a Monday-Thursday – it is generally a very quiet time since that is about when school gets out and the lunch rush is passed.</p>
<p>Sent H to get meatballs the other day – and he came back with the alarming news that they aren’t stocking them now. What!!! </p>
<p>I’ve noticed when visiting the Costco in So Cal that they have a very different food product mix. I clearly belong there and not here.</p>
<p>My one frustration with Costco is when they discontinue a product that has become a family staple. (I am lamenting the disappearance of sweet potato fries.) Meanwhile, they continue to dedicate shelf space to a kegerator and a gun safe. We are in CT. I really do not think there is huge demand for either of those items. How many people buy gun safes or kegerators as impulse purchases? Now, portable generators are logical given how frequently power is knocked out.</p>
<p>I am a huge Costco fan and shop there weekly if not more often, but I have not had any luck with their prepared or partially prepared foods.</p>
<p>Trader joes has sweet potato fries.</p>
<p>emeraldkity–but are they in the giant Costco-sized bag? Stop & Shop has them also, but my family eats more than they should at one sitting! In the meantime, I am roasting sweet potatoes, but they are not being greeted quite as enthusiastically as the fries had been.</p>
<p>I now fill out a suggestion form every time I am in Costco, hoping they will bring back the fries. I doubt it will help. They have dedicated the space to a really huge bag of frozen broccoli florets, which seems unfair as they sell large bags of broccoli florets in the refrigerated section. (Those do need to be used quickly as they can deteriorate within several days of opening.)</p>
<p>" apparently long gone are the days of the knife sharpener truck. " - We never had one of those in the neighborhood. But there is one that comes to our Farmer’s Market. Alas, we didn’t catch them this fall. Ace Hardware also has the service, but it’s not while-you-wait.</p>
<p>Our Costco had Hunter boots for $80 - judging by how messy the pile of those boxes looked, the boots were a big hit.</p>
<p>We bought raspberries ($3.79/carton) and a bunch of other stuff! We even found the LED light inserts for recessed lights that were out of stock the last time we visited the store!</p>
<p>DH loves the Kirkland dress shirts,100% cotton no iron, for less than $20. Bought a down comforter a couple of weeks ago and it seems excellent. Very light and warm so far - don’t know if it’ll be warm enough when the real cold comes, we’ll see.
Has anyone bought a car through their program? Thinking of checking out their prices this w/e or next!</p>
<p>onetogo—the car program is really easy and worked really well. I think I just had to type in my Costco card and then the specifics of the car I wanted. An email arrives very quickly referring you to a dealer affiliated with the Costco program. Now, the catch is that they will refer you to the dealer the next town over, or that is how it worked for me. I would have had to drive past the nearest dealer to the next one away in order to achieve the price offered. The savings were significant (10%, I think, but perhaps I am not a savvy car purchaser). The dealer happily discussed terms over the phone. </p>
<p>I ended up taking the emailed quote to my closer dealer and while he was not happy, he matched the price quoted by the Costco-affiliated dealer. It may be that someone who is a better negotiator may have been able to achieve the same outcome, but the car I was buying is not widely sold so I did not have a lot of negotiating power, or so I thought. The program is free. You may want to check prices locally yourself so that you know what combination of options you want and how they should price out. This way, you will be able to evaluate whether or not the Costco referral is a good deal. </p>
<p>The program is just a referral and you pay for the car directly. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s great info CT1417 - very helpful.</p>
<p>I was just at Costco the other day. The list of items I buy there is fairly short, but still worth the membership price. The 2 lb bags of Starbucks French Roast coffee (beans) top the list! Also plain seltzer by the case, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crumbled feta, dishwasher soap, sunblock, roasted almonds, and a few other items. We actually bought a flat-screen TV there in the spring, too.</p>
<p>I usually stroll through the clothing section, and once in a while find something. Last year I found a great corduroy blazer. The other day I picked up a really nice cardigan sweater, 90 % cotton/10 % cashmere, for $19.99. I had to dig for a Small, but they were there.</p>
<p>CT1417 - you might be surprised (as I was) but for some reason the gun safes are a HUGE seller this year. DH (Costco guy) and I were discussing it yesterday!</p>
<p>Almost always buy my blueberries at Costco; I wash the container of them when I get home, dry them, then store them in a different container. I eat a heaping handful of blueberries every morning with my breakfast, so I go through the container before any go bad.</p>
<p>I do have one gripe about a consistently bad product. I usually also buy my eggs at Costco. I ran out a few days ago, and decided to pick up a dozen at our local grocery store to bide my time until I got back to Costco. I always buy large eggs, but when I compared the size of the ones from the local grocery store to the ones from Costco, the ones from Costco were definitely not large… more like medium-sized eggs. Anyone else notice a difference in Costco egg sizes?</p>
<p>teriwtt–I buy Costco’s organic eggs and they do seem smaller than non-organic supermarket eggs but I have not compared size to supermarket organic. We buy two containers of those blueberries a week.</p>
<p>AL34–that is frightening. We live in a fairly densely-populated part of the state. I don’t want to ponder this any further! But what about the keg fridge? Are many people installing those and if so, I am not being invited to the right parties!</p>
<p>I actually noticed the opposite on the eggs. I usually get the blue 2 pack - total of 3 dozen eggs. Noticed the other day that they were extra large - have they always been extra large?? A dozen at the grocery store is gone in no time between eating and cooking so I like getting the larger quantity.</p>
<p>I am also a fan of the blueberries. Here though,they are not the best selection at this point in the season.</p>