Eating Your Way Through Costco

Before I had a family, warehouse shopping clubs were a foreign country. I didn’t speak the language of “buying in bulk”, and it took me a year to go through the 64-pack of toilet paper.

Then my son was born, and we started ripping through a case of diapers a week. As soon as my C-section scar healed enough for me to do heavy lifting, I strapped my baby’s car seat into a doublewide shopping cart and got us a Costco membership.

I’ve been a convert ever since.

What I’ve come to love about Costco is, it’s not just great for feeding a family. It’s also great for shopping with them. Anyone who’s ever had to weather a toddler tantrum (and the stares that go with it) just long enough to get through the grocery checkout and get the hell out of there knows what I’m talking about.

As a mom of three, I’ve learned the best way to shut a kid up is to feed them. That’s where Costco’s free samples come in. All throughout the store, they’ve got carts lined up with folks doing food demos on everything from chips and guac and pizza to mini meatballs and brownie bites. Time it right, and your children can be chewing the whole time you’re there.

I like to go around lunchtime. It’s one less meal I have to make then scrape off my floor tiles. The twins and I literally eat our way through the store. Jack and Nina are happy to be shopping, and the promise of snacks give them an incentive not to slap each other as they ride side by side in the double cart. I’m happy I’m able to stroll leisurely and make calculated choices, instead of running through the aisles grabbing whatever I can before someone has a meltdown in my own reality mom version of Supermarket Sweep.

The free samples also get my kids to try new things. On a recent visit, Jack and Nina scarfed down egg rolls, Brie and pierogis. If I’d tried serving them any of that at home first, they would’ve made faces and spit it out. Now, they beg me to buy this stuff.

They are totally hooked on the crab salad, which was a surprise to me, and to Maureen Lipnicki, the Hazlet Costco “sales adviser”  (aka food pusher) for Gold Coast Salads. A Highlands resident, Maureen tells me she is, “shocked at the palate of young children. The little ones will request the smoked salmon spread!”

I don’t dare let them try the Maine Lobster spread. Some things must be rationed for Mommy.

Food demo days and hours can vary for independent vendors like Gold Coast and the coveted David’s Cookies, but samplers who hand out Costco’s own brand of fare are typically there from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Food-grubbing veterans like my children know that the best stuff comes out right before big holidays. That’s when you can stuff your faces with fudge, cheesecake, and yummy dips, not to mention pies, cookies, and tons of other surprises.

On days when I want to get a “proper meal” into the kids, we hit Costco’s concession stand. At $1.50 for a foot long hot dog that the twins can split, it’s the deal of the century. And it comes with a free-refill fountain drink. Very hard for children to whine while slurping straws.

I use to dread dragging the kids to the supermarket, but now it can actually be fun. On rainy days, going to Costco even counts as an activity.

Sure, I probably spend more than I did when I was racing through the grocery store in a blur, but now that I have a family of five eating me out of house and home, I need to bulk buy just to have stuff in the fridge.

And we go through that 64-pack of toilet paper in record time.

 
THE DETAILS:

Hazlet Costco 2835 Route 35 South, Hazlet NJ 07730-1516

Ocean Township Costco 2361 Route 66, Ocean NJ 07712

Freehold Sam’s Club 320 W Main St, Freehold NJ 07728