Costco Local Products

[lax2mia]

Given that there are few truly national supermarket chains, I figured Costco would be a good place to use as a sample to show how national chains cater to local clientele.

For example, in the greater Miami area, Costco stocks the following products which may or may not be particular to the area but seem like they'd be unique to here:

Kirby black beans
Del Monte hearts of palm
Costco-made Guava cheescake
Costco-made Flan
Queso Fresco
Fresh Plantains

I'm curious to see what Costco stocks in other parts of the country that are specific to that region.

[susans]

The Costco in Signal Hill, CA sells Newhall Coffee Company coffee, which is roasted in, wait for it, Newhall, CA.

I've been wondering if the Kirkland Brand coffee, which is roasted by Starbucks, tastes like Starbucks coffee. I hate Starbucks coffee, so I haven't bought the Kirkland.

[Cathy]

The "Meridian" for Kirkland by Starbucks is a bold flavored coffee. You can kind of smell it if you squeeze the bag though the vacuum hole thingy.

Starbucks has at least 15 different coffee bean roasts-any day you can walk in and see there is a "bold", "mild" and "decaf" flavor of the day. This Meridian is definitely one of the "bolds". There isn't any one "Starbuck's coffee".

[Cathy]

I am now addendum-ing myself, as I am sitting inside a Starbucks air conditioned establishment. There are 26 coffee beans, 6 of them are de-caf, divided into Latin America, Africa/Arabia and Asia/Pacific as well as Multi-Region Blends and Dark Roast Blends. The staff here says that Meridian sold at Costco is none of those sold at Costco.

[susans]

Sorry, I was not thinking clearly when I wrote Signal Hill; I meant the Costco on Tampa in Northridge.

[AGENT FOODIE]

i like the costco in maui. they have all these snacks made in hawaii that you can't get back in california. plus hawaiian made seat covers and hawaiian spring water,

[Shayna Madel]

Costco in Texas carries Fischer & Weiser (? spelling) raspberry chipotle sauce, but they don't carry it in the NY area.

[mamamia]

The Phoenix area stores carry Hickman's Eggs, a family friend and longtime egg ranchers. They also showcase a local candy-nut purveryor a few times a year.

I've been to two Costcos in Mexico - lovely tequila selections.

[Nancy Berry]

Yesterday, I bought some beautiful wild Copper River sock-eye salmon at the downtown San Francisco Costco (10th St. and Harrison.) It was a whole salmon, head and tail removed, cut in half lengthwise, filleted, pinbones completely removed, skin on. Both pieces of salmon were in the package which weighed about 3 1/4 lbs. They were selling it for $9.99 per pound. My daughter and I shared the salmon and each grilled one of the halves last night. We were both very satisfied with the results -- moist, tender and flavorful.

[monku]

Today at the Loz Feliz Costco (Los Angeles) I'm looking in the open freezer case and notice a 2 pound box of Kobe-Wagyu strip steaks I think it said already cooked for $99.

[kcchan]

They have that in the San Luis Obispo, CA Costco as well. Oh and at the SLO Costco, they have Splash Cafe clam chowder from Pismo Beach.

[monku]

I was at the Splash Cafe last summer and they said they were going to carry the chowder at Costco in SLO.

[imhungryletseat]

At the Holbrook Costco (Long Island), they carry Blue Point (a local microbrewery) beers; mighty tasty!

[kcchan]

At the Costco in Mountain View, they have cases of Anchor Steam beer!!!

[lax2mia]

We get Presidente from the Dominican Republic at the Miami Costcos.

[Vexorg]

Up here, we live right near where Costco is based (in fact, the one in Issaquah is right across the street from their corporate headquarters) so on occasion, we'll get trial runs of new items in the food court (for example, several years ago they started serving chile cheese baked potatoes at the one in Kirkland, although those didn't last long.) They also do something in this area known as the "Seafood road show" that alternates between different locations where they bring in a bunch of fresh regional seafood with full-service, rather than in pre-packaged containers like they normally have. And although not food related, we also have Costco Home here, a Costco warehouse full of furniture which is one of only two that exist currently (the other one is in Arizona.)

The Costco in Issaquah also used to have a Krispy Kreme style donut production line in the bakery, until an actual Krispy Kreme moved in nearby. I think I actually liked the Costco ones better myself...

[ziggylu]

I used to work at the Costco corp office in Issaquah and it is a test location for lots of stuff since it's right there and easy for the buyers to watch.

Is the chocolate shop still in that location? And the coffee roaster? I was hoping they'd roll out the coffee roasters to all location but they've never made it to Arizona...

(the baked potatoes came from the UK warehouses("jacket potatoes")...they're a big item in the food court there but apparently didn't work here. Too bad...I'd rather have a baked potato than pizza or a chicken bake...)

[Vexorg]

Actually, I don't think the coffee roaster is in rhe Kirkland store anymore (they did a big remodel of the store and moved the bakery to the opposite corner of the warehouse, and the pharmacy now occupies that particular area.) They do still do chocolates though, and I believe they might have even expanded that a bit.

