10 Things Mexican Households Buy at Costco (And 5 They Never Touch)

My mother's whole way of running a house is written down in one book, The Old Mexican Way: https://oldmexicanway.com And before anybody feels bad: none of this is your fault. In this store the little number on the shelf tag is honest, and it nearly always wins, and that is exactly how it gets you. Nobody taught you the question that comes after the little number. The 10 we buy, counting down: 10. El aceite: the big jug. The test for the whole building is not "is it cheap" but "will my house finish it" 9. Los costales: the 25 pound sacks of beans and rice. One sack, two kitchens 8. Los huevos: the big flat, the one fresh food that forgives you 7. Las tortillas: eighty or ninety in the stack, frozen in stacks of ten. A tortilla has three lives 6. El pollo rostizado: $4.99, the bait. Three suppers inside it. We eat the bait and leave the hook 5. El queso: the big block, grated on Sunday and frozen flat, and why the bagged kind never melts right 4. Lo que no se pudre: paper, soap, trash bags, and the batteries with the right word on them 3. Las especias: the big canisters, but only the ones your kitchen burns through. And the vanilla 2. La Maseca: the 25 pound sack. Not on any American Costco list 1. La espaldilla de puerco: the whole pork shoulder, three carnitas Sundays, and the membership arithmetic The 5 we never touch: 1. The giant produce: you are not buying spinach, you are renting it, and the lease is five days 2. The bakery tables: nobody in the history of the world has needed twelve muffins 3. The prepared food trays: the chicken is the bait, the tray next to it is where they get the money back 4. The famous name brands: the house brand nearly always wins, the famous name often does not 5. The deal on a thing you never needed: a bargain on a thing you did not need is not a saving, it is a purchase The membership arithmetic, at the meat counter, in my town: pork shoulder, 14 pounds at about $1.50 a pound under my supermarket, $21. Ground beef, 10 pounds, $15. Chicken thighs, 12 pounds, $12. Chuck roast for the birria, 8 pounds, $16. That is $64 against a $65 card, in one visit. The honest half: I have a freezer and I have mouths. The arithmetic only works if the meat is eaten. My mother's question, five words, asked before anything went into her basket: will my house finish it. If the answer is yes, that is the best store in America. If the answer is no, you just bought the cheapest food you will ever throw away. The honest word: for a house of one or two, the card may never pay, and that is not a failure. Go with your sister on her card and split the sack in the parking lot. The little number at the ordinary store will feed you just fine. Safety, said plainly: thaw meat in the refrigerator, never on the counter, and a big piece wants two full days. Eggs stay cold, in the carton, on a shelf, not in the door. Sacks go into sealed buckets the day they come home. Prices are what I see in my town and they move. Not every warehouse carries the Maseca or the Oaxaca. The question does not change.