Costco Foods Babies can Safely Eat with @costcodeals Henry

Henry (0s):

The great thing about Costco is they're starting to bring a lot more organic products to the Costco, right? Which is huge, especially for, you know, cooking clean foods, healthy foods for babies. So like carrots and bananas and whatnot.

Katie Ferraro (12s):

Hey there! I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered Dietitian, college nutrition professor, and mom of seven specializing in baby-led weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast, I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning. Costco–when I say Costco, what sort of thoughts come to mind? Do you love it? Do you hate it? I feel like I'm hot and cold on Costco. I personally come from a big family; we have six kids in my family. I now myself have seven kids. I totally get the value associated with bulk purchasing at a warehouse store like Costco, but I'm not like fanatical about it.

Katie Ferraro (55s):

You know who is though? Henry from Costco Deals. Do you guys follow this Instagram page at Costco Deals? It's like a cut to the chase treasure hunt fine page. Like am I going to Costco today or not? Depends on what Henry's posting about. And major fan girl moment, but I got to meet Costco Deals Henry in the flesh earlier this year at an event. He is so down to Earth; so nice, so cool. He actually knows more about Costco than I think one person ever really could. And one of the most trafficked articles on my baby-led weaning blog is 10 Costco foods to Buy for Baby-Led Weaning. So I was telling Henry about it. We got the idea to do this interview episode and Henry from Costco Deals is gonna come on and spill the beans about everything you need to know regarding Costco foods that your baby can safely eat.

Katie Ferraro (1m 36s):

I learned so much in this interview. Okay, I did not know that If you look at the price of the Costco items in the store, the ending 2 cents value on the cost of the item, like if it ends in 99 cents or 97 cents, 47 cents, or .00 cents, those are all secret Costco codes for what's happening with that item. So you're gonna learn about the Costco "death star" pricing, which is if you see an item at Costco with an asterisk after it, exactly what that means for the future of that product at your Costco. I don't wanna steal any more of Henry's thunder, so with no further ado, here's Costco foods that babies can safely eat with Henry from Costco Deals.

Henry (2m 13s):

Yeah, no worries. Katie. Thank you for having me

Katie Ferraro (2m 15s):

So. It was so cool to meet you in person. I've been a huge fan of your Instagram account at Costco Deals for a very long time now. Tell us real quick about your background. How did you kind of come to be a Costco guru?

Henry (2m 25s):

Yeah, so basically um, we kind of created this page on a whim six years ago. Me and my wife did actually, you know, we used to live right next to Costco and growing up went to Costco all the time, you know, with the $1.50 hot dogs and their does back when they had the cart outside still with their hot dogs and soda. And that price is still a $1.50 today, which is crazy. But Injust love Costco, love a good deal. And you know, back six years ago I just thought I created a page and I posted a Vitamix as my first post and it kind of just snowballed from there, you know, just kept posting deals and our community or Costco fanatic deals community just kind of kept growing and growing. Now we have over at 1.1 million followers on Instagram and our TikTok's growing and our Facebook is like 160,000 followers as well.

Henry (3m 10s):

So a very vibrant, awesome community and yeah, from there, just love Costco. I

Katie Ferraro (3m 16s):

Must love Costco. This is like your full-time gig now, right?

Henry (3m 20s):

Yeah, this is what I do full-time. We do this full-time And. We just love posting deals that we find at Costco and reviews and new products and whatnot and and working with brands to promote new products that are coming to Costco. So yeah, it's been really fun to do this job.

Katie Ferraro (3m 34s):

I think your page is so awesome. Okay. I've always heard this, I don't know if it's true or not, but does Costco really make all their money on membership and like they basically pass along the product essentially at cost to customers?

Henry (3m 45s):

Not, I wouldn't say at cost, but 80% of their profit are from memberships. So they have about 118.9 million cardholders right now– members. It's about 65.8 million households that have a membership. So if you multiply that by like, you know, their $60 a year member card fee or, double that for the executive fee, they're making quite a bit of money on just memberships, right? Yeah. And of course their goal is to pass savings on to their members to give them the best deals, Costco deals, possible in store from pricing standpoint, from bulk pricing, all that stuff, right? So definitely they make majority of the money on memberships and they definitely pass that to the, to our members.

