{"id":786,"date":"2016-04-09T20:19:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T03:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.majorscorner.com\/?p=786"},"modified":"2026-03-07T18:12:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:12:50","slug":"under-the-palapa-costco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/?p=786","title":{"rendered":"Under the Palapa&#8230;.Costco"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Under the Palapa....Costco\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>If I am honest, and I try to be in these columns in spite of a few people who think I make this stuff up, I am not sure how we would get by here without the miracle of Costco.<!--more--> What did ex-pats do without it? I am being slightly facetious, as I know I would simply become used to the Mexican equivalent: Mega, Soriano and Leys. I am a fan for the fresh produce side of things already, but Costco is in a realm all by itself.<br \/>\nWith a friendly wave of my Costco card I am suddenly in the kingdom of conspicuous consumption. The mind boggles at the variety, from furniture that could fill every room in any house to the latest kitchen appliances and colour TVs large enough for a stadium. Think of almost anything you might need and they have it. But you have to be quick, as the sales come and then there are no more, to be replaced by something else but not the same as what you saw last week.<br \/>\nBut I love it, I love it.<br \/>\nOthers will perhaps not understand our joy at finding things we could get on any day at home but nowhere else but Costco here in Mexico. Cheddar cheese, for instance. Here in Puerto Vallarta there is nothing orange in the cheese sections of local stores, only every shade of white cheese imaginable. That is fun for a while.<br \/>\n\u201cDarling, how cute. They only have the white stuff,\u201d you shout over the disco music in the meat and cheese section. I always think of my Jewish friends staring at sausages beside the curd. You don\u2019t have to be orthodox to think that this is unorthodox.<br \/>\nAfter several weeks, white cheese is no longer cute.<br \/>\n\u201cI don\u2019t care if it is only Kraft cheddar, I want it now,\u201d you say, but you can\u2019t find even that. That is why God made Costco.<br \/>\nThere is a small section of cheddar in the grand store; we come to look at it and tremble with desire. You never miss something until you can\u2019t get it. I never thought of cheese and especially cheddar as something I might miss someday but I do. Thank you, Costco.<br \/>\nBefore I leave the subject, I must mention one other type, feta. Because so many of us live on salads, feta cheese has become a staple of our cold lunches. However in spite of being of the \u201cwhite\u201d variety, there seems to be very little around even at Costco, where it is available intermittently at best. So much so that there have been fights over the king of salad toppings. The other week I was told, after three weeks without, a shipment of feta had arrived with no fanfare and was simply stacked on the floor of the cheese section still in its carton. It was quickly snapped up, until only two containers remained. One senior took both as another senior reached forward. Outrage was expressed and chaos ensued.<br \/>\nI am told by more than a few oldies that the cheese section is a good place to meet future partners, as it is place where the like-minded gather. I suppose that and the wine section would both qualify. I do seem to meet almost everyone I know near the wine shelves, pondering the labels as if they were the Dead Sea scrolls. And why not, eh? Without wine, life loses some of its lovely hue, at least in my view.<br \/>\nWe all know the name \u201cKirkwood\u201d is the house brand for Costco products and it generally is pretty good, especially for bulk products. Now I see it on wine and vodka, can this be true? A few weeks ago I saw K vodka being served at an upscale party and I must say my Bloody Mary was superb. I have not yet ventured towards the Kirkwood wine, but if the Canadian dollar keeps falling I could be splashing around in that barrel before long.<br \/>\nLet there be no mistake, We love Mexico, which is why Michelle and I have made it our home. However I think if there were no Costco, we would miss it enormously, even if I generally walk out with five jars of peanut butter when we only need one.<br \/>\nBy the way, in spite of Costco being a Seattle company, it is also a very Mexican experience. Last week my wife was buying kitchen detergent when an elderly lady approached her, saying:<br \/>\n\u201cWhere are the paper towels? No one speaks English here,\u201d which is partially true.<br \/>\nThen the lady said, \u201cThis is an American store and it is not right that there is only Spanish!\u201d She began to shout, \u201cPAPER TOWELS, PAPER TOWELS, PAPER TOWELS!\u201d<br \/>\nFinally Michelle said to her quietly, \u201c \u2018Paper towels\u2019 in Spanish is toallas de papel.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cPAPER TOWELS, PAPER TOWELS,\u201d continued the frenzied woman in spite of my wife\u2019s translation.<br \/>\nPerhaps it is a good idea to look up a few words of Spanish before going to Costco in Mexico.<br \/>\nCopyright Christopher Dalton 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Under the Palapa....Costco\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>If I am honest, and I try to be in these columns in spite of a few people who think I make this stuff up, I am not sure how we would get by here without the miracle of Costco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-under-the-palapa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/majorscorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}