We should have known that Saturday night, an hour before closing time, was the busiest time to go, for the first time with a new membership, to Costco. To tell you the truth, I wanted to turn around and leave. It was crazy! People everywhere, noise everywhere, and shopping carts nowhere to be found. And I must say that, once we did find a free cart, I was amazed at the size of it! Oliver and I could have ridden up front in the kids' spot together, with Jess pushing.I think we were all a little overwhelmed with the Costco experience. Our first item in the cart was laundry detergent. This was a simple sell. The product was familiar to me, a size I could buy at Target. Ahh, shopping here is easy. But then we found the dryer sheets. "I'm a fan of dryer sheets," Jess offered. "Let's get some," I agreed. Little did we know we'd have to buy 492. I'll let you know in 2014 when we've used them all.
We passed up the 15 pack paper towels, the 2 gallon Pine-sol bottle, and the 50 inch thinner-than-our-laptop television (although we did look at this last one for quite some time). But there were some items I knew I had to have. The muffins are always a pull, and then there's some meat and cheese my dad had at this house last summer that we loved, and some ravioli my sister bought for a Bear Lake trip that I wanted to get. Milk was on the list, I wanted to check out the produce, and people always rave about the diapers. At one point, I was waiting for Jess to get an item, and I watched as carts of other shoppers passed by. I was amazed by some, shocked by others. When Jess came back I almost said, "Wow, it's troubling how unhealthily people eat," but I caught myself as I took a quick glance at our cart: meat, cheese, cake (disguised as muffins), and some broccoli. Not much of an improvement.
All in all, we were pretty lost in the chaos of it all. I didn't feel like I was really in control of my buying. I kinda felt like I was in the buy-big-stuff twilight zone. I need some assistance in how to shop Costco. How do you guys do it? What do you buy? How do you deal with buying 9 mangos and not knowing if you can finish them all before they go bad? I'm in awe of the possibilities, but I need some guidance.
7 comments:
This is not really a help with shopping at costco. But it is something I do with dryer sheets. You can make them last a few more years by cutting them all in half right now and putting them back in the box. I have been doing this for years. They still work to get out the static and I stretch out my dollar.
I do like costco. I have to be careful to make sure we eat what I buy.
thanks for the cutting tip, Elna. I got a page of things that dryer sheets do, one of the coolest is you can use them on a lasagna type clean up of the baking dish-it just gets all the stuck on stuff to come right off (let it soak in the pan or use it as a scrubber)
christine
I have a love hate relationship with Costco. I have done many blog posts about it.
We always purchase certain things at Costco...but we are careful about purchasing certain things. We always finish the block of cheese, eggs, milk. With some of the freezer meals, you can always take out a portion and throw the remainder in the freezer. With fruit, you just have to make sure to not get too much.
Oh...and we'll do the loaves of bread, throwing one loaf in the freezer until we've finished the other.
Ashley, we avoid Costco @ Gaithersburg on weekends at all costs. Go during weekday daytime; better yet go to the one in Frederick b/c there's never a line and very little people and the shopping experience is much much better.
agreed! on all counts. costco can engulf one's soul. and I hate those high ceilings.
however, we went to costco last saturday (right before the afternoon rush), filled up on free samples, and didn't need lunch. Definitely makes up for the soul engulfing
i never get used to the Costco crowd. and that's probably a good thing. everyone is looking for that deal, that new product, that hot item and it is pretty chaotic. better luck next time (i've heard opening time and after-school pick up time are good times to shop).
p.s. the nuts, especially the pecans are one of Coastco's strong points.
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