Katie Ferraro (4m 28s):

So there is like a financial benefit for shopping at Costco?

Henry (4m 31s):

Oh for sure. Yeah, for sure. Okay.

Katie Ferraro (4m 33s):

All, right? What constitutes a deal to you?

Henry (4m 36s):

A deal to me is something that, let's say, you find the product at Costco is cheaper than what you'd find at Target, right? Or what you'd find at a supermarket, right? For instance, I was at Costco yesterday, Pokemon cards are huge right now with kids. I know you have kids, they probably love Pokemon cards. There was a four pack of these 10 Pokemon cards for $65. At Target, it was only, it was $24.99 for one. So you're saving like 35 bucks right there, right? So that's a deal, that's a Costco major deal for me for my kids who love Pokemon cards, right? You know, so for us, you know, anything that's like a on sale promotion or just we're not, doesn't have to be always a deal.

Henry (5m 16s):

It's just something even new, just

Katie Ferraro (5m 17s):

Cool new stuff. I see cool new stuff all the time. I'm like, dude, you like force the impulse by. I feel like I'm like I gotta go to Costco see that now. But

Henry (5m 25s):

Yeah, I mean with Costco the biggest thing is Costco's a treasure hunt. Honestly. You walk through the aisles, you see new stuff and they change stuff all the time. They move stuff all the time from back, from the aisles, from the outer aisles and the inner aisles. They move stuff all the time and they create this treasure hunt effect where you're walking around, you're like, "Oh my gosh, that's so cool." And you see the price like, "Oh that's a pretty good price, I'll get that." Or you walk in another day and you're like, "Wow, Christmas stuff is here in August," right? That's what you know. Or they just bring stuff in so early and it just, you're constantly seeing new things and new products and new deals and they always have things on sale all the time via their monthly savings book or their, their weekly hot buys.

Henry (6m 7s):

They do. So there's always a deal to be found at Costco and the pricing like we talked earlier, is already great. And then you add these additional promos and sales, it's just even better. So it's a fun treasure hunt at Costco all the time.

Katie Ferraro (6m 19s):

I'm in San Diego and growing up here, everyone, like my older agent knew who Sol Price was. He found a Price Club that went under merge with Costco back in the nineties. So, also, I'm the oldest of a family of six; I have seven kids. I just kind of always thought it was like big family people who shopped at warehouse stores. But increasingly, especially with the work that I do, I see families with just one, sometimes two kids, small families, they're really digging into Costco deals. So are there deals at Costco for smaller families who might not be accustomed to buying in bulk?

Henry (6m 45s):

Oh, totally. I mean there's, you know, I think the biggest thing for families these days is just like a quick dinner idea, right? So at Costco in the deli they have quick dinners that you just pop in the oven, right? They have these mac and cheese, they have meatloaf, they have bulgogi, they have all these, they have sushi now at some places. So all these, there's tons of different items for, it's not all about bulk. I mean I think that's the case that used to be, right? Cause like back in the day when it was price costs, everything was like on huge pallets. I mean there's still stuff on pallets, right? But now products are made to put in smaller bulk, right? So it's like maybe two to three versus back in the day, maybe it would've been five or six, right? So it's more palatable for people to grab and put in their pantry or freeze it, right?

Henry (7m 30s):

So it's not as bulk as it used to be. But then there's also items like clothing that is such a great deal. You don't have to buy that in bulk, right? It's one item or I mean toilet paper is bulk but you can store that forever. It's such a great deal, right? You put in your pantry and it'll last a lifetime, right? In a sense,

Katie Ferraro (7m 46s):

Oh my gosh, it lasts like a week in my house. But I tried to buy a different toilet paper once and like all of my kids like revolted. So there's also like the brand loyalty thing going on too.

