Costco in the UK

Costco aftercare is pretty generous with a free phone technical support line for electronic items(0800 066 5091 open 12 noon to 12 midnight 7 days a week excluding bank holidays). As long as you stay a Costco member you are automatically given a free extension on your warranty on Televisions to 5 years and Computers to 2 years. Costco offer a 90 day no quibble return policy on Televisions, Projectors, Computers, Cameras, Camcorders, mp3 players and mobile phones.

There is a catch to shopping at Costco though, Costco is not open to the public in general – only to people who own businesses and Individuals who fit into the following categories:

Current or Retired employee of:
Banking/Finance
Civil Servant
Education
Fire/Rescue
Insurance
Local Government
Medical/Health Service
Police Force
Post Office
Airline

Or Qualified as:
Chartered Architect
Chartered Civil Engineer
Chartered Surveyor
Dentist
Optician
Pharmacist
Qualified Accountant
Solicitor/Barrister/Magistrate/Advocate

Membership also requires a fee of £20+VAT for a trade membership or £25+VAT for the individual one. There is an executive scheme if you plan on spending more than £150 per month which costs £30+VAT more but offers 2% cashback at the end of the year (on items under £300). The spouse or partner living at the same address gets a card too and each additional card costs another £12+VAT (trade members only). Cards can be used at any Costco in the world (handy for cheap fuel in USA). Each card holder can bring 2 guests ie. friends and family. Don’t try to bypass the system or think you can take a look around by sneaking in because security is seriously tight! Costco can search you on your way in, they search every trolley that leaves against your receipt and they hound you down if you wander in without showing your member card! If you do want to have a look around then go to the member desk to pick up a visitor pass. You still need to pass the eligibility criteria before they give you one though.

It’s odd that the UK stores seem so secretive about who Costco are and what they sell compared to the USA where they are the 3rd biggest retailer. Even the UK Costco.co.uk website hardly has anything on it, only offers for mypublisher.co.uk. The USA site allows so many more discounts from other firms and also offers some online shopping. I’m not complaining though – at least we have the chain over here in the UK! Having visited them 3 times over 4 days I don’t know how I managed to do any shopping without Costco! I only wish that we had joined sooner so that we could have enjoyed the USA Costco in Kona, Hawaii, USA. The petrol is cheaper at Costco’s own gas station than anywhere on Hawaii Island which which have saved a few dollars on our honeymoon out there not to mention the immense amount of shopping that we would have stocked up on!

To have a glimpse of what’s on offer, here is a list of prices inc VAT (by unit where appropriate as much of the goods are sold in bulk) and a comparison lowest price elsewhere (All prices accurate as of 9th November 2009):

Store Cupboard
Lucozade Sport Still 12x 750ml (9 litres) £8.61 Asda (made up of special offer price per 100ml on 4x packs) £11.25
Napolina Tomatoes 400g 12x £5.49 Tesco (Made up of special offer 4x packs) £5.70
Skippy Peanut Butter 1.13kg £3.79 Ocado (made up of 340g jars) £5.65
Nutella 750g £2.49 Sainsubry’s £2.74
Mission Wraps 8 pack 2x £1.49 Tesco £3.50
Part baked Petit Pain 4 pack 4x £1.95 Sainsbury’s (made up of 6x packs) £2.11
Vittel 1.5l 12x £5.39 Tesco (Vittel not commonly sold so Evian brand 2x 6 pack used) £7.16
Vittel 500ml 24x £5.73 Asda (Vittel not commonly sold so Evian brand 4x 6 pack used) £7.96

Produce
Fresh Leeks per kg £1.79 Sainsbury’s £1.98
Fresh Rocket Salad per kg £5.53 Asda £11.10
Fresh Baby Plum Tomatoes per kg £3.87 Tesco £4.00
Fresh Vine Tomatoes per kg £3.32 Asda £4.00
Fresh Medjool Dates per kg £6.05 Sainsbury’s £9.04

Fridge
Fresh Potato Gnocchi 500g 2x £1.99 Waitrose (Equivalent quality) £1.49
Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella per kg £9.58 Ocado £17.96

