I was a big fan of the previous fruit smoothie, and would sometimes stop at Costco just for that if I was already in the area shopping, or had a rough day and wanted a pick me up. Recently had a rough day and went to Costco on my lunch break. I noticed they didn’t have the fruit smoothie anymore and instead had a new strawberry banana one. I was a bit disappointed, but I was there so I ordered it anyway. I didn’t finish it and offered the rest to a coworker once I got back to work. I had one sip and it was just too sweet, in a bad way. I looked it up and apparently it has more servings of fruit, but somehow it tastes extremely artificial. If I end up at McDonalds I will sometimes order their strawberry banana smoothie, and this was similar, but somehow much worse? I’m not sure if I was just expecting better and it was so disappointing that maybe I didn’t give it a chance, but I will not be ordering it again. Just letting you all know in case you get curious. I enjoy the food and the prices are great, but I don’t think I’ll be going there as a treat anymore. Will probably just limit it to when I happen to get hungry while shopping there. Unfortunate, because I would probably make a special trip basically just for the smoothie about once a month. I know it’s not enough to single-handedly keep it on the menu, but still.
Thank you for your detailed write up. I’ve been going to Costco for 2-3 decades now, and I remember the cutco and vitamix demos from way back when I first started going, and if anything I don’t see them at all now. I think it definitely has to do with when I go now vs when I used to go, but I kinda figured they’d mostly stopped those. Sad to hear they’ve become a problem.
Really sorry to hear about the change in food quality/stock. My biggest gripe is the pasta. Sometimes they have a 6-8 pack of pasta, we’re not too picky about type, spaghetti, linguine, penne, rotini, are all fine, but sometimes they just have ditalini. So strange imho. Most our other staples (fruit/veg/meat/dairy) are pretty standardly stocked. I think we’re not too loyal to any specific product, more just looking for a specific food group, so we probably don’t notice the changes as much as other families. Costco also isn’t a weekly visit for us, as we have some other grocery stores we get specialty things from and I definitely notice changes in their offerings more than in Costco offerings. I think because I’ve been going for so long I don’t mind the rotations as much. I figure they’re only stocking things that they can get me significant savings on, and we’re pretty flexible with what we eat/cook. They recently dropped a packaged breakfast bar they’d been carrying for the last year+, so that was a bit of a blow I’ve yet to properly replace, but otherwise I never feel like I’m “missing something.”
Really wish farmers markets were more accessible. We technically have one within an hour, but it’s on Thursdays. Hard to even pretend that makes sense for us. If you have any soup/stew recipes you want to share, please do. I’m more of a vibes based cook, but I’m always looking to try new recipes.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the return of your cheeses and pretzel sticks.