StillSmart

I am a member at costco, makro, and booker and I think it is fair to say that prices are very variable and dependent on what kind of products you are buying.

Costco for me is great value for things like tissues, loo paper, bulk buys of beans/coffee/pasta/tea/sweets, sugar (sometimes but you need to watch carefully), good deals on clothes from time to time, washing powder and the like, some frozen stuff in big packs, and fresh food where I think it is fair to say they are not necessarily cheaper than the likes of Tesco BUT the quality is great. And, of course, there is a huge range of stuff all under 1 roof. Worth the membership? for me yes - the saving on a 3 month supply of tissues/loo paper/washing powders/meat more than covers the membership cost.

Makro I don't use very often. I found that they have good offers from time to time and sell cheap dishwasher powder but not very cheap in general. Good range of things but you need to know what outside prices look like. Free but to be honest I only drop in if I am passing to but dishwasher powder

Booker is more towards food and the prices are OK but not super cheap. Bulk packs (as in catering) are pretty good, sugar has always been more expensive than tesco and Costco, bred is cheap and that is about all I can say except that unlike the other 2 you can look at their prices on-line and decide if it's worth a trip. As it's free probably worth having just in case.

Hope that helps - Oh, and if you want to buy bulk cooking oil to run your Land Rover on Costco and Booker are about the same price but you can get Booker to deliver it!

Yeah would agree with Lyonacre good for lots but watch it ! worth the fee yes
For example paid 2.29 for 30 pitta breads with 3 month shelf life. Their meat especially beef is dear but the quality is as good as I've come across

Costco is a good experience.

You get to see many products you normally wouldn't.

I go for blue roll, toilet tissue, kitchen roll, Drums of Kenco (for work), sugar, lemonade, some other fizzy drinks, the odd frozen food item, bits of dry food stuff, and my wife likes the variety of fish.

There is a lot of stuff that is dearer than Tesco though, even though you are buying in bulk.

They do trade only hours too, as it can get manic at peak hours.

Best thing is to get a mate with costco card take you to see whether you like it, as you can +1 a guest.

The best deal I can get from the supermarket just now on unrefined sugar is Morrison at a whopping £1.50\kg - anyone know of anywhere cheaper?


Cheers CC.

Check your discount stores CC.

I know QualitySave is doing silver spoon at 79p per KG.

I've got loads of cheap shops near me where I can source for under £1 per KG.

Perhaps is because I live in a shite area!

Local Tesco is .97
Booker is 19.88 for 25KG bag
Aldi is .89 per K

Thats Hertfordshire

Just a thought.......

If anyone is near Hertfordshire I am happy to "bulk buy" when I go to Costco or Booker. It obviously doesn't work if it's got to be posted!!

I try to wait for offers, or at least lower prices then buy enough for 3 washes at least so 15-25KG

I can get white sugar for 79p, just wondering if anyone has seen any offers on UNREFINED sugar - that's what I'm paying £1.50 for.
Definitely better in flavoured washes.

Hi Capt-Cudellez Merry Christmas, would it not be possible to use normal sugar but add black treacle to achieve the same results as using unrefined
Cheers

I'm not really after that strong molasses taste in this case - I like making rum, and have used treacle, animal feed molasses, blackstrap, and molasses sugar - all were good in different ways.

A good friend of mine with a good palate (he is a restaurant reviewer, and a big whisky fan) pointed out there was a sweet after taste with my faux whisky that wasn't quite right - after he pointed it out to me, its all I can taste >:(

When I use the unrefined sugar, I don't seem to get that, and I think the flavour is better. I'm only doing grain flavoured sugar washes rather than doing grain wash - but having fun with it, and getting some nice stuff.

It's 1.50 in Lidl, and Morrisons as of today - not much help but two you can rule out!

Hi again Capt-Cudellez sounds brilliant any chance you could post your recipe.I have found a similar aftertaste with still spirits flavours sort of a sweet chemical taste and once its on your mind you can't budge it but it does seem to fade with age

cheers again

It's still very much a work in progress. So far it's....

boil 700g rye flakes in 10L of water for 1.5 hours, with 1/4 cup bakers yeast and 2tsp citric acid, 2x vit B tablets.
Strain the liquid into a 30L fermenter add 5kg raw sugar top up with water.
Pitch ale yeast when cool.

Then for the next lot I use 10L of backset from the strip run and boil fresh rye flakes in that for 1.5h + 2tsp of calcium carbonate + 1/4 cup bakers yeast.
I just use a jar full of the lees from the first ferment to get the next one going.

After 3 ferments and strips - I run the strip on the pot. make fairly wide cuts and aged for at least a month on toasted oak chips.

Thanks very much for taking the time

Cheers again

Asda are doing 5KG of silver spoon for £3.76 at the moment, the same product can also be found at Sainsburys for £4.08.