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We’ve been pondering whether to join Costco Wholesale Club. Generally speaking, a way to buy food in bulk–both to save on cost and cut trips to the store–appeals to me. I do also have one very fond memory of an epic shopping trip at Sam’s Club with my mom as a teenager, and we stumbled upon what could only be described as a pallet of medjool dates. Heaven! However, as a family committed to eating unprocessed, local food as much as possible, we are undecided about the discount price club movement. Would we be able to purchase enough to justify the $55/year membership fee?
I set out on the internet to discover the opinion of fellow real foodies. A few articles are positively persuading me that it is a decision that would make sense for our family’s desire to eat real, sustainable food:
- 5 Great Deals at Costco
- From the same author, Costco: Affordable real food?
- Real Food & Green Living Items at Costco
- List of organic foods and prices at Costco
- Another list of organic deals (I think this one is regularly updated)
- Yet another list
- You can find a list of recalls right on their website, demonstrating transparency
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- They handled a recent berry recall well by offering free Hep A vaccines
- They pay their employees well too!
- As an aside, here’s an interesting story about how they got started
They do seem to carry plenty of organic products! Who knew?! Based on the articles I read, I have decided to give it a shot. Here’s my shopping list (not all in one go, since we’re still trying to go unprocessed and local as much as possible, but these are the products I could see us buying at some point):
- Kellygold grass-fed butter and Dubliner cheese
- organic sugar
- organic coconut oil
- Gilt organic unbleached flour
- Newman’s Own caesar dressing (the hub’s absolute favorite, must-have salad dressing)
- organic strawberry jam
- organic peanut butter
- organic tomato sauce & diced tomatoes
- Harry’s organic creamy tomato basil soup
- organic carrot juice (the girls love it and think they are getting a treat!)
- Annie’s organic fruit snacks (I’m not proud, but they are excellent tools of bribery. Look away!)
- Clif organic fruit rope (ummm, organic fruit by the foot? heck yeah!)
- TruRoots sprouted rice and quiona blend & sprouted bean trio
- Tazo tea
- raw honey (they carry Nature Nate’s, which has a nice explanation of what raw honey is
- organic frozen produce (peas, corn, edamame, etc.)
- Amy’s frozen lasagna
- Morningstar frozen veggie sausage
- Alexia organic frozen french fries
- Larabars & Clif bars
- raw nuts
- Mary’s Gone organic crackers
- canned fish (tuna, sardines, salmon)
- Kirkland Toscano olive oil (see this guide that gives Costco oil a thumb’s up)
- Made in Nature organic preservative-free dried fruit blend
- steel-cut oats
- almond butter
- organic ketchup
- vanilla beans
- Izze soda
- Better than Bouillon
- white vinegar
- baking soda
- eco-friendly dish soap
- Oxyclean
- cat food, wet and dry
I’ll report back with how it goes and will make an attempt to calculate my savings. In the meantime, tell me, are you a member? Do you love it?
Image Credit: Steve Lovelace