You can get USDA PRIME beef at Costco. I don't know of any place, at least around the Twin Cities, that sells USDA prime beef because most of it goes to high end restaurants. I didn't think there would be much difference between prime and choice beef, until I tried Costco prime New York strip steaks. Expensive? Yes - and oh so worth it on the grill.
Prime beef alone is reason enough to be a Costco member.
We are big Costco shoppers. We buy more from Costco than probably aall other stores, supermarkets combined for household supplies and groceries. the meats are pretty fantastic. What I appreciate about Costco is they generally don’t sell crap. If it’s Kirkland extra virgin olive oil, it really is good olive oil, not colored canola oil. If it’s clothes or electronics they are decent quality and a better than fair price. Hard to get burned at Costco. Even for diamond jewelry and motor oil.
I usually hold my nose and try to forget it’s owned by a phuggin obummer loving liberal. But, we buy everything in bulk. Usually spend near a grand when we go....though it’s only about 3 times a year. Going to the nearest Costco is a 165 mile drive....each way, and a overnight stay. Usually bring the little motor home, and hit Sam’s Club, while we’re in town! memtb
I bought my new set of hearing aids there for about half the price of the dedicated hearing aid sellers. I was quoted $3700 at the local shop and Costco had their store brand for $1599.
Eye glasses, motor oil, tires, car batteries, walnuts, dog food, toilet paper, bottled water, vitamins and supplements, sun dried tomatoes, and a rotisserie chicken. Cheese, pesto, some veggies and fruits (who needs a 20 lb box of cara cara oranges?). Gas, and sometimes they have stupid low priced stuff like right now they have a 10x10 dog kennel with a roof and cover for $488. As mentioned, the nice part is that if it's in Costco, it's very rarely junk, and always competitively priced. Saves a lot of time shopping around.
We buy bulk stuff at Costco, oil, suger, cheese, and sometimes burger if we run out of local beef. Spices and bulk goods are usually pretty good deals.
Tikkanut: I and my complete extended family have shopped at Costco since 1983 - that's 36 years of happy consuming from me and mine! I think they have the largest and consistently finest tasting selection of fine beef cuts (Prime!) I have ever shopped for. My wife and I have held several levels of membership over the years including "business". In the past 36 years of happy shopping at Costco (part of which was for our business - 26 years worth!) I am guesstimating that the wife and I have saved in excess of $30,000.00 on various goods. And that is not counting the countless times I stopped in for a giant hot dog and a soft drink (for a dollar twentyfive!) saving me even MORE money on dine out lunches. Some of my favorite Costco items, that no one else has comparable's at anywhere near a comparable price, are their Gold Seal Prime Beef, Albacore Tuna packed in water, fresh roasted Chicken, Cashews, Apple Pies, Cherry Pies, their freshly hand separated Chicken meat (if their oven roasted rotisserie chicken does NOT sell in TWO HOURS it is taken in the back and the meat is removed by hand and vacuum bagged!) and countless other personal items. There are now 770 Costco warehouses world wide and anyone not able find one or who does not know where one is, is simply not looking or blind! Costco is doing a LOT of things right. I have shopped at Costco's first store and at Costco's largest store! Anyone interested in quality merchandise at great prices with a great stand behind your merchandise policy needs to be a Costco member - or keep wasting your money and shop elsewhere. Virtually ALL of my family out in the Puget Sound area buy their fuel at Costco. Sadly the nearest Costco now that we have retired here in SW Montana (21+ years ago) is 105 miles away so we keep a separate Costco shopping list and all our neighbors when they are heading for Costco kindly offer to get anything we need on their trip. We do the same. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
You guys probably have lots of better options down there but up here its one of the better places for quite a few things. Still have to watch the prices, they do overprice some stuff but over all pretty decent and quality is usually okay too. We go maybe once a month or a little less, but its a 2 hour drive for us.
Costco has good quality stuff at usually good prices. They also have a good return policy and stand behind what they sell. If everyone shopped based upon politics then why haven’t “Republicans” gotten with the program to compete? Perhaps they’re too interested in being something they aren’t and trying to fool their constituents while at the same time ripping them off selling cheap Chinese crap. 😉
Great prices on most everything, their brand items from wine to detergent are very good,
Best prices on gasoline plus I get my car / house insurance through Costco, great price and service when I had the need was excellent.
For both my new truck and wife’s new SUV saved me $$$ using Costco PLUS I received a $700 gift card each time.
Another thing is for executive member level the 2% back on purchases, ends up being a lot more than the cost of the member.
Add to that I stupidly brought our new LG Dryer on sale at Home Depot I saved maybe $30, 3 months later I get the letter telling me my 90 day warranty was up and for $250 I could extend it for 30 months (total of 3 years).