Fridge Meat & Fish
Fresh Whole Chicken min weight 3.4kg 2x £6.69 Tesco (min weight 3kg x2) £16.74
Fresh Chicken breast Fillet per kg £6.49 Tesco Value £6.56
Fresh mini Chicken breast fillet per kg £5.49 Sainsbury’s £9.08
Fresh Chicken thigh fillet per kg £4.89 Sainsubury’s £5.82
Fresh Chicken thigh per kg £2.39 Asda £2.88
Fresh Sea Bass fillet per kg £8.69 Asda £17.28

Frozen
Frozen Chicken breast fillet (no added anything! Air frozen) per kg £4.77 Tesco £6.66
Frozen Whole Aromatic Duck kit (with 24 skins & hoi sin sauce) £6.59 Sainsbury’s (similar kit but 16 skins) £7.32

Various Other Products
Photo prints 6 by 4 inch £0.04-£0.07 per print (dependant on amount purchased, upload online pick up in store) Snapfish.co.uk costs £0.09 per print
Photo prints 7 by 5 inch £0.09-£0.12 per print (dependant on amount purchased, upload online pick up in store) Snapfish.co.uk costs £0.19 per print
Eye test £9.99 High Street Optician £15-30
Lacoste Frames £29.99 Lacoste Store £150
Essilor 1.67 ultra thin lenses £49.99 Standard optician price £125
DKNY ladies watch £58.90 Goldsmiths £89
Tag Heuer Link Ladies watch £865 Goldsmiths £995
Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade £58.96 Amazon £64.38
Braun Oral B Professional Care 1000 £22.98 Boots £29.99
Wii Console with Wii sports resort £158.88 Game £164.99
Kirkland Alkaline AA batteries 48x pack £8.04 Tesco Value Batteries 48x (made up of 4x packs @ 99p each) £11.88
First Class Stamp £0.37 Royal Mail £0.39
Current Magazines 20% discount on all printed prices
Finish Quantum Tablets 60x £9.76 Asda (made up of cost per tablet on 40x pack on special offer) £12
Adidas Clima 365 tracksuit trousers £19.54 Sportsdirect.com £26.99
Honda Cars 10% off price

The Restaurant after checkout
Luxury Cottage Pie £2.45 Square Pie £4.50
Hot dog and soda (free refill soft drinks) £1.47 Ikea £1.80
Danish Pastry £0.59 Waitrose £1.09
Pepperoni Pizza slice £1.47 Mulberry Street £3.50
18″ BBQ Chicken Pizza £7.33 Papa Johns (15.5″) £18.99

As you can see from the above list, it is clear to see that if you buy a small combination of the above products then you will easily make back the membership fee over a year. Don’t forget that you will have to visit fewer supermarkets to grab a good deal saving time as well as money. Also keep some bags and boxes in the car as no bags are provided and the vendor boxes that are available after checkout often run out. Maybe I’ll see you in Costco sometime soon

I literally roamed the supermarkets of the UK to bring you a totally blind taste test of all the butter miniature mince pies I could find. There were a few rules, like the packaging had to state the ‘mini’ size and they had to be the all butter variety. There are many more pies on the market outside of these restrictions and notably there were no value or no frills pies on offer, only standard or premium offerings. If you haven’t watched the video above yet, I put the pies in individual punnets labelled ‘a’ through to ‘j’. This threw out any preconceptions of branding or pricing. The test scores went purely on flavour and texture. I have rearranged the list below to reflect the test ranking out of 10.

11th j) Sainsbury’s Mini Lattice Mince Pies (12) £1.99 (17p each) 0/10
Sainsbury’s was founded by John James Sainsbury in 1869 – starting life as an equivalent to a modern butcher store of today. Groceries were later introduced in 1903 and soon grew to become the UKs largest grocery retailer. They stayed top of the pile until they got overtaken by Tesco in 1996 and then knocked further down the pile by Asda in 2003. Sainsbury’s standard offering looked unique compared to the other pies on review with it’s lattice top exposing 4 holes into the filling below. With the first bite I took the crust was far too thick and chewy. The crust was overpowering and took away from the mincemeat inside. Taking a second bite to assess the mincemeat inside I was sadly disappointed to find a really liquid filling with no flavour whatsoever. This odd and poor combination led to the lowest score in my blind test.

