It's almost a given that I shop at Costco, really. It's precisely the kind of store that fits in with my somewhat laissez-faire attitude toward food politics. On the one hand, Costco is not an ideal food supplier for people who need or want to meticulously source their products. On theother hand, at least it's not Sam's Club. Sam's Club is a gray pit of despair.

We joined up with Costco a couple of years ago after reading generally good things about thecompany's business practices. We'd done a year of Sam's Club in the past, but didn't keep up with it because shopping there was a depressing chore. Nobody at Sam's Club was even remotely close to enjoying themselves - not the staff, and not the customers. Costco's no utopian ideal, but at least everyone there knows they could be doing much worse, and the atmosphere benefits accordingly.

The trick to shopping at Costco is to know where you can get things, and how much they cost, outside of Costco. Some things at Costco are cheaper. Other things are just bigger. Take, for example, avocados. Until recently, Costco was selling a bag of five large avocados for $6. And so I would buy them, because while it is occasionally difficult to use up five large avocados before they go bad, it was a better deal than the grocery store, where generally smaller avocados were usually selling for $1-$1.25 apiece. A couple of weeks ago, however, the bag of five avocados jumped to $8, and now I don't buy them. They're not cheaper. There's just more of them.

Some shit is always cheaper at Costco, though. Red bell peppers. One of my all-time favorite vegetables. And sometime around two years ago, all the supermarkets stopped selling them by the pound, and started selling them on a per-pepper basis. And never cheaper than a buck each. At Costco, they're always a buck each. Sure, you have to buy six of them, but rare is the two week period in which I cannot go though six red bell peppers. Same with crimini (baby bella) mushrooms. Always cheaper, and sold in a quantity I can use before they go bad.

I buy most of my non-pig meat and fish at Costco as well. Flank steak, which I love, is a bargain there. I once considered buying the single flank steak I needed from Byerly's because I happened to be in there. Their single, tiny flank steak cost almost as much as a two-pack of larger ones from Costco. I get organic ground beef there. Not only is it better than the standard, it's sold in three one-pound packets, not the unwieldy six pound block of doom that Costco sells regular ground beef in. Oh, and lamb. One whole boneless leg of lamb, about $20. And I can take that leg home, strip out the lean parts for one or two meals, and put the rest through the food grinder for a ground lamb that puts that fatty grey shit they sometimes sell at the supermarket to shame.

The other big thing I rely on Costco for is cheese. Their cheese selection is surprisingly varied and good. They sell large blocks of Valbreso sheep's-milk feta, one of my favorite cheeses. They have nice, inexpensive basic chevre. They have medium-quality fresh mozzarella (the Bel Giorno logs) for 2/3 the price of the exact same cheese in a supermarket. They have a bunch of different cheddars at different times, suitable for various purposes. 

The other important thing to remember about Costco is that you cannot live on Costco alone. There's some stuff they simply don't carry, or don't carry all the time, like celery, or fresh herbs. And even I, as a general rule, cannot go through onions or potatoes in the quantities Costco sells, unless I'm throwing some kind of function.

Also, and it's taken me two tries to learn this lesson - never, ever buy the six pound bag of frozen meatballs. Just don't do it. You'll use two or three pounds of the meatballs for the big thing you decided you needed meatballs for, and the rest of them will haunt your fridge for months, forcing you to eventually make meals you don't want out of meatballs you're sick of. Don't fall into this trap. Don't let my meatball sacrifice be in vain.

It costs fifty bucks a year to shop at Costco, but odds are good you'll save that much on food alone, even if you ignore the other things they sell there. The key is to find some staple items you like, can use in the quantities they sell them in, and that are either cheaper than they would be in a supermarket, or unobtainable at your regular grocery store.