Bulk food Awesomeness

When I first moved to New Hampshire, I wanted to find some familiarity. Stores, the landscape, the climate, many things were different than what I was used to. But, when I visited the local Costco, I found it to be a familiar and happy place. I was also at the time overcome by discovering their beer aisle. How naive I was!
Today I visited a UK Costco. It was a bit of a pilgrimage as I had to take the train to get there, and then walked quite a distance, but when I arrived, I knew I was in for a foreign bulk retail treat.
I did find it strangely familiar with almost the exact layout of my store at home, and extremely similar products and brands. I found myself looking for my usual Costco shopping companions, which did make me feel a bit sad.

So, I spent an unusual amount of time combing the aisles for differences. I indulged in many samples of course, most notably, alcoholic beverages. Where the NH store had beer and wine, the England store surpasses it with liquor. Jameson to Baileys, and everything in between, it made me feel that the Maryland Costco is seriously lacking. And then they gave me samples!

The most glorious thing I found was a bag of 1610 PG Tips tea bags. It was absolutely enormous to the point of ridiculous. I was actually pretty sad that it was so big, as I couldn't really justify buying it. It came to about 9p a bag, which really is a good price, but really, 1600 tea bags! Just think of it. I could have 4 cups a day for a year! I could make over 800 good pots of tea with that. 800! By the time anyone normal drank all this tea, even a heavy tea drinking household, half of the bags would be expired. But regardless of how impractical it was, this gigantic bag of tea filled me with joy. Basking in its glow, I was suddenly struck.
“Excuse me. You’re going to think I’m insane, but could you take my picture with this enormous bag of tea?”
“Sure, I’m an American, so I understand.”
I stumbled upon the only other American I’ve seen in England at the Costco, in the tea aisle. The coincidence kind of freaked me out.

I also found haggis, literal tons of Cadbury chocolate bars, giant square pizzas, American peanut butter, a yard of jaffa cakes, pounds of Haribo gummies, and a $6 bag of pure American marshmallows.

I had something to eat at the cafe of course (where you can indeed get a hot dog and drink for £1.49) but I got a decidedly British alternative of a jacket potato with baked beans, and the first coke I’ve had in two months.

I made it home on the train with far less confusion and anxiety than last time.