So, this was our first visit to a Costco in the UK.  There were a lot of things that were similar but there were a bunch of new products that made me long for my giant pantry and freezer back in the US.  I’ll just have to pace myself, I guess.  We decided that we would buy a few things, even though we are in a temporary flat (which we’re leaving tomorrow) without our usual kitchen items, so it is harder to cook.  As a result, we got things that we knew we would be able to make or use by the end of the week or could easily take with us, like cheese and crackers.

Pringle Men's Socks

Pringle Black Men’s Dress Sock – This is the one item that we actually wanted to get because Dave needed some nice socks to wear with his suits and the majority of his socks are still in transit.  And we were really happy that they had a coupon for these even – 25% off 2 packs – but we only bought one pack so we missed out on that that deal.  Oh well.  In any case, the socks are nice, basic black socks.  They are neither too thick nor too thin, which is nice when you’re walking a lot to and from the tube (subway, I’m trying to pick up the lingo).  The socks are made of cotton with a bit of lycra to make them a little more comfortable to wear.  I don’t know what else is important in a sock, but they seem like nice socks.  At Costco you can get a box of 8 pairs of socks, which is great because that is enough to keep you in socks all week long.  And if you use the coupon and buy 2 boxes of socks, you’ll have almost enough for a whole month of work days, plus you’ll save 25%.  8 pairs of socks for £9.99; with coupon save £2.49 per pack on 2 or more packs.  Item #: 0090512.

Jacob's Biscuits for Cheese

Jacob’s Biscuits for Cheese - If you like crackers and cheese, or crackers and something else, this is the box of crackers for you!  There are 8 different types of crackers so you get a nice variety to have for just about any occasion.  And more importantly they’re all good.  So, the 8 types you get are:  cheddars, digestives, choice grain, water biscuits, Cornish wafers, cream crackers, high fiber cream crackers, salt & cracked black pepper bakes.  Some of these are round and some are squares, so you have a lot of options if you’re trying to come up with different toppings.  I loved the cheddar crackers, but the cream crackers are really delicious too.  Honestly, they all taste yummy with some cheese on them.  I even like the little plastic box that they come in because it is a great way to store your crackers without them getting stale.  And you’re going to need the storage since there are approximately 115 crackers in this box.  115 crackers in 8 varities for £3.19 (£4.19 – £1.00 coupon).  Item #: 0106525.

Sliced Cheddar Cheese

Mature Cheddar Cheese Slices – Since we bought all those lovely crackers, we needed something to put on them and this seemed like the perfect accompaniment.  I love real cheddar cheese because its got that strong tangy flavor but it isn’t so over the top flavor-wise that it masks the flavor of everything else.  Plus, it’s very good for melting, say when you’re making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.  In the temporary kitchen we have, there aren’t a big variety of knives, so getting something that was pre-sliced was the best bet for us; no one wanted to lose a finger slicing cheese since we don’t know where the nearest ER is.  The slices are nice and thick too, which does make them great for putting on crackers.  However, they do break kind of easily which doesn’t really matter to us because of how we were using them.  Of course, if we were trying to do something fancy with them, we might have to rethink how we handled these slices so that they didn’t crumble up and look a mess.  1 kilograms sliced cheese for £4.49.  Item #: 0101580.

Hot Italian Style Pork Sausage

Riverway Foods Grandma Porco’s Italian Style Pork Sausage – Oh these are so delicious!  We had them with pasta and they  were outstanding.  We broiled them and they got a great crunchy outside and were yummy and moist inside.  And they’re hot and zingy, like all really great Italian sausages should be.  I’ve missed having hot Italian sausage because our Austin Costco only had ‘medium’ spicy sausages.  I think these are so good because of how they are made.  They use coarsely minced hand trimmed prime cuts of fresh pork which has been seasoned with garlic, Italian herbs like oregano and fennel (I think), as well as red chili flakes, and then all of that is stuffed into a 100% natural casing.  The addition of the red chili flakes is certainly how they get the nice kick, and the natural casing is what allows the sausages to brown so beautifully.  I always use Italian sausage in my lasagna and I’m thinking this would really be outstanding with all that cheese.  Of course, it is also good just mixed with buttered pasta, like we had it.  Or, you could make a killer sandwich with these, some melty provolone, and a nice roll.  Or, you could remove them from their casings (which is what I do when I make lasagna, obviously) and make some killer meatballs.  Honestly, I could think of so many ways to use good Italian sausage but it’s making me really hungry so I need to stop.  These aren’t as long as the sausages in the US so they’re a little more manageable and it’s certainly easier to fit them into a zip top bag to store too.  1.2 kilograms (18 sausages) for £4.85.  Item #: 0100590.

