Costco-size Me!

I went to Costco on Sunday with my boyfriend for about the 4th time in my entire life. My family never became members because there are only 2 of us in the house so it never really seemed necessary. Anyway, after wandering around the packed aisles, my boyfriend and I decided to stop at the food counter and grab a hotdog - yes this future dietitian does eat the occasional hotdog. We sat at a table to eat and something happened that has really bothered me since. Not too far from where we were sitting I saw a mother with 3 young children probably between 8 and 10 years old. Accompanying a large (refillable) fountain pop, the little boy was eating a burger and fries, and the two little girls were each eating a poutine. Not a shocking site, right? It was lunch time but what I couldn't get out of my head was the sheer size of the portions they were eating. The burger was the size of a Big Mac and came with a tonne of fries and the poutines were massive, filling a large styrofoam container to the top! If I'd tried to eat the poutine myself I would have been shocked if I made it half way through. But here was a mother feeding this to her kids for lunch and even nagging at them to hurry up and eat. I mentioned what I was seeing to my boyfriend, who after turning to see for himself what I was talking about said to me:

Are you really surprised? They aren't the only ones. Look at the size of the average shopper in Costco. They are all huge!

I turned around, to scan the room and noticed he was right. As an average sized woman I looked thin compared to most of the people in the store. And many of them sat in the dining area with large portions of unhealthy foods and carts filled with cases and bulk sized packages containing equally non-nutritious things to take home with them.

My message here is this. Just because products are cheaper when sold in bulk doesn't mean you should go there! The occasional poutine for lunch won't hurt your child. It's too bad that Costco doesn't offer smaller kid-sized portions on their menu; I don't recall seeing them when I was there. But in a situation like that, consider ordering 1 poutine for your kids to share (In all honesty the 3 kids I saw would have been stuffed sharing 1 amongst them). Don't be afraid of looking cheap, its the right thing to do; my mom did it with me and my brother when we were growing up all the time. Consider it a good lesson in sharing also!

And yes, it might seem convenient to purchase Jumbo sized bags of Cheesy-Poufs but unless you have a lot of mouths to feed, or strong will power to exercise portion control -don't go there! Portion control is a big deal. Some companies have hit the nail on the head and offer reasonable portion sizes - 100 calorie packs for example - that allow you to enjoy a snack without over doing it; and research has supported that it works. Even if someone decides to go back for a 2nd package, they are still likely consuming far less than someone dishing out their own portion size from a large pack. A variation on this that I myself practice is this: instead of buying a big package of something with bulk pricing, buy a single serving sized substitute that you'll really enjoy. I for example love fresh gummy bears and have since I was a kid. The problem is, if for example I buy a package sold at a movie theatre I can easily eat the whole bag before the end credits hit. And besides leaving me with a gummy-overdose-induced-tummy-ache its also way more than I need to satisfy my snack craving. Solution? I go to a local bulk store and buy a small amount of fruit juice gummy bears - I can see how much I scoop and I scoop them knowing I'm going to eat them all in one go. Result? I don't end up blowing my daily nutrient intake way out of whack, no tummy ache, really fresh gummy bears AND I actually save money because the smaller portion I purchased costs less than the bigger bag! I win!

The bottom line here is not to bash Costco. There are some food items that I can see having a membership is good for - like cereal, bread, canned tomatoes etc. For the few people out there who are good with exercising caution with portion sizes, a larger package won't do much harm. My concern is for the majority of people who take advantage of Costco-sized savings and in return are becoming Costco-sized themselves! Carts should not be overflowing with Costco-sized chips, candy, ice cream, frozen pizzas and more. Bigger isn't always better. I can promise you that I will never bring home a Costco-sized bag of gummy bears!