Costco Run...21º

Herb and I left Joseph by 6:30am yesterday headed for the Costco store in Clarkston...This puts us in Washington/Idaho in time to make a quick stop at WalMart and BiMart before we start on the big Costco list when the store opens at 10am.

We started making shopping expeditions to this area in 1973 when we moved to Joseph, OR...At that time there was a "case lot" store in Lewiston and back then all groceries came marked with the cost on the item, (before UPC codes and automatic checkers) so you could easily check the cost of an item...Also "back then" our finances were very limited and I knew the individual prices of things I bought weekly because I had only so much money to spend on "groceries", including paper and cleaning supplies etc...I kept a list, comparing prices always and watched for sales to find the best deal and stock up on sale items...We drove to Lewiston a couple of time to the "case lot" store stocked up on items that we used regularly...Did it save us anything, probably not...By the time we added the cost of the trip, Idaho sales tax, going out for lunch, hitting the "Mall" and going to Penny's, Payless and occasionally "The Bon" (for sale items)...But it was a day out and in spring a day away from cold weather and into a warmer valley where the flowers and trees were all abloom...A mini vacation you could call it.

Last week Rusty mentioned that other store we always went to to for Christmas shopping in Lewiston...He said, " I can still in my mind drive right to, envision the store and in fact I did drive there one time in recent years, the building is still there but not the store. Remember Mom, you had to drive clear through Lewiston, cross the river---what was the name of that place? Remember it was like a catalog where only one item was displayed for customers to look at, then you wrote the number down, took it to the counter and later it appeared from the "back room" to be purchased. What was the name of that place?"

Words like Western and Best came to my mind...So with today's technology I googled "Best Western" and of course came up with a motel...I tried different combinations of words including Lewiston, western, catalog store, 1970's and finally came up with somebody who had lived in Lewiston and the name "Great Western", later changed to "Best" was what they remembered...I also remember a "Great Western" glossy catalog they sent out to all customers and how well worn it was every Christmas, long before the "Internet"...Oh the good ole days.

When we first started shopping at Costco, I nicknamed it the $100.00 an hour store...Now it is on an average shopping trip more like $300.00's an hour...Good thing we only go two or three times a year...AND again the question, does it save us any money?..Well we only bought 4 small items at WalMart, our usual box wine at BiMart, the gasoline was only $3.00 a gallon yesterday at Costco, our Costco bill for 1&1/2 hours was over $400.00, Herb and I split a burger, fries and milkshake at Boggans on the way home for under $20.00....Hmmmm I'm starting to get a headache!...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

P.S. The sun shone on us both ways, roads were good but this time of year Lewiston/Clarkston was  under a bank of stinky ugly smog, so we will return in the spring when the flowers are in bloom...I really doubt that we save much money but it was a beautiful drive!