The best place to get a cheap meal is no longer your local McDonald's, Burger King or other fast food establishment - it's Costco. The warehouse store, known for its enormously sized products and low prices, is also known for good eats at even better prices.
The first way to eat there, and certainly the least expensive, is by stopping in for free samples. The store gives out samples of many of its products every day, with the highest concentration of sampling stations set up around meal times. The range of foods is huge, form coffee (roasted in-store) and cookies to crab cakes and beef taquitos. Even without making a second round through the tables, there is a lot to eat.
The slightly more legitimate way to grab a meal at Costco is to stop by their, for lack of a better term, food court. They only sell a limited number of items, including pizza, hot dogs and Polish sausages, but the foods taste great and are an incredibly good deal. The pizzas, which are a whopping 18-inches in diameter, sell for about $10 (or $1.99 per slice) and the huge hot dogs (with soda included) are $1.50. That's a complete fast food meal for next to nothing. Costco also carries a couple of salads, for the slightly more health conscious, as well as the very excellent berry frozen yogurt sundaes. They are enormous cups of frozen yogurt, layered with a delicious berry sauce (with real berries in it) and cost only $1.55.
Granted, the prices may vary a bit from state to state, but the deals are undeniably good. Some people have even been known to organize office carpools to go over there at lunchtime. The phenomenon can't be uncommon because the store sells 57 million dogs/sausages and 11 million pizzas a year. Those are impressive numbers for anything, let alone a simple, inexpensive menu.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-08-2006 @ 6:16PM
Alex said...
As a poor college student, Costco is a god send. Their Chicken Bake is awesome (You can even buy them inside frozen). The Salads are tasty. Smooties, top notch and the polish sausage, is very comforting. I think I am going to marry the Costco Food court now ... after crusing the free samples.
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6-08-2006 @ 6:38PM
BG said...
I just moved back to the California from the New Jersey. Here, we get Polish sausages, out East they get Italian Sausages at Costco.
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6-08-2006 @ 6:44PM
Kristina said...
A deal, yes. Problem is, I just don't like the hot dogs. They taste artificial. Not that anyone needs to eat a hot dog, anyway. Plus, I can't forgive them for dealing away with hot pretzels, the best salty bready snack food there is.
For an incredibly good deal, look no further than an Ikea cafeteria. Ham, eggs, and bacon for .99 in the morning, or a whopping $3.99 gets you a meatball dinner, with a roll on the side. Add a buck for soup and salad, and you're out the door for $5.00.
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6-08-2006 @ 6:46PM
Kristina said...
Further, is there anyone more annoying than a shopping hanging out waiting for Costco samples? Okay, yes, I understand you are waiting for that burrito to heat up or that polish sausage to fry up in that pan, but would you mind terribly pushing your big fat cart OVER THERE, away from the product displays that I'm trying to BUY? They come in hordes, linger, eat in front of the tables without moving along, take multiple pieces to friends and families in other areas of the store, get in the way of shoppers actually trying to fill their carts, and generally are a menace. You know who you are. The next time you take your dixie cup of juice, would you please "move it along" and don't drink and chat with the demonstrator? Thank you.
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6-08-2006 @ 7:45PM
jOHN said...
Don't forget to ask for saurkraut(sp?). The ones I've been to have the infamous topping for their polish dogs.
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6-08-2006 @ 8:08PM
Lisa said...
My husband and I stopped at Costco for lunch while vacationing in Hawaii. It was the cheapest meal we had there.
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6-08-2006 @ 8:17PM
Zach said...
I'm with Kristina on this. IKEA is the ultimate in food deals. I think it is $2.50 for 2 hot dogs, a large 5oz bag of chips, and a drink? A buddy and I used to scrape together whatever change we could find in the sofa and see how much food we could get at IKEA.
I just hope my heart will not remember this and be kind to me in my later years.
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6-08-2006 @ 9:11PM
LeiAtLarge said...