You may have heard about the recent recalls as a result of possible salmonella bacteria contamination in a flavor enhancer added to lots of different types of foods.  The recall started in the United States and has now spread to Canada too.  Apparently, there is a worry that a hydrolyzed vegetable protein that is used in a wide variety of foods by Best Food Flavors of Las Vegas, NV, may have been contaminated with salmonella.  Currently, 56 food products made by Basic Food Flavors that contain the hydrolyzed vegetable protein have been recalled in the United States.  Over the last week, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced a number of recalls of food products that were made in the United States and distributed in Canada.  So far, there have been no confirmed cases of illnesses related to any of the recalled products in either Canada or the United States.

There are a couple of products that Costco sold through their Canadian locations that have been recalled as a result of this investigation: potato chips and stir-fry mix.  Here are the full details on the recalled products:

• Imperial Stir Fry, Item # 16914 – This recall is for best before code dates of 11 August 04 (August 4, 2011).  If you have any of this product, return it to Costco for a full refund.  For more information, contact Best Food Flavors at 1.888.641.9349.
• Hawaiian Kettle Potato Chips, Item # 762459This recall is only for the Sweet Maui Onion flavored Kettle brand chips.  They were sold in a 908 gram package with a UPC code of 0 11594 03201 8.  All Best Before code dates from 10 MR 09 (March 9, 2010) to 10 JN 07 (June 7, 2010), inclusive are affected by this alert.  This product has been distributed in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  If you have this product, you should return it to Costco for a refund.  For more information, contact Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. at 1.800.463.3783 (9:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).

For more information about all products in Canada that have been part of this recall, you can visit the CFIA’s website.  To find out what products sold specifically through Costco Canada have been a part of this, or any other recall campaign, you can visit the Costco Canada Product Notices webpage.  Currently, no products sold at Costco in the United States have been a part of this recall, however, if you want to keep up to date on such things, you should visit the Costco U.S. Product Notices webpage.

For the full news story:

• CBC News: Canada Expands Recall of Flavour-Enhanced Foods

Finally made it to Costco!

It took us two weeks, and felt like at least 6 more than that, but we finally made it to Costco this weekend!  We picked the one that is closest (according to Google Maps and obviously not the Costco.co.uk site) to our soon to be new flat; it’s the Chingford Costco.  Eventually I’ll probably try to make it to a couple of the other Costco locations, just to compare them and see what the others are like.  But it was like coming home and also totally foreign, all at the same time.

Still about 20 minutes to wait...

We decided to go on Sunday, because I figured that might be the best weekend day for my first UK driving experience.  Traffic was pretty light when we left but had certainly gotten more aggressive on the way back.  But obviously we survived and so did the Zipcar…phew.  It took about 30 or 40 minutes to get there, however, I’m sure some of that was down to us completely not knowing where we were going and me driving like a timid 90 year old woman.  I’ll do much better on the next trip, I am sure.  Sadly, because I was paranoid about how long it would take and driving there in general, we got to Costco almost an hour before they opened at 11 am.  But we weren’t alone in the parking lot, not by a long shot.  There were people there even before we got there!  And there was an absolute mob by the time the doors opened finally.  Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it in the US, not even around the holidays.  The Costco in Chingford also has underground parking, which is really nice for those rainy days.  Though, it seemed to me that most everyone preferred the surface parking, even though it was really cold, of course it was a really sunny day.  But then, I guess you couldn’t eagerly watch for them to open the doors from the underground parking.

Opening Hours by Membership Type

I guess the first big difference is in the opening hours.  In the US on Sunday and during the week Costco opens at 10 am and on Saturday they open at 9:30 am.  Here, though, they open at 11 am on Sunday and 9:30 am on Saturday but they don’t open until Noon during the week (for individual members) and 10 am for trade members.  And apparently, even if you are an Executive Member but have an individual membership, you are treated just like the Gold Star members; all trade members get better opening hours (Executive or Gold Star) than individual members.  Though, I wonder how well they enforce that because they seem kind of lax about it in the US.  Also, I wonder where we fall because our card says neither individual nor trade on it.  I just wish they opened earlier on Sunday though because  I think that would have helped alleviate some of the huge crowd but I’m sure they have a reason.