10th d) Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mini Mince Pies (12) £2.99 (25p each) 1/10
Sainsubry’s premium brand ‘Taste the difference’ come decorated with 3 holes in the sugar coated crust lid. When I took my first bite into the pie the first thing that came to mind was the thick hard crust followed by a sudden intense sour burst that was truly revolting. The only saving grace for these mini mince pies is that they are not rock bottom of the list – unfortunately, the bottom, is the other Sainsbury’s pie!

8th h) Marks & Spencer Classics for Christmas Mini Mince Pies (12) £3.29 (27p each) 2/10
Marks & Spencer started life way back in 1884 as a market stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market run by Michael Marks who was a Russian born Polish refugee. 10 years later Michael Mark’s business was failing and Thomas Spencer came to the rescue with an investment of £300 and exceptional organisational skills. Initially dealing mainly in textiles Marks & Spencer branched out into selling food and became one of the main suppliers of food during the second world war. These days Marks & Spencer are known as M&S and are the largest department store chain in the UK. Their food court is very popular taking in more than half of all their business. This mince pie was their standard offering and was really disappointing. The crust was so thick and dry and not at all buttery. The mincemeat was also really dry like congealed jam. M&S is well known for providing high quality foods but I was not at all impressed this time around.

8th i) Morrisons The Best Mini Mince Pies (9) £1.69 (19p each) 2/10
Morrisons was founded in 1899 by William Morrison as an egg and butter merchant in Bradford’s Rawson Market. They were based mainly in the North of England until they took control of Safeway in 2004. Now Morrisons are the 4th largest supermarket chain in the UK fitting out their stalls to look like an early 20th century street market. Morrisons did not have a standard pie to offer – only their ‘The Best’ premium brand. This mini mince pie was topped with a snowflake and sugar. The crust was very thin with little ‘bite’. The filling was nutty but there was very little else to offer in terms of flavour. As there was nothing good to say about this pie, Morrisons’ only entry scored poorly.

6th k) Waitrose All Butter Mini Mince Pies (12) £1.99 (17p each) 4/10
Waitrose started life as a joint venture by three men with surnames Waite, Rose and Taylor. Taylor left the other two and their stores became known as ‘Waitrose’. They were taken over by John Lewis in 1937 making all the staff in Wairose co-owners of the whole group – a bit like a coop. Based mainly in the south and concentrating on selling only high quality food, Waitrose has been aggressively expanding upwards through the UK. Waitrose offered the largest sized mini mince pie in this blind test coming up close to some supermarket offerings of standard size mince pies. The crust was really thick and the filling was both sweet and sour. I could taste the brandy but it added nothing to the overpowering flavour inside. At £1.99, Waitrose supplied a surprisingly competitively priced miniature mince pie against the main major supermarkets. Unfortunately the quality was sub standard – especially for Waitrose whose reputation suggests better than average food.

6th b) Tesco Finest Mini Mince Pies (12) £1.99 (17p each) 4/10
Tesco is the largest supermarket chain in the UK founded in 1919 in East London. With profits exceeding £2 billion they are the world’s 4th largest retailer. Tesco’s Finest brand is their premium brand so I would have expected more. The crust was thick & crumbly but soft enough that it melted in the mouth. Unfortunately the mince meat mixture inside was very poor. The flavour was far too sugary and tasted artificial. At £1.99, Tesco’s ‘Finest’ offering is priced competitively against it’s supermarket rival’s equivalents, being cheaper per pie than all the major 3 rivals Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s . Although cheap – these pies are average at best.

4th e) Selfridges & Co Traditional Mini Mince Pies (12) £6.99 (58p each) 5/10
Selfridges started life as a single mammoth department store in the heart of London on Oxford Street in 1909. Selfridges was and still is the 2nd largest store in the UK after Harrods and the innovations and marketing techniques that Mr Selfridge introduced transformed the way people shopped forever. The Selfridges food court offers fine foods from around the world as well as their own branded products. Selfridges offering was by far the smallest and easily the most expensive mini mince pies on review. They were so small that I wasn’t sure how they would be made up. Would the pie be thick with little mince or would the pie have a thin crust with lots of filling or somewhere in between? Well halfway through biting I had my answer. It was so thick that it was like biting down on shortbread. I like shortbread – don’t get me wrong, but it felt wrong for a mince pie. The mincemeat inside was like dehydrated jam without the flavour. I give this pie a 5 simply because the crust is nice on it’s own merit. More attention to the filling would have easily scored more points on taste.