At Costco you always get minimum 2 year free warranty and if you use the Costco Visa it is a 4 year warranty.
We don’t buy much beef but we do like theirs and chicken thigh filets, TP rated best for septic systems and RV use, gasoline cheapest in town and best quality. We buy lots of stuff at Costco and sometimes it beats the military commissary for price and almost always on quality. Good prices on beverages too.
Jim, I was heading over to Billings a few weeks ago to go to Cabelas and got sidetracked by the recommendations here for Scheels. I had never heard of them before (I've been to lots of Cabelas over the years) so I stopped by that place first. I never made it to Cabelas...Scheels in Billings is not bad, they have a fish tank (and a ferris wheel for the kids) and they had a lot more of the shooting stuff I was looking for than Cabela's has had of late. If I never go to a Cabelas again, it'll be because there's a Scheels nearby.
Macadamian Nut Clusters - and I have over 100 said emptied containers, some now holding nuts and bolts and stuff in the garage to prove it. Those are about $18 per container, and my collection is most of our 9 year addiction. A 10 step program ain't gonna help!
But the bastids in Anchorage quit carrying Almond Snickers and flex-frame glasses (3 pack readers for under $20 - I'd buy two or 3 packs at a time as my wife and I both use them, lose them, and break them.
The 8 years we lived in Kotzebue, I hit Costco every time thru (about twice monthly, tho sometimes as much as 6 weeks apart) , dropping $ 200-800 every time. For meat variety (beyond self-supplied fish, moose, caribou), I'd buy bulk packs of pork chops and chicken, and vacpak them into smaller units before freezing. I buy my jeans there (about $20/pr), when I can find my size. 32/32 are hard to find. 45/31 or 36/28 and the ilk not so much. There are either a lot of , or hardly any pus-gut buyers out there, since those kind of sizes are usually about all I find on the shelves lately. There is a lot of stuff in Costco not available in Bush stores at any price. Did you know 5 pound bricks of cheese in one's briefcase or pack looks a lot like C4 to the scanners? But who packs around 10-15 pounds of C4?
I once price checked a large box of large sized milk-bones for my Lab. About $11 at Costco, $30 at Kotzebue AC store- and they only had one.... the dog had to go without for a whole week (poor thing!) until my next trip out. So yeah, depending on your circumstances, it can be well worth that $50 a year membership, or whatever it is.
3 free 50# airline bags is the rule within/with Alaska, so I carried tape and a bathroom scale in the car and often packed coolers or bags in the Costco parking lot just before going to the airport to catch my flight. Tho I got pretty good without the scale, seldom being more than 3 lbs off either way. Usually within 2. I'd put a couple items on top that I could stuff in my coat and carry on if I had to lighten up a bit. It got to be an art!
With my carry-ons, I could get about 200 lbs of groceries out to the bush "free" with my airline ticket and overall roughly 2/3 the price of any comparable items in the village stores if even available. While Bush living, I carried Executive membership (twice the regular maybe?), and the refund more than paid for itself. Now that we are back in civilization and only go there a half dozen times a year, we have reverted to standard membership as we are buying much less there, and it is 300 miles round trip. The Executive would no longer be cost effective. We only hit Costco when in Anchorage on other business but even then it saves us money.
Costco is closer than all but one grocery store to me... about 3-4 minutes... and I use it a lot.
There is never an issue if something fails or needs to be returned. They have black cod fairly often... not the biggest and best, but still mighty impressive fish for far less than we were paid for them "in the round" almost 40 years ago, dockside.
Their roasted chickens sell the way they do because they are good and cheap.
Their cheese selection is impressive and far cheaper than local stores, item for item.
We bush dwellers that have to shop for 6 months or more at a time are grateful for places like Costco.
I prefer Sam's myself, but unfortunately Sam's closed all their Alaska stores. So we're stuck with Costco. We have a small chain of locally owned warehouse stores that's pretty good, one of which is in close proximity of my up north house (35 mi), but none convenient to skAnchorage which is my launch point to Aleutian Hell.
I mail out non-perishables and bring a cube cooler back full of Fletcher's bacon and Jimmy Dean.
Plus, you'd be hard pressed to find better quality meats than the Kirkland stuff.
They have the only beef I've seen in a store worth taking home in years. Also excellent pork, wild-caught seafood (not all, but plenty), good coffee, spices, nuts, dog food, produce, wine, port; it just goes on and on.