Slowly, slowly filing into the store finally

When we finally got to go into the store, and it took quite a while to funnel all of those people into the store, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  But similar to our stores, they have the same basic store layout with the fence and those items right there and then the electronics as the first section you see.  Then there are the aisles of  household items along the wall; clothing, shoes, books, DVDs and office supplies and health and beauty items were in the middle; the food was in the back and along the aisles on the far side of the store.   The store was really similar to those in the US, though maybe not as big as some of them, which isn’t all that shocking.  They have a similar selection of household and decorating items, though they certainly had far more major appliances than we have ever had in our Austin location.  They didn’t seem to have much women’s clothing or men’s but more kid’s clothing, I think.  The liquor is mixed in with the food but they seemed to have a nice selection, and apparently they can sell wine and spirits right in the store, no need for either to live in their own separate store which is the case in Texas.  They had a really nice mix of fresh and frozen foods, as well as a good selection of packaged items.  We took so long browsing through the rest of the store, that we didn’t get enough of a chance to look through the stuff in the middle, but that is what future trips are for, I guess.

There were several things that I can’t wait to try out though.  While there is certainly overlap in some of the products available, there’s also a big, big difference in the sorts of items they sell here.  The food section has of course all kinds of new and exciting things to try.  You can really see the influence of Indian cooking on the items in the store, I thought, because amongst other things there were like 4 or 5 different varieties of basmati rice.  Plus, there were big jugs of soups, sauces, and chutneys for making various items as home.  Another nice difference was in the bread aisle you can get the usual sliced sandwich breads but they also have naan, pitas, chapatis, tortillas (which surprised me), crumpets (or English muffins, which didn’t surprise me) and these very cool ready to bake breads.  The ready to bake stuff seems really great to me because it’s French bread mainly, and I’m not whipping that up myself at home but I can pop in the oven for an almost fresh, homemade bread feeling.  They still had the Costco cakes and cupcakes, which made Dave happy.  So, I guess I’ll eventually be trying to find room in my tiny freezer for some frozen cupcakes.  They also had a great selection of fresh fruits and veggies, and the prices and quality both seemed as excellent as you expect from Costco.  They certainly seemed to have a wider selection of pork and lamb cuts available (and I’m not even talking about the 5 or 6 different kinds of bacon you can buy).  And the beef was amazing looking!  It’s all from Scotland and the Aberdeen Angus cuts, in particular,  looked mouthwateringly beautiful.  Oh yes, and while we’re talking about great things from Scotland, they had some nice looking fresh salmon filets that we will certainly be buying in the future.  But they also had a wide selection of smoked salmon.  Yum!

Clean carpets, thanks to Costco

There were so many things to see that I could ramble on all day probably.  But I won’t.  There were a couple of things that we were really glad to see there, like Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate Brownie mix.  They have a lot of the same Kirkland Signature items too that we use all the time, though I didn’t see the liquid laundry detergent.  And they have Bounce, which makes me very, very happy (laundry woes of non-soft clothing currently).  Plus, there were a couple of things that we don’t buy all the time but will be picking up on our next visit (once we have moved to our permanent flat) including a set of 6 Global knives and a Dyson vacuum cleaner.  Plus, they have German Black Forest ham!  We totally fell in love with it when we were in Germany and you really can’t get it in the US, so I’m looking forward to trying that.  Heck, we might even try out the haggis too!

All in all, it was a successful shopping trip to our first UK Costco.  We did buy a few things, but that’s a separate post, and would have stayed to try out the food court but just ran out of time.  Next time, I’m going to be sure to allow enough time to deal with the crowds of people and still get a hot dog and a soda.

Does anyone know if the coupon books in the UK are mailed out, or do you pick those up in the stores?  We found one in our basket so we were curious about how to get one in the future.

Recently there was a news story on CBS News about a lawsuit that will force manufacturers to disclose the levels of PCBs (or polychlorinated biphenyls)  in fish oil capsules.  The worry is that these levels are extremely high which is incredibly unsafe, not to mention illegal, because elevated PCB levels can lead to cancer.  So, a group of environmentalists in California brought a lawsuit against eight supplement manufacturing or distribution companies to force them to disclose the PCB levels in their fish oil capsules.  The eight companies are:  CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, General Nutrition Corp., Solgar, Twinlab, Now Health, Omega Protein and Pharmavite.  The suit claims that all of the companies are violating California’s Proposition 65 by not informing consumers about non-zero levels of PCBs.  In their initial testing conducted by the Plaintiffs, they found that levels of PCBs in supplements for popular fish oil products varied wildly:  from about 12 nanograms per recommended dose in the best performer to more than 850 nanograms in the worst performer.