Henry (7m 54s):

Exactly. Exactly. But yeah, I mean I think that was the thought before that, "Oh it's so bulk, why do I need a cost membership?" But honestly for $60 a year, five bucks a month for membership–you buy a couple items, I think that that membership pays for itself, or even buy two hot dogs in a soda a month, that membership pays for itself. You know? So I think it's a no. Yeah, in the past, yes definitely is known as bulk for bigger families, but I think there's so many people, even single people have cost memberships because they just love seeing things and buying things. Like again it's a treasure hunt, right? So it's not that so bulk mentality anymore, but it's like, well it's a shopping experience

Katie Ferraro (8m 37s):

So we do a lot of content on buying and prepping real foods that babies can safely eat. And one of my most trafficked articles on our website is 10 Baby-Led Weaning Foods to Buy from Costco. But then sometimes families get annoyed because, you know, like, "Wait a minute, I got hooked on this food but now it's not there." So, for example, Costco used to carry this like really awesome low sodium paneer, which is a really, really safe way for babies to try cows milk protein. But now they don't have it. So how come sometimes you can find something at Costco and then it's just seemingly gone forever? Or is it forever and does it like make a reappearance in another year?

Henry (9m 4s):

Yeah, this is, I get this question all the time in my dms and all the time in my comments, right? Because there's just so many factors that take place. Number. one, Costco is kind of separated by region stores, right? They have their northwest region, Northeast Texas, San Diego, LA, so for each region they have different buyers. So those buyers will bring in specific products to the specific regions. So if it's a smaller product, a more local product, they might bring that in and if it does really well, they'll keep it in stock and keep inventory and keep flowing with that. But if it doesn't do well, once they sell through, they'll kind of stop, right? And unless there's a demand for it, they'll bring it back maybe later or not. But usually that's why you only see products sometimes for a limited period of time.

Katie Ferraro (9m 49s):

So I'll find myself watching your feed and I'll see items where at the Costco you're at and then look for them online or like when I'm at my Costco and they're not always there. So you mentioned regional differences, but what sort of like setup does Costco have with regards to deals? Is it like Whole Foods where the buyers are geographically split up? Or does every Costco mostly have the same stuff? What's the story there?

Henry (10m 8s):

Yeah, so it's mostly geographically broken up, right? So I think if I were to, from my experience, what I know it's about 75% to 85% of Costco have all the same products. So you have your big name products like your Procter and Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, all the deli food, all the Kirkland Signature products, right? All the Christmas products are probably the same, all like the seasonal stuff are probably very similar across the nation. But when it comes to specific regional items like let's say a cheese or a wine or something, they might bring those locally from the specific regions and or and bring that into the store versus not having it nationwide.

Henry (10m 48s):

So yeah, it's, it's unfortunate sometimes, but at the same time it does give a different diversity of products, especially regional based products into the store. So it's kind of nice in that sense. But it is frustrating becuase you're like, "Oh I see that on my page but it's not available in," you know, whatever.

Katie Ferraro (11m 4s):

Yeah, well you gotta go get it while it's hot too because sometimes you post something, I'm sure there's a run on it. Well

Henry (11m 9s):

The other side too is that a lot of Costco products that bring as test products, right? So that's sometimes you'll see in store for like a month or two and then it'll disappear because they're just testing it out initially. And if they do welL, then they'll get picked up and then if they do really well, the hopes is that most brands get picked up regionally, right? Or not regionally, nationally. So initially they'll get picked up maybe for a couple cities, like a 10 city test or whatever, and then from there they'll go a regional test. And then if that does really well then hopefully they'll get national and that's, that's end goal in most brands. Cause if you get national that's, you know, you made it big.

Katie Ferraro (11m 44s):

Henry, I need to ask you, are samples ever coming back?

Henry (11m 47s):

They're back. They've been back.

Katie Ferraro (11m 49s):

They're not at my Costco.

Henry (11m 51s):

No, no, no, they should. They should be all back by now. Now for sure. When's the last time you went to Costco?

Katie Ferraro (11m 55s):

That's the other thing. Wait, I told you when we were hanging out in Vermont. Okay, You actually called me out because I don't really go to Costco that much anymore. Exactly. I have to get two babysitters to go to the store. So it's like actually cheaper for me to go to Instacart versus going there and then like my kids are like freaking vultures. So if like we will clean out the samples thing but so maybe it was the pandemic was the last time. But I do love when you show like what's at Costco. Do you ever show deals on your page though and then there's a run on stuff because you featured it like because you have a bigger Instagram following than Costco at this point.