They have American-made 70% Merino socks that are all I've worn for years, for $3 a pair. I have a really nice leather coat I bought there for $80 about ten years ago you couldn't touch in a department store for anywhere near that. I get my omeprazole there for a fraction of what it would cost elsewhere. I don't take vitamins, but they've got tons, name-brand and their own.
When the China Doll went home for a visit a few months back, she had about 90 pounds of American nuts, OTC drugs, chocolate, The Socks, and fish oil; all very expensive in China, for gifts (also about a dozen Harley-Davidson shirts).
We drop about $7-$800 there every three months, and it save us time and money by eliminating a bunch of trips to the grocery store. They also pay their people very well, and are one of only a couple of sources for eyeglasses not part of the "cartel" that controls prices.
Some people need to get a grip that "USDA Prime" isn't a brand name though, and there are other places you can get it.
Most supermarkets stock USDA Select grade on their meat shelves. With a section for USDA Choice as a better, more expensive option... But many may sell USDA Prime cuts at the meat counter. HEB is one that does.
While I like a good USDA Prime or Choice ribeye, nothing beats a big USDA Prime Porterhouse!
If you know what you're doing, you can watch the USDA Choice beef grades at the meat market, and pick out some damned good steaks that probably should have been graded "Prime"... I do that frequently.
The Costco here has the cheapest gas in town. I just wish they had diesel. Walmart is about the same price but their station was designed by an idiot. To get out of it, you have to drive right between the front doors and the parking lot. Shopping cart traffic is terrible. Last year, we got 4x more back on the Costco credit card than we paid in membership. Just be sure to keep it paid off every month.
The Costco here has the cheapest gas in town. I just wish they had diesel. Walmart is about the same price but their station was designed by an idiot. To get out of it, you have to drive right between the front doors and the parking lot. Shopping cart traffic is terrible. Last year, we got 4x more back on the Costco credit card than we paid in membership. Just be sure to keep it paid off every month.
Our local Costco's have added Diesel this past year.
My wife asked the Costco manager why they don't have diesel. He said that their pump islands can't accommodate all the truck traffic. They'd have to acquire more land and put in a separate station for it. I can see the problem. You really wouldn't want to try to go through there with a 40' motor home or towing a 5th wheel.
I'm in Costco free country, but they are building one an hour away in Davenport Iowa. There's been a Sam's club there for years but I never quite got on board with them either.
I might do either one if I was closer, but the last thing I joined was the campfire, a few years back...
It’s a bit of a drive for us, but we shop there a couple times a year. Good prices on quality stuff. It’s usually a pickup load of stuff and $1000 when we go. Their prices and quality of liquor can’t be beat.
It's where I'll shop for most of my groceries. Their meats are quite good, and a substantial saving over our local meat market. About the only other place I go these days is Woodman's, the nearest grocery store to me. They'll have a few thing I really like, and the liqour selection smokes Costco's.
Try their chicken pot pie once - that's all you'll need to join. We have to cut them into thirds and freeze two of them because they're huge. It is well known that they lose money on every one of their rotisserie chickens because they use premium, extra-large birds and sell them at the price supermarkets charge for scrawny pullets.
I have an electric toothbrush that uses one AA battery. A Duracell lasts me maybe a month but a Kirkland AA I just changed out was still going strong since November 1st.
Their jerky is simply fabulous, and a lot cheaper than that "sasquatch" brand.
The drawback is that everything edible is sized for a platoon, and a retired couple like us really can't use up anything that can spoil before it does. One trip to Costco and we can fill a freezer with the divided portions.
I like the 12.99 jeans, $5 chickens, and fuel. I know our Costco does Million Dollar days nearly every weekend. Not a lot of retailers in this 50-75K population area can say that.
On the other hand, their Kirkland dog biscuits made my Lab sick, and were more expensive than Milkbone. I think at the time (dunno about now), theirs was made in China, so who knows what toxins were used for filler.
Macadamian Nut Clusters - and I have over 100 said emptied containers, some now holding nuts and bolts and stuff in the garage to prove it. Those are about $18 per container, and my collection is most of our 9 year addiction. A 10 step program ain't gonna help!
But the bastids in Anchorage quit carrying Almond Snickers and flex-frame glasses (3 pack readers for under $20 - I'd buy two or 3 packs at a time as my wife and I both use them, lose them, and break them.
The 8 years we lived in Kotzebue, I hit Costco every time thru (about twice monthly, tho sometimes as much as 6 weeks apart) , dropping $ 200-800 every time. For meat variety (beyond self-supplied fish, moose, caribou), I'd buy bulk packs of pork chops and chicken, and vacpak them into smaller units before freezing. I buy my jeans there (about $20/pr), when I can find my size. 32/32 are hard to find. 45/31 or 36/28 and the ilk not so much. There are either a lot of , or hardly any pus-gut buyers out there, since those kind of sizes are usually about all I find on the shelves lately. There is a lot of stuff in Costco not available in Bush stores at any price. Did you know 5 pound bricks of cheese in one's briefcase or pack looks a lot like C4 to the scanners? But who packs around 10-15 pounds of C4?