4th c) Marks & Spencer Connoisseur All Butter Mini Mince Pies (12) £4.99 (42p each) 5/10
M&S’s premium brand ‘Connoisseur’ is rarely seen outside of the Christmas trading period and is usually exceptional in taste and quality. Taking the miniature mince pie in my hand it looked nice enough with it’s single star on it’s sugar topped crust. The crust was very thin and the filling was laden with nuts but what was missing from this year’s Connoisseur offering was the flavour! Where had the currants gone? Where was the brandy? It was like eating a thin crusted nut gel pie. It’s a real shame but the score is fair for M&S’s disappointing premium offering. In fact, for the price, it feels like a rip off!

3rd f) Tesco Christmas Mini Mince Pies (12) £1.49 (12p each) 6/10
Tesco’s standard mini mince pie was the cheapest in my review at just 12p a pie. The single star on top of the sugar coated crust didn’t prepare me for the delicious soft thick crust as I bit into the pie. At first the mincemeat flavour tasted of nothing but then the after taste kick came through and was remarkably delightful. The combination of a great crust alongside an understated filling was rewarded with an above average score.

2nd g) Asda Extra Special Rich Fruit Brandy Mini Mince Pies (9) £1.68 (19p each) 7/10
Asda started life in Leeds in 1949 and has had a turbulent time since, with mergers and acquisitions being passed around until the giant Wal-Mart bought the chain in 1999. Asda is now the 2nd Largest supermarket in the UK and accounts for half of all international sales for Wal-Mart. Asda had no standard mini mince pies on offer but the premium ones they had on offer looked great with a dusted topped snowflake on really great textured crust. The bite was thick and soft with the mincemeat consistency a compromised blend between sour and sweet. The taste was not too intense or rich making this a great choice. The pie could have scored a little better if the crust was a little more buttery in flavour.

1st a) Duchy Originals Miniature Mince Pies (12) £4.59 (38p each) 9/10
Duchy Originals Limited was established by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1990 to promote organic food and farming. Duchy also aimed to help protect and sustain the countryside and wildlife. Every time someone buys a Duchy product, all profits go to one of Prince Charles’ many charities. Duchy Products are available in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Budgens, Somerfield, Booths and Morrisons. Duchy’s offering in this blind test was average in size with 3 punched out holes at the top crust. As I bit through the all butter miniature mince pie I felt a wonderful sweet blend of currents and Brandy swash around my mouth as the very soft thick crust melted on my tongue. The only words that could come out of my mouth were ‘That is absolutely delicious!’ before I just had to take another bite. At £4.59, these pies are on the expensive side but with money going to charity , you can feel less guilty. Absolutely sublime flavour and texture make these mince pies far and away my top pick for the festive season.

In Conclusion
With only 3 pies on test taking home a score of 6 out of 10 or more, the average all butter mini mince pie is generally poor. If I had not done the test blind I would probably not have gone near the supermarket offerings, sticking to the safety of M&S. Having tried an M&S pie during mid November though, I was bitterly disappointed with the drop in quality from which I usually expect and that was confirmed in this blind test. At less than half the price per pie, Asda’s premium brand tasted far better than Marks and Sparks premium offering.

Asda’s Extra Special mince pie was my biggest surprise followed by the revelation that the Tesco standard offering tasted far superior to their own premium brand. Sainsbury’s 2 different pies were bitterly disappointing and having contacted Sainsbury’s, their spokesman reassured me that they would be taking the blind taste test seriously and would pass on the results to their product managers to rectify future supplies.

Duchy’s pie was no surprise topping the list with their sensational mince pie. They’re expensive, but knowing that my money is not feeding a large corporate giant – but instead paying farmers a fair wage and all those deserving charities – gives me a comfortable feeling inside. The mince pie I definitely would not bother wasting my money on is the ridiculously priced Selfridge’s mince pies. I was shocked at the price and would have expected better. It was average at best but coming in at over 3 times the cost of Asda’s offering, it feels like an absolute rip off.

So I conclude that if you have a party of people to feed at a budget then go with Asda’s Extra Special mini mince pies, otherwise just go Duchy!