Does anyone else remember the BBQ sandwiches? They took that off the menu many years ago but I maintain that it's the best thing they've ever had on the menu. Bring back my BBQ sandwhichs!
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6-08-2006 @ 10:02PM
Nicole Weston said...
I haven't been to every single Costco, but (for anyone interested in the hot dogs) as far as I am aware, they all serve kosher, all-beef hot dogs. Mostly Hebrew National.
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6-08-2006 @ 10:37PM
Sofia said...
The Costco frozen yogurt parfait/sundaes are SO delicious. I like going with my roommate just for that : )
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6-08-2006 @ 10:48PM
Chuck said...
I'd steer clear of the "ice cream" at the Costco. Based on experience in Southern Ontario, Canada, the soft serve's comprised mainly of edible oil. Hotdogs smell fantastic, though I'm mostly veg. so I haven't tried one. The Poutine (I'm guessing THAT is a Canadian thing) is so crap but in the best possible way - crap fries, crap cheese curds, crap beef gravy, winning combination for $2.99 CDN. Don't be shy with the ketchup, folks!
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6-09-2006 @ 12:34AM
joan said...
bring back the hot pretzels
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6-09-2006 @ 1:20AM
Bruce Dearborn Walker said...
I go to Sam's club (it's closer) and they have pretty much the same menu. However, I usually gravitate to the whole roasted chicken. It's five dollars for a good sized bird (3+ pounds), blackened and surprisingly well seasoned. If I'm hungry or in a hurry I can take it outside and picnic on their lawn, away from the car exhaust in the parking lot, or I can drive the ten blocks to my house and have an actual meal with my own trimmings. I can get four or five meals out of it, then the carcass goes in the stockpot for a couple more.
Although Hebrew National hot dogs are pretty much the only ones I'll eat. Much tastier, and, having worked in a slaughterhouse during high school, I know what goes into non-kosher dogs.
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6-09-2006 @ 2:34AM
Joe said...
I use to like the Costco hotdogs but they switched to a crappy bun, no sesame, cornmeal instead, which gets all over everything, so I pass unless I'm desperate.
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6-09-2006 @ 3:36AM
Harry Hoeckelberg said...
I too am a Costco junkie. Look at the amount of chicken in that 'bake' and check in the meat dept. at what it would cost. I love the sausages but wish there was an opton for a wheat bun. I am retired an the samples and food are helpful. Now if I could stop spending so much on other things, it would help. They also have a lot of bagged frozen foods that are great for singles.
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6-09-2006 @ 9:01AM
Besr Silber said...
"The best place to get a cheap meal is no longer your local McDonald's, Burger King or other fast food establishment - it's Costco."
This has been the case for quite sometime now, it's not a recent thing.
I agree with Joan, bring back the pretzels.
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6-09-2006 @ 9:49AM
Brian said...
We don't have a COstCo here, but we have BJ's and they are the same way - lots of good cheap food. Their hot dogs are Best's Kosher Hot Dogs (which they sell) and are great! Nothing like an Icee and a hot pretzel while shopping!
Brian
http://candyaddict.com
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6-09-2006 @ 11:02AM
Chris said...
In the UK, I make a point of stopping at Costco just to have their hotdogs. We get Chicago's Best brand, though not having eaten all the Hotdogs in Chicago, I couldn't possibly say whether they are! At £1.25 they're terrific value. They also do Pizzas that are unbelivable value as well - £6.99 for an 18" pizza. If I'm feeling greedy I'll have a slice pizza (£1.35) AND a hot dog, but that leaves me feeling like I want to die afterwards...
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6-10-2006 @ 6:39PM
Robyn said...
I love the Polish sausages at Costco even though they give me a tummyache.
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6-22-2006 @ 7:29AM
Willie Booger said...
But the question is::::Do you WANT to eat @ Costco? Ack. You people must be nuts to eat such garbage. That is WHY it is cheap folks!
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