The Costco Experience

I've just come back from my second-time-ever trip to Costco. It may be called something else in your neck of the woods....Sam's Club, Acre-O-Food, etc., but you know the place. That warehouse store where you shop with a pallet jack instead of a shopping cart.

There were good things and bad things about Costco. One good thing is, I didn't have to walk all over Creation. They have scooters the size of a small Hummer for us old folks to ride. The other thing is....it was Sample Day. :-)

When you go on Sample Day, go hungry. Every aisle you turn down, in the food section, there is a retiree in an apron cooking up something tasty. I started off with a taste of steak and bean burrito, some pomegranate juice, half a tempura shrimp, and a little cup of dark chocolate covered blueberries that were absolutely so good they were sinful. I was stuffed.

Good thing they make the hot dogs to go...which is another good thing about Costco. They make the best hot dogs. Hebrew Nationals. Big ol' beef sausages about 10 inches long in a soft steamy bun. I bought 4 and brought them home for lunch, not that I was hungry anymore, but I knew Dave would be.

The bad thing about these stores is the size of the products they have for sale. Does anyone really need a gallon of Tabasco sauce? I usually buy those little 2 ounce bottles and they last a year. What would anyone DO with a gallon of Tabasco? Something evil, I suspect. Maybe even a WMD? It could happen.

Now I can see a gallon of.... say.....pancake syrup. We make a lot of frozen waffles at my house. A gallon would last a while, but only if we had the waffles to put it on. So I had no choice but to buy a box of 60 frozen waffles. The syrup came in a double pack...TWO gallons. It all matched up.

These places are supposed to save you money, and I would imagine if you had a family and a freezer, maybe they do, but for me, I can go in and by the time I've bought a bag of 200 chicken nuggets, the 5 dozen Eggos, 42 lbs of cat litter, 2 gallons of syrup, a big bag of onion rings, 3 pounds of bananas and a box of exam gloves (don't ask) I've spent $100 and I still can't make a meal.

I didn't find everything I was looking for though. They didn't have a WII. Probably just as well...I would have spent $300 and still had nothing to eat for dinner.