[Vexorg]

As long as this thread is being dug back up, I thought I'd point out that the Costco in Kirkland appears to be stocking Mexican (cane sugar) Coke right now, for those who might be interested. I passed on it since I'm not drinking caffeinated beverages right now, but it was interesting to see that being sold.

[Nancy Berry]

Here in San Francisco we get:
Artisan breads from Acme and other local bakeries
Mexican Coke (in glass bottles) made with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup
deeply discounted See's Candy gift certificates
a number of locally made sausages and salumi
fresh cooked dungeness crabs (in season)
moon cakes (in season)
shrimp wonton soup (frozen)
Filipino loganisa sausage

[septocaine_queen]

When I was in montreal, the costco food court had lobster rolls.

[ipsedixit]

I got to get myself to Montreal ... how much in CAN were the lobster rolls?

[anhdeluxe]

We have built-to-scale replicas of Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument rendered in white and milk chocolate at the Costco near the Pentagon here in the DC area. I lugged a white chocolate capitol hill cross-country for Christmas one year.

[monku]

FYI:
top selling Costco item in the US is the Kirkland toilet paper.
top selling Costco food court item in the US is the $1.50 hot dog & drink.

top selling Costco item in S. Korea is Australian beef chuck roast
top selling Costco food court item in S. Korea is the combination pizza

http://www.costcoconnection.com/conne...

[monku]

If anyone can be a fan of Costco its me (I'm a shareholder too).

Wherever we vacation we always seek out a Costco as part of our sightseeing.

This year the Costco in Cabo San Lucas...beautiful location with an unobstructed view of the ocean. Bought some great Mexican coffee beans at a great price. I had a $100 bill or I thought I could charge it, but their membership cards are tied to the peso. I was about to pay with that US C-note and noticed the cashier was going to give me pesos for change. Luckily my wife had almost the exact US change to pay.

I'll stock up my freezer with untrimmed tri-tip from the Santa Maria Costco when they have it on sale at $1.99/pound. Always bring an ice chest when I'm in the Central Valley.

My brother tells me their Costco in Cinncinati carries freshly baked Boudin sourdough bread from San Francisco....and we can't even get it in Los Angeles.

Last year 3 Costco's on the Hawaiian Islands. Most impressive was the Costco in Oahu near the airport. A whole case dedicated to Portuguese sausage and stacks and stacks of Cooke Street Hawaiian aloha shirts. 2 pound bag of 100% pure Kona coffee for $18.

[justagthing]

How can I forget, in HI, you can also get Li Hing Mui Mangos-yummy

[monku]

Too many great Hawaiian items and surprising everything they carry is the same price as on the mainland when you figure the shipping costs involved--making everything in Hawaii more expensive.

[justagthing]

Hawaii-fresh poke bar...they give samples too and about 4-6 varieties
Richmond, BC-poutine and teriyaki in the food court area, canadian maple syrup, canned white tuna

[lax2mia]

POKE!!! I had no idea. I was constantly going to Safeway for poke fixes. Had I known they had it at Costco I would've OD'd on tuna.

[KaimukiMan]

Costco Hawaii also sells portugese sausage, kalua pig, kimchee, various macadamia candies, and various other "local" items.

[kivarita]

For stuff to take home, the Kona Costco has Thunder Mtn. Kona coffee for a fraction of the Safeway/KTA/Foodland prices and chocolate covered mac nuts in six-packs.

[mlgb]

Several years ago I belonged to the one in Palm Desert/Palm Springs. They carried the local bakery's bread, and a local Mexican chain's prepared meals. And a much more extensive and expensive selection of alcohol and wine to appeal to the wealthy snowbird set.

[ipsedixit]

Well, here in Southern California during Chinese New Year Costco sells mooncakes.

Can't imagine they would have mooncakes in Miami ... do they??

[lax2mia]

Nope, no mooncakes. But we do get these large Easter eggs with toys and candies that are usually sold in Brazil and Argentina. And we also get gefilte fish.

[monku]

I believe the Alhambra, CA Costco you're speaking of is one of their top grossing locations. You forgot to mention they have a whole aisle of just Asian products.

[Dr. Debs]

Which aisle is that? I shop there every other week and I've never seen it??

[monku]

I don't know which aisle # it is (you might ask someone who works there), but its an aisle that has all sorts of Asian sauces, different rices, dry goods and Asian products.

[monkuboy]

Yeah, haven't you ever heard of "mooncakes over Miami?" lol.. I saw those mooncakes earlier in the year. Didn't look very appetizing but I'm not a fan of those things to begin with. They weren't limited to the Alhambra location, either - I saw them at other ones, too.

[jlawrence01]

I don't see many local products in Costco in the Chicagoland area. In fact, instead of local cheese and sausages from Chicago or Wisconsin). all the items are trucked in thousands of miles fron the west coast. Ditto on most produce even in season.

[kcchan]

In Chicago Costcos, they sell the wonderfully thick pita breads - not the pocketbread types, but the flatbread that gyros come on at Chicago gyro places. YUM!

[drfu]

Very interesting concept lax. I will check out the local Costco with this in mind.