Costco newbee with questions

[Texas Proud]

The first time I saw precooked roasted chicken was in 2000 in Sainsbury in the UK... it was like heaven!!! Cheap, ready made and GOOD..

They sold half chickens.... and the store would close at 10PM, so around 9PM they would discount them by half... so it was much cheaper than KFC.. and better...

Kind of got bummed when for a short time they decided NOT to discount them since there was a regular group of people there ready to scarf them up when the sticker hit them... they then got better at judging how many they needed and did not have as many sitting around...

I don't like it when they take their old meat that has been hanging around (not at the proper temp) and make something else out of it which they also don't store at the proper temp...

 

[TromboneAl]

We bought eight chickens at Safeway yesterday, since they are on sale at 67 cents/pound -- a price I haven't seen for a few years.

Same here: each bird gets roasted for one dinner. Next night might be an open-faced sandwich, a lunch or two of "churkey sandwiches" (like post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches but with chicken), then broth is made and used for some soup.

 

[Maurice]

...a lunch or two of "churkey sandwiches" (like post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches but with chicken)...

Around these parts they call those 'chicken sandwiches'.

 

[saluki9]

My last costco roast chicken was raw on the inside, I haven't bought one since. I will have to give them another try soon I suppose.

 

[2soon2tell]

To Nords and other military retirees I am curious how the commissary and exchange prices compare to Sams and Costco?

2soon

 

[Nords]

The "problem" with Costco rotisserie chickens is that we usually make an impulse buy from the hulihuli fundraiser by the side of the road. It never occurs to us to buy from Costco, or maybe it's just the thrill of seeing a 20-foot trailer grill smoking out the neighborhood while you're getting your purchase in a greasy plastic bag. Guess I'll have to compare prices sometime.

To Nords and other military retirees I am curious how the commissary and exchange prices compare to Sams and Costco?

It's such an arms race that we refuse to ping-pong between the two. We've been tracking prices (at Schofield Barracks and the Waipio Costco) for a couple years and they seesaw back and forth. It's almost as if they keep an eye on each other's prices and change accordingly.

We're at Costco every week for pizza night, so we make routine purchases then. We have things that we buy only at Costco (since the commissary doesn't usually carry that brand or flavor or whatever) and we may buy a loss-leader like milk or fresh fruit. If we need gas then we gas up too.

We usually shop the commissary only for staples, milk, veggies, & fresh fruit that we can buy in quantities much smaller than Costco. The commissary only charges cost + 5% so they're frequently able to beat Costco's cost + 14% + 4.5% excise tax... but not always. The base gas station occasionally beats Costco's pump prices but Costco is the state's largest gas seller and cheerfully acknowledges its use as a loss leader.

If we could consume quantities by the pallet before it rots then we'd probably buy it from Costco. But our ER convenience time is more valuable to us than a few pennies per pound or gallon, and if we're buying something at one then we probably won't drive "all the way" to the other (they're about eight miles apart).

We buy most of our furniture & electronics from Craigslist (beats the snot out of all retail establishments) but if we were buying new (like a laser printer) then we'd rather deal with Costco's liberal return policy than the exchange's "take it or leave it" attitude.

Wal-Mart is pretty competitive with the exchange stores too, and it's five miles closer...

Overall I'd have to say that big-box stores have nearly eradicated the on-base advantage in all categories.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

In case there were any further questions...

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