KS Fish Oil Capsules

So, this got one of my readers, Steve from NJ, wondering about the levels of PCBs in the Kirkland Signature Fish Oil Capsules, and naturally if he needed to be concerned about taking them.  Luckily, Costco isn’t one of these companies and was more than willing to give him all of the relevant information when he sent a Customer Support query using the online form at Costco.com asking about the manufacturer and PCB levels for Kirkland Signature Natural Omega 3 Fish Oil 1000 mg.  This was the response that he received:

Kirkland Signature Fish Oil omega-3 fish oil products use only the oil from wild ocean fish, and do not use oil from farm-raised fish. The fish oil is derived from salmon, sardines and anchovies. Each batch of fish oil is processed using state-of-the-art molecular distillation or absorbent technology to assure high levels of purity. All batches of fish oil are guaranteed to pass the stringent standards of the CRN (Council for Responsible Nutrition) Omega-3 Monograph. The CRN’s standard for PCBs are no more than 0.09 mg/gram and no more than 0.1 mcg/gram for mercury. In addition, the fish oil products meet the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) omega-3 fish oil purity standards as well as comply with all standards prescribed by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

We are unable to provide vendor or manufacturer contact information for our Kirkland Signature products.  If you have questions regarding one of our private label products, please contact our Customer Service number at 800-774-2678.

While they won’t tell you who the manufacturer is, they are willing to disclose the PCB levels.  So, if you had been worried or concerned about the safety of your KS fish oil capsules, now you have the information you need to make an informed decision about their safety.  And thanks to Steve for sharing this information with everyone!

Of course, you do have to wonder about how bad the numbers are for the manufacturer’s and distributors that won’t release this information.  If they’re not illegal, why don’t they just disclose it?

The new Costco Coupon Book runs from March 11 – April 3 and has some pretty good deals in it too.  Lots and lots of Clorox cleaning supplies it seems to me.  But I guess it is getting to be Spring cleaning time (though I really can’t believe it is already March).  And for all of you that have been wanting to try the Kirkland Signature baby products – wipes and diapers – now is your chance to give them a try and save some money too ($4.00 off and $5.00 off, respectively).

If you haven’t gotten your coupon book yet, but want a full preview of what you should wait until next week to buy, you can view the March 2010 Costco Coupon Book as a PDF.   There are 85 coupons in this latest issue for use in the warehouses or at Costco.com, plus another 14 items that will have instant savings deals (no coupon clipping necessary).  There are some good standard coupons, like $70.00 off a full set of Bridgestone tires, lots and lots of cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, and napkins, laundry products, and facial tissues, toothpaste, body soap, the usual compliment of vitamins and health supplements, as well as OTC medication.  There are a few computer deals too.  Some of the instant savings deals are really great as well, such as the Little Giant Ladder and Duracell batteries.

The following are the deals that I am going to be sad to miss out on the most (or at least the items that I haven’t written about a ton of times before):

