Review: Cost-Co

This is the blog that reviewed family trips to Taronga Zoo, the Easter Show, Big Bash cricket, and the Footy. Yet nothing prepared me for the toughest and most ambitious adventure yet.

On a Saturday afternoon, just before Christmas. Pray for me.

Before you head to CostCo it's important to be prepared by making a comprehensive shopping list, like this one I already shared on Facebook:

We also prepared in other ways, like filling water bottles for the kids.

Last time we went to CostCo they complained of being thirsty. "I want water!", R and J whined. The best I could offer was, "if you just wait five minutes we can buy you a lemonade".

Offering my kids lemonade when they actually asked for water was not my strongest parenting moment. Even if it's a good deal including free refills.

I also prepared for the day by giving them a very important lecture explaining the concept of "free samples".

We arrived around lunch, so hit up the food before the store. We got two slices of pizza, and I cut both into thirds to make normal sized slices to share between the adults and R. J wanted a hotdog instead. Baby O had already eaten, but would gum some doughy pizza crust. Good plan!

Then after ordering, J declared he'd rather have pizza. A moment later he then decided it's better to alternate bites between pizza and the hot dog. Meanwhile R forgot he was eating his first slice and started eating a second. So basically the kids ate part of everything, and mum got stiffed (dad wisely staked his claim early).

After food, we go in. I'm always taken aback by the randomness of CostCo. This is a store that literally covers your end-to-end shopping needs...

From the cradle...

...to the grave.

They also cover things you don't need. For example, there was a huge display for Con Air. I must admit the BluRay box looked very different from how I remember the classic film.

Must be the Director's Cut.

Now for the important part - a list of samples I ate as we wandering around the store:

• Smoothie (hawking a blender - despite me labelling the green drink "Hulk Smash Juice", the kids did not approve)
• "Bubble water" (hawking Soda Stream, kids wanted it to remove the Hulk juice taste)
• Shiitake mushroom crisps (Imagine drying out a mushroom to remove all moisture, texture, and flavour)
• Brie cheese and crackers (a big winner with the kids)
• Quiche (we actually bought it... samples work!)
• Dips - tzatziki and taramasalata (definitely a good one for the kids reactions, "that's not hommus", they cried in disgust)
• Chocolate mousse (literally one spoon each, yet J still ended up with it all over his face, looking like the Joker from Batman)
• Roti (kid approved)
• Ham (kid approved)
• Salads - potato and coleslaw (pretty good for pre-made, but you don't win friends with a 1kg tub of salad)

This wasn't even everything on offer. Saturday is a very good sample day.

At some stage, my wife promised the kids ice-cream at the end. This prompted being asked, "when can we have ice-cream?", about 50 or so times before I cracked and said, "you'll get it when we're done, but there will be no ice-cream if you keep asking about it!"

So J immediately said, "I have a question, not about ice-cream."

"Yes?"

"When will we be done?"

At the register, I checked my shopping list:

SUCCESS!

Oh, and we also bought a few other things:

We did already own the pram.