shoestring gringa

Most everybody we know belongs to one or the other of these consumer emporia, not because their prices are so great, but because they carry certain items that just can’t be found elsewhere.  The items on our usual list are few but critical:  Kitty litter, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, cod liver oil caps, paper towels.  Sometimes we’ll splurge on giant jars of marinated artichoke hearts, jamon serrano (similar to prosciutto), or the occasional find in the liquor department.

We’ve been bouncing back and forth between the two, being too cheap to join both at $40 a year (that was a year ago, who knows what it might be by now with inflation raging).

We started out at Sam’s, because when we first moved we had a card from the states that worked in Mexico too.  Then last year we were lured to Costco by their fabulous, irresistible deal on jamon serrano.  Sam’s was selling single packets for about ~$12 US, and we discovered Costco had boxes of 10 packets for less than ~$25!  So, no contest, we migrated to Costco.  They also have both 5-liter jugs of regular olive oil, and 2-liter jugs of extra-virgin, whereas Sam’s had only 3-liter jugs of extra-virgin, which I would (extravagantly) use for frying and everything.

However, we’re thinking of migrating back when our card expires, because of the kitty litter problem.  The Costco product is perfumed to the point of inducing nausea, and we’re about ready to renounce our jamon serrano habit to see the last of it.   Another thing I won’t miss is Costco’s wasteful, annoying, mile-long paper towels.

But we will miss the artichoke hearts.  And the 5-liter olive oil.  Maybe we should live dangerously for once and just cough up for membership in both.  The way things are going in the global economy, who knows if they’ll even be around this time next year?