It’s “organic time” at Costco

Growing up, although I always enjoyed fruits and vegetables and ate salad with most dinners, my house was certainly not one of the “healthy” ones. In fact, I remember friends loving to come over for the snacks (in addition to my company, of course :-)) because we always had an assortment of ice cream, cookies, chips, and candy (side note: a friend and I used to play a game in which we would ask each other questions and then, for each answer, we would “win” a piece of candy). We did our grocery shopping at the standard places, such as Stop and Shop and Star Market. I only went to “those natural stores” with other people’s families. In fact, Trader Joe’s was a real novelty when it appeared in a neighboring town at the beginning of high school.

However, over the past several years, there has certainly been an increase in the number of organic food products in almost every store, with most of them having special sections for the all-natural products and an assortment of organic fruits and vegetables. Although I am not particularly concerned with the organic nature of most things (I just can’t worry about everything and it seems that the recommendations about what is and is not healthy are always changing), I do tend to like a lot of the organic products, as I think they are well-made, often produced with higher quality ingredients. But…they tend to be very expensive. When I can, I buy some of them at Costco…for example, the made-for-Costco granola by Nature’s Path (Product Review: Kirkland Ancient Grains granola), the almond butter (Product Review: Kirkland almond butter), peanut butter (Product Review:Kirkland organic creamy peanut butter) and salsa (Product Review: Santa Barbara mango peach salsa) but even at Costco, they are generally quite a bit pricier than the non organic varieties. And, for most goods, I just can’t justify spending that much extra.

The good news: every summer, Costco discounts many of its organic products. They have a booklet highlighting the products, put a special display in the middle of the store, and discount the items roughly $1.50—3.50 off).

I was there yesterday and saw a lot of items that I had never noticed before—so it helps to have them displayed specially. A lot of them looked very good.

The sale goes until August 13^th, so check it out!

Some items in particular that I am interested in and would like reviews of if you have tried them:

Nature’s path Coconut cashew butter granola

Sea Salt chickpea snacks

Kashi cinnamon harvest wheat squares

Dr. Praeger’s harvest veggie burgers

What are your thoughts on organic vs. nonorganic?

Worth the extra cost?

Do you choose them for taste, health, environmental, or some other benefits?

Did you know about the organic sale at Costco?

What products have you or will you be trying?