Not impressed with Costco!!

With you on the light cheese...but some of their items are great. I live off the dried hashbrowns and eggbeaters. Their deli meats are very good as well, and are reasonable. Bulk chicken breasts either fresh or frozen are a staple of mine, as are the kidney beans in cases of 12.

Definitely not a one stop shop though...just one big bag of 2% cheese would rock!!!

Why would you want light or low fat cheese? Blech.

Why would you want light or low fat cheese? Blech.

Really? I don't think low fat cheese tastes all that bad.

I agree, depends on who makes it. It can taste heavenly

They have actually gotten better over the past year. I started changing my eating habits a year ago last month and since then they have actually started carrying whole wheat pasta and their chicken nuggets have been changed to whole wheat breading and all white meat. I guess it's baby steps. Regardless, they have the best produce around!

The last time I was at Costco, I noticed the same thing. I was really disappointed when I left with just a few things. They do have a great selection of produce and meats. I just wished they carried more low fat choices in snacks and other foods. I didn't know they had those chicken nuggets there or whole wheat pasta, thanks for letting me know

Costco is not Trader Joes, or Whole Foods, BUT--they do have a lot of great healthy stuff--produce second to none. Excellent seafood--except for the farmed Atlantic salmon--phooey), also organic options, protein shakes, protein bars, healthy snacks, are hiding in there, along with the giant packages of candy bars. Remember that a lot of smaller independent retailers purchase items for resale from Costco, and they have to give their customers what they ask for, so of course they carry "mainstream" products..

As for the low sodium juice option mentioned before, I have 3 CASES of low sodium v8 juice in my garage right now, purchased at Costco from last month's coupon book, when they were on special. They don't have it all the time, but I have found they are responsive. Every store has a customer comment box or a comment binder where you can leave messages about what you would like.

As for not buying food at Costco until they "change their ways"--that isn't likely to produce results, as there are plenty of other people who will continue to buy what they do stock now. A tactic more likely to produce more healthy choices at Costco would be utilizing the comment system I mentioned to communicate the changes or additions you are seeking.

I actually was at Costco tonight, and those darned rotisserie chickens smell so good, it was all I could do to make it home without stopping to cut into it right there in the car!!!:embarassed: :laugh: :laugh:

I really like Costco's produce section especailly their fresh french green beans and larger packs of strawberries and peppers and gala apples. I also get my rainbow trout and talapia there as well as organic quinoa and great valley whole grain rice. I can't get the rainbow trout or whole grain rice at my grocery store, so I like costco for some things. I like the meat at costco but definetely definetely have to watch the portion sizes! I also just purchased some awesome hummus the last time i went, its almost whipped and yummmy. I also found some split grain bread, good yogurt, egg beaters and whole eggs at good prices. This last trip was my best trip in awhile (no junk in the cart lol).

Costco is not Trader Joes, or Whole Foods, BUT--they do have a lot of great healthy stuff--produce second to none.

A little off topic, but I just found out that Whole Foods frozen "organic" veggies are imported from China! As if there is any oversight there. Here's video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ31Ljd9T_Y

Why would you want light or low fat cheese? Blech.

Really? I don't think low fat cheese tastes all that bad.

I agree, depends on who makes it. It can taste heavenly

I eat the 75% reduced fat sharp cheddar by Cabot. It's yum! and on my homemade pizza I use fat free mozzarella. I dont have any issues with them at all.

As someone said: Costco is not a grocery store--it's not a "one-stop shop" kind of place. Their business model is based on having a relatively limited number of items in low-rotation and bulk volumes. And they are going to cater to the largest possible audience. As far as the giant pieces of meat go, I have only one thing to say: Butterfly Cut. That's what I do to the chicken breasts and pork chops--otherwise they take all day to cook. I also chop up the stew meat. I rarely buy steaks at Costco, mostly because I just don't feel like shelling out $25 or $35 for one item--I only make a steak a couple of times a month for my wife and I usually just get a small cut on sale at the local grocery.

First thing when I get home is divide up all the meats and store them in separate freezer bags so everything is weighed out in the sizes I want.

That being said, I find that Costco has some awesome healthy food values. Here are just a few:

Whole wheat English muffins--about 1/2 price compared to the grocery store.
Egg substitutes
Organic eggs --50% less than in the regular grocery.
Marantha Almond Butter--ungodly cheap
Ed Smith preserves
Red Peppers
Romaine
Organic Brown Rice
Quinoa
Organic free range chicken broth--the whole case costs the same as 2 boxes at the grocery
Almonds
Guacamole
Walnuts
Spices
Canned tomatoes and tomato sauce
Black beans
TLC granola bars
Kashi Go Lean cereal
Milk
Alaskan wild sockeye salmon--about $8.50 a pound
Roasted soy nuts
Whole wheat pasta

I could go on and on. No, they aren't perfect and the complaints about limited choices could be said about a number of items, but there is no way I could have lost my weight and eaten healthy w/out Costco. I just accept as part of my routine that I go to Costco once or twice a month and then to the regular grocery store every week--I find it hard to buy fruit or produce at Costco because there are only 3 of us at home and it usually goes bad.

There is a Whole Foods right across the street from the Costco that I go to most often. Often I stop in at the Whole Foods, go around the store and taste all the samples, leave without buying anything and then drive over to Costco to shop.

Did someone call me schnorer?

I thought I posted this last night, but apparently it didn't post...............

I used to shop at Costo and Sam's club. We moved from Virginia to Illinois and I have a Sam's club right down the road from my house so we kept that membership. Costo is in St Louis and about a 30 mile drive, so we let it run out................

I like Sam's club for some things.

The US always has way better variety of lower fat items, especially cheese than here in Canada.

I found this sentence intriguing (because which country obviously has more of an issue with health problems related to obesity? Is the "light" version available because of the problem? Or is the problem partly a result of the "light" marketing?).

One of my biggest problems with marketing/packaging/ignorance is that terms "low fat" and "light/lite" do NOT mean healthy. Neither does "reduced sodium" or "no sugar added" or "low carb." Most of the time it's a marketing scam. :ohwell: It's such a shame.

You're right!

When it says "low fat", you still need to read the nutritionnal info, they often replace fat with artificial flavors that holds a LOT of sodium....
As for the coutry differences, did you know that Canada has the most sodium added to their food?

If you're talking packaged and fast foods, yeah, we (Canada) are just about the worst. Interesting, though, because our rates of high blood pressure, while not great, are still lower than the US.

Must be all the snowbanks we have to climb over!

Could be politics too.....errr wait no, just saw Harper on TV and my BP went up!! Not politics! lol

Oh Lord, that guy! What the heck is up with his hair, that makes my blood pressure rise!