I once price checked a large box of large sized milk-bones for my Lab. About $11 at Costco, $30 at Kotzebue AC store- and they only had one.... the dog had to go without for a whole week (poor thing!) until my next trip out. So yeah, depending on your circumstances, it can be well worth that $50 a year membership, or whatever it is.
3 free 50# airline bags is the rule within/with Alaska, so I carried tape and a bathroom scale in the car and often packed coolers or bags in the Costco parking lot just before going to the airport to catch my flight. Tho I got pretty good without the scale, seldom being more than 3 lbs off either way. Usually within 2. I'd put a couple items on top that I could stuff in my coat and carry on if I had to lighten up a bit. It got to be an art!
With my carry-ons, I could get about 200 lbs of groceries out to the bush "free" with my airline ticket and overall roughly 2/3 the price of any comparable items in the village stores if even available. While Bush living, I carried Executive membership (twice the regular maybe?), and the refund more than paid for itself. Now that we are back in civilization and only go there a half dozen times a year, we have reverted to standard membership as we are buying much less there, and it is 300 miles round trip. The Executive would no longer be cost effective. We only hit Costco when in Anchorage on other business but even then it saves us money.
And there is the Macadamian Nut thing....
They still carry them, I was in there yesterday and almost bought a 3 pack myself.
They've got the cheapest gas, a great meat department with a good combination of cost and quality, cheapest eggs and whole milk (and OK quality), and a number of items like macadamia nuts that simply aren't available (or are retardedly expensive) elsewhere.
The store here has their freezing trees in stock now. They bring them in in late Feb or early March and keep them inside. They come out of dormancy way too early, some even bloom, so when you take one home and plant it, the cold will badly stunt or even kill it.
Anybody buy ...furniture... from them ? The store in fbks is loaded with shoppers open to close ...i cant deal with that ....
We bought 2 recliners at Costco that were exactly the same as what we liked at Furniture Row and saved $300 for both. Well...not exactly. The fabric on them was actually better at Costco.
Well worth it for us, but one never knows what may or may not be stocked. About 130 miles away, and it cost me about $400 every time we visit. Cookie keeps track of prices and is always reminding me of 30 to 40% savings garnered from their grocery lines. Wish I could have bought stock in the company, as the one we frequent (Bend, Oregon) is always doing land office business.
Only time they pissed me off, I stopped for fuel and they would not accept cash.
Their pharmacy competes with Walmart for being the cheapest in town. Nobody can beat their hearing aid prices and service. Good prices on tires but they don't take appointments. You have to wander around the store while you wait.
Anybody buy ...furniture... from them ? The store in fbks is loaded with shoppers open to close ...i cant deal with that ....
We have, we bought a couple of their mattress' (Serta), kitchen table, a tv cabinet, and a vanity for our spare bathroom. None of the stuff that we bought was cheaply made.
we use sam's around here. pretty much the same deal. you have to know your prices or you could overpay because its name brands mostly. its nice when you want to buy in bulk and they have a lot of stuff. but these days with the kids grown, its questionable whether its worth it. but my wife likes the place.
On the other hand, their Kirkland dog biscuits made my Lab sick, and were more expensive than Milkbone. I think at the time (dunno about now), theirs was made in China, so who knows what toxins were used for filler.
Don't EVER buy any such products made in China!
Okay. So here goes my Conspiracy Theory. I think the Chins are trying to poison us.
There was a thing some years ago when a bunch of dogs died. Turned out that the feed was coming from China. They were using melamine to make the protein level appear higher. It turned out to be highly toxic to dogs.
I have been in one in Juneau. Had to buy food for 4 for a week. It was good stuff and I thought the price was good for Items that had to be shipped to A K. I use Sams here seems similar.
There was a thing some years ago when a bunch of dogs died. Turned out that the feed was coming from China. They were using melamine to make the protein level appear higher. It turned out to be highly toxic to dogs.
Not just Costco chicken jerky, others too. My lab kept a case of the runs while eating them. They took them off the shelves until they came up with an American-sourced brand. Problem solved. The dog biscuits are fine for my dog, and cheaper than milk bones here. He likes them just fine.
They sell an excellent port at times for a decent price, the only good port to be had anywhere around here. Another favorite of ours is the champagne mangos. Don't think I ever found a good mango in a grocery store, but these are pretty good.
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