Decrease in Jewish/Jewish Holiday Food

Over the years, I have written about much of the Jewish food that Costco carried. Some items  were always available, whereas others were carried during Jewish holiday seasons, primarily for the High Holidays (September and October) and Passover (March and April ). The brands and specific selections have changed over time and, unfortunately, more recently, they have significantly decreased.

There was a noticeable decrease in the Passover foods sold this past year. We used to be able to buy prepared kosher for Passover meat meals. These meals were easy to cook in the oven and tasted very good (not homemade but worth the trade-off for the convenience. Meals included brisket, pot roast, ribs, and turkey. Along with the entrees, we bought a variety of kugels (potato; broccoli; apple). Fish items included lox, whitefish salad, tuna, and a few varieties of gefilte fish. Costco also sold matzah, Cole slaw, macaroons, and a few varieties of cakes.

In contrast, this past year was the weakest Passover selection i have seen. Costco only carried brisket, potato kugel, gefilte fish, lox, tuna, whitefish salad, macaroons, two types of candy and two types of cake (fortunately they had the cake that I like so much (Product Review: World of Chantilly Passover 7-layer cake); I confess, we bought 10 and I am still eating them!))

The High Holidays have just passed and, again, we were very disappointed by how few options there were. In the past, we have bought challah and challah rolls, prepackaged meat meals, kugels, Cole slaw, lox, whole whitefish, and cake. However, this year they only had brisket, and lox. We have always eaten challah, lox, and whitefish for lunch on Rosh Hashanah and to break the Yom Kippur fast. Therefore, it was disappointing to miss out on the whitefish (we got excellent challah and rolls at BJ’s). It also makes me wonder about the future of the Jewish food at Costco.

In addition to these holiday foods that did not come back this year, Costco has stopped selling the tuna I loved so much and it appears that the Cole slaw has not been sold in awhile. 

These findings apply to the Waltham and Dedham stores in MA. What have the holiday selections been like in your area? Jewish/kosher food in general?