Costco Q3 and Q4 2016 - new finds, disappearances, etc.!

Just noticed that the last Costco thread was for Q1 and Q2, so I thought I’d start a new one for the end of the year. Since we just moved from Queens to Yonkers, I no longer have my choice of Costcos. When we were in Queens, I could easily visit Astoria, Rego Park, Westbury (Long Island) and would occasionally venture farther afield to Melville, Long Island. Now I’ll be shopping at the Yonkers Costco for the most part, although New Rochelle and Nanuet aren’t SOOOOOOOO far away, and even Port Chester and Norwalk are possibilities. The Wayne, NJ store isn’t too far if I want one with wine/liquor either.

However, Yonkers is by far the most convenient store, and unfortunately I have been very unimpressed with their selection thus far. Last week I went to buy my usual two-pack of 18 extra-large eggs, only to find that it has been replaced with an unwieldy 24-pack of large eggs, no extra-large eggs to be found at all. No red bell peppers, only mixed colors. Their produce selection in general is smaller than Westbury’s, as is their meat selection. No cryovacs of flap meat, no pork belly, and instead of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, they’re now offering boneless, skinless thighs and legs - I haven’t tried these yet, but I can’t see how leg meat is going to be easy to grill the way thighs are. Peet’s Coffee isn’t available. Etc.

On the positive side, I did enjoy a sample of an all-beef kielbasa in hot dog-sized servings that I haven’t seen elsewhere - it’s a bit pricey at around $7.50 a pound, but good enough that I bought a package and will likely buy it again. Their beef prices are a bit lower than Queens/Long Island and their selection of non-grocery items seems pretty good.

Has anyone had any luck calling their local Costco and requesting items that they have purchased at other stores nearby?

Stew Leonard’s up the road has a variety of very good eggs , cage free, organic, brown, white lg, xtra large, jumbo… they are frequently on sale … I stick to the eggs, naked beef, lamb, milk, string beans some additional produce and the russet potatoes. I picked up a few lbs of starbucks beans from costco yesterday which are on sale. They change up the coffee here :frowning:

Yes, I like Stew Leonards’ egg selection but I HATE going in there - it’s such a zoo, all the time. Actually, I hate that entire shopping complex due to the way the roads and turns are laid out. We’ve been at Home Depot a lot lately and every time we drive in there I curse the a$$hole who planned the layout.

Good to know they switch the coffee selections around - maybe the Peet’s will show up. I may try calling the store and seeing if I can request it. I’m not a fan of Starbucks’ French Roast, which is the only variety Costco carries to my knowledge. Luckily I found a decent Sumatran Roast in the bulk section of the Hastings Foodtown at a fairly reasonable price - it will do until I can find a source for Peet’s!

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Agreed, may be a descendent of the idiot who designed the Deegan disaster area at the Cross county pkwy Starbucks French roast tastes okay at $14.50 for 2.5 lbs. I used to buy the gevalia. Some of the local supermarkets carry peets but it is very expensive.

Never have figured out who is in charge of the merchandise mix or how much autonomy an individual store has, but certainly within Queens there are differences (e.g., we go to Astoria & Rego Park & definitely see more items for the South Asian community in Astoria & more for East Asians in Rego Park) between stores.

The website suggests these contacts for questions about what’s available:

https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1176 (in person, at the membership counter sounds promising)

As for new or relatively new items, am just hoping the avocado oil, which I never noticed in Astoria until this year, stays around (so far, yes). Good stuff.

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Sorry, should have said that the membership counter sounded promising for requesting items you’ve seen at another Costco.

I haven’t used costco.com, but their site includes some groceries… Might be worth calling their customer service to see if they can help you out…?

We’re about halfway between the old Costco in Hazlet (NJ) and the new one in Marlboro. (The old one is so old is used to be a PriceClub!) Alas, both seem to be dropping items right and left.

Neither has the Kirkland chocolate chips I like more than the Nestle. The new one used to have a lot of packaged kosher refrigerated stuff; the selection seems to have decreased. The old one discontinued the dried cherries; at least for now the new one still has them.

Neither has any sort of reasonable DVD selection any more, but I suppose I can’t complain, because all stores are cutting back on their DVD sections.

I notice they have added women’s trail socks, but I’ll stick with the men’s. (Hey, socks are socks!) The men’s four pairs are two matching pairs of black and two of blue, so if one (or even two) gets a hole, you still can make a pair. The women’s are four different patterns, so as soon as one gets a hole, that pair is done for.

I don’t know if it’s seasonable, but they don’t have any grapefruit (although the last ones were vary disappointing anyway). They also have fewer choices in the oranges/mandarins/tangerines.

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I haven’t found anything new and interesting at Costco in a while. However, I made the error of going out shopping today at the Yonkers store (the traffic was all going to Stew Leonards, and it was a HOT MESS), and as I was wading through the nightmarishly packed aisles, I spotted some new Abruzzese meatballs by Carando. They are all-pork and packaged raw, ready to cook. The 2.5 lb package had 16 meatballs, so 2.5 oz each. I threw them in the oven until they reached 145 and then simmered in tomato sauce until cooked through. MAJOR WIN. These are really delicious - full of sausagey flavor and great texture despite very little filler (only 1g of carbohydrate per ball). Price was right at only $8 for 2.5 lbs - you can barely buy the raw ingredients to make meatballs for that little. I hope these stay around!

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What part of the store were they in? Fresh meat perhaps?

They were actually in the refrigerated section where they keep things like chicken sausage, kielbasa, lunch meat, etc. In my store these are located next to the far end of the fresh meats, across from the kosher cold cases.

Thanks! My Costco is a zoo at the best of times so this helps having a starting point.

One last hit from 2016 - a limited edition cheese from Cabot, called Mad River Reserve. It is described as a cross between cheddar and swiss, which I would say is fairly accurate. The texture is more cheddar-like than swiss-like, but it melts better than a true cheddar. Less sharp than the Cabot 3-year white cheddar that I usually buy at Costco but the nice nutty swiss undertone makes up for it. Really good, and only available at specific Costco locations. Yonkers had it two weeks ago, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else in Westchester.

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