• Gladware, 24 count or Glad Press ‘n Seal Wrap, 3 – 140 foot rolls, $2.00 off; limit 5 - The Gladware containers are okay but the Press n’ Seal Wrap is the really awesome item on this coupon.  If you haven’t tried this you really should.  It’s better than regular plastic wrap because it doesn’t get all stuck to itself before you have a chance to get it on the container.  Plus, it makes a way better seal.  I used some of this at my mom’s house right before we moved to London and now I’m hoping that they have it here or I’m going to have to make her get some and put it in her luggage when she comes to visit.  It seems better at sealing things up than either cling wrap or tinfoil.  I also thought it seemed like it was easier to seal back up after you opened something.
• Jarlsberg Cheese, 2.2 pound wedge, $2.50 off; limit 2 – Oh it hurts me so much to be missing out on this coupon!  I love this cheese and we buy it a lot because it is a good multi-purpose cheese.  You can have it in slices on sandwiches or crackers, you can melt it for things like fondue, or you can make some really yummy mac and cheese with it too.  It’s just a nice cheese that isn’t too assertive, but has a nice nutty taste that plays well with anything.  We buy this when we are going to make fondue (yes, more often than you would think since we aren’t Swiss) because it is a nice big hunk at just over 2 pounds, and you can then add a little of some other type of cheese (Gruyere or Emmentaler is what we use) to get a good mix.  But the best thing is that it is a quality cheese and will cost way less than if you bought it at another store.  The last time I wrote about this cheese at the end of 2008, it was $4.45 per pound.  Of course, it can also make a really tasty grilled cheese sandwich, especially when you pair it with the Oroweat Potato Bread.  Yum!
• Fellowes Shredder DM-12CT, 12 sheet cross cut shredder, $20.00 off; limit 5; instant savings deal; on Costco.com too – This is something that you don’t even need to bother clipping a coupon for, you just get the great deal.  If you don’t have a paper shredder, I really must ask why not?  Maybe Dave and I are paranoid but we shred bills and things like that on a weekly basis to avoid any possibility of identity theft.  This particular shredder seems to be the updated version of the one that we have.  It is really great because it can shred through a big stack of bills or credit card offers without even breaking a sweat.  Plus, it can also shred through things like staples which can sometimes cause a shredder to freak out.  Also, it will shred credit cards or CDs, as well as paper clips.  What more could you ask, really?  I was cleaning out an old filing cabinet of bills from several years ago this past summer and had a stack of things to shred that was enormous (an entire file cabinet drawer full of bills, receipts, credit cards and staples), but the great Fellowes shredder handled it all quite quickly and I only had to take a break once so that it didn’t overheat.  It will protect itself from overheating by shutting down for a time so that the motor can cool down; which is better than burning it out for sure.  And once you are done shredding all of your paper, I’ve heard it is great to use for composting.
• Little Giant 17′ Megalight Aluminum Ladder, ANSI Type 1A Duty Rating, Multiple Positions, $30.00 off for a final price of $169.99; NO limit; on Costco.com too – I write about this every single time they have a coupon for it because it is just simply the best ladder ever!  It really is unbelievably light-weight for being a 17′ long ladder at just 35 pounds, so it is very easy to move around.  Of course, part of that ease comes from the fact that it folds up to be only about 4 foot tall by maybe a foot wide; very compact.  The really marvelous part is how flexible it is: 24 different positions in all.  You can use it for everything from a step ladder or taller A-frame ladder to an extension ladder, there’s even a way to use it as scaffolding.  We have used it for everything around our house, including the dreaded staircase ladder (scary, but it didn’t move at all).  If you have a house or do any kind of business where you use a ladder, you really should get one of these.  And if the ladder by itself isn’t enough to entice you, maybe all the accessories will be.  We bought these cool little platforms this summer (also at Costco) to go with ours, you can easily slip them over the rungs of the ladder and then you have a nice little work platform.  They make doing long jobs like scraping wallpaper much safer and much easier on your feet and knees.  When you want to get off the ladder you just slide the platform in and can use the rung as normal.  They’re also useful if you need to set tools or paint nearby while you work on the ladder.  On the manufacturer’s website, this ladder sells for $360.00, thus making the price of $169.99 a total steal!  They often have a sales rep in the stores demonstrating the ladder and all of the accessories too, and selling the accessories at very good prices (and they get shipped right to your house too).  You can get the full information on the amazing ladder on the Little Giant Ladder website.
• HP 15.6″ HD LED Widescreen Laptop, $100.00 off for a final price of $699.99, instant savings; limit 5; on Costco.com too - I’ve told my mom she should update her notebook with one of these.  She’s not a power user, by any means, but needs a nice reliable notebook that she can easily use and have the added assurance of the Costco 2nd year guarantee and technical support too.  Plus, this one has a webcam and microphone, so it’ll be much easier for her to chat with me via Skype now that I’m in London.  This isn’t a notebook that you’d want to move around a lot or take on a business trip probably, since it weighs 6.34 pounds.  However, it is a great home office computer for the average user.  It has an Intel Core i3-330M Dual Core Processor , with 4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, a 512MB NVIDIA graphics card, DVD±R/RW, Wireless 802.11b/g/n, as well as Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN.  It also has an LED screen with a 1366 x 768 native resolution.  The LED screen will give you a brighter screen that will also use less power, and thus keep your battery going longer.  It’s also Energy Star qualified.  The laptop also has a 5-in-1 integrated digital media card reader and a built-in low-light webcam and a microphone.  It comes with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium and Microsoft Works.  A few other things it comes with (that I got from the HP website):  Built-in HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection, which detects if your notebook is being dropped and locks your hard drive to help protect your data, LightScribe technology for designing and printing silkscreen-quality labels on DVDs and CDs.   For the full specs, you can find it online at Costco.com now.  Unfortunately, if you buy it through Costco.com you will have to pay an additional $19.49 for shipping.