Like many North American shoppers, I enjoy shopping at Costco Wholesale too – from perusing its seemingly endless warehouse aisles for small household appliances, new best seller books, latest released DVDs/Blu-rays, and warehouse-sized produce packages to being mesmerized by the giant screen TVs that beam brightly as you walk into the store. Despite their selection, I’m always on the lookout for alternatives to Costco Wholesale for additional shopping choices, and for warehouse shopping without an annual club membership fee.
| These are some grocery warehouses and bulk food stores I visited while living in Canada: | |
| Big Crazy Discount Variety Stores (Richmond, BC) | carries a lot of Asian snacks and packaged food products with case lot discounts |
| Rice World – China World Supermarket (Richmond, BC) | also carries a lot of Asian snacks, plus spices and (of course) rice |
| Price Smart Foods | is a branch of Save On Foods, a typical household grocery market. However, some of their locations have several warehouse aisles containing warehouse-sized groceries like double-pack cereal boxes, super-size bags of chips to case lot packages of instant noodles. |
| Wholesale Club | is part of the Canadian President’s Choice franchise. Much like Costco, but Wholesale Club focuses on grocery and food products. |
| Bulk Barn (locations in Ontario only) |
Bulk Barn is a warehouse of bulk food bins containing nuts, baking and candy-making ingredients, grains, spices and to pet food. A friend from Ottawa, ON recommended this store, and its concept intrigued me so I thought I would include it to my list despite not having shopped there myself yet. |
| I’m still discovering new places here in Silicon Valley, but this is my choice warehouse store so far: | |
| Cash & Carry (Smart Food Service) (locations throughout USA) |
Cash & Carry seems to carry a larger variety of food and grocery items than Costco warehouse. Cash & Carry caters primarily to restaurant consumers. Some items must be purchased in large quantities, e.g. 1 gallon of mayonnaise, while there are other items that are sold individually, e.g. 19 oz. can of coconut milk. If you like potato chips, you won’t find a shortage of flavours here and (bonus!) the snack-sized chip bags are sold individually. Teas and spices are also in abundance. Cash & Carry opened my eyes to new TAZO and Tetley tea flavours. I think you’ll have fun exploring their aisles and countless walk-in freezers. Don’t forget to bring cash. |
Feel free to recommend any warehouse clubs and bulk food stores that you visit.
To keeping your pantry full!
Silicon Valley Loonies 