Henry (12m 25s):

Yeah I do. Yeah, that's, it is kind of crazy that we do have a bigger Instagram following than Costco, which is wild to me. But yeah, I mean we've had moments where, I mean the thing is Costco has tons of inventory, right? So even if we did post, yeah it could sell out that day but then they probably just restock the next day, right? But we've had brands come to us and tell us like, "Yeah you posted yesterday and, we sold out online." Or like for example, there's these Pendleton blankets, I don't know if you know about those. They're those like two last year or year and a half ago And, we posted them and they, I went to the store that same day and I know a guy that works at Costco and he's like, "Hey, I saw you post this morning and our whole stock went out in like an hour." So.

Henry (13m 5s):

It happens. So

Katie Ferraro (13m 7s):

Wait, so they know who you are at your Costco?

Henry (13m 9s):

Some do, yeah. I've met a couple people. Funny story, I met the Loss Prevention guy at Costco because sometimes I take products in store, I take some photos and videos just so I–

Katie Ferraro (13m 19s):

Tell people what Loss Prevention is because it's a euphemism for stealing, right? Like Loss Prevention and–

Henry (13m 24s):

Yes, yes, definitely stealing. So I brought a product in, he kind of caught me, I'm like, "Hey, I'm Costco Deal, this product's not in your store. I'm just putting in a cart to take a picture inside the store for you know, purposes." And he is like, "Oh no way. I love your page, I follow you all the time. And he's like, "You know, hey here's my number. If you ever need to do anything, let me know. I'll walk you in, I'll walk you out, I'll take care of you." I'm like sweet. So yeah, I know a couple people in my store. It's pretty awesome. They're so friendly, they're so great. They know me. It's kind of cool to build that relationship even though, you know, most people don't know who–

Katie Ferraro (13m 57s):

The people that work there are so cool. I know they used to do like back in the day, like I would drive to high school and like the Shock Jock radio guys would be on and they would get team members from two different Costcos in San Diego and they would get them on the phone and then they would like, they would like memorize the product code and they would have like a contest to be like, which store could spout off the code faster. Like the employees and the team members there are so funny, they're so into the products. They like love the whole Costco culture. And I think it's cool that that's really like transcended even with all the changes that Costco's been through, what's been happening in retail. Like the people that work there are still really awesome.

Henry (14m 31s):

Well I mean back in the day, I mean it's kind of dating ourselves, right Katie? Like back in the day, before barcodes at Costco, they would list off the item number to the cashier and they would type it in manually for every item. Do you remember those days?

Katie Ferraro (14m 45s):

I totally remember going with my mom and being like, "These people know so much about math," and my mom's like, "It's not actually math, but..."

Henry (14m 52s):

It's like 1-6-4-4-5-5-6 and then they type it in. It's like, and you have a whole–

Katie Ferraro (14m 55s):

Yeah, they were the ones on the radio show. We definitely are old. Okay, so I know you're not officially or formally associated with Costco. I would imagine that they love your content because it's basically free promo for their business. Yes. Do you have a formal relationship with Costco Corporate? If there is one.

Henry (15m 9s):

I do not, unfortunately. They've never reached out, which is okay. I have no problem with that. At the same time, their buyers have sent some of their brands to us to help promote new products. So

Katie Ferraro (15m 21s):

That's–so they know who you are. Exactly.

Henry (15m 23s):

Yeah. They, they know who we are. I mean, yeah, I've probably sold millions of millions of dollars in product for them in my page. I don't get a dime, which is totally fine. I love Costco that much. So

Katie Ferraro (15m 34s):

Your love for Costco really comes through in your content? It does. And a lot of our listeners are here, our new parents, they're sometimes just cooking or starting to make healthy foods for the first time. Because now, okay, they got a baby that needs to eat real foods. Any advice you can give to parents who might feel overwhelmed? Like, "Oh, dude, Costco's too much." They're looking for budget deals on foods your baby can safely eat; like Costco shopping tips we might not know about?

Henry (15m 55s):

Yeah, so I mean, for, for new time parents. I mean the biggest the great thing about Costco is they're starting to bring a lot more organic products to the Costco, right? Which is huge, especially for, you know, cooking clean foods, healthy foods for babies. So like, you know, carrots and bananas, whatnot. I think that's a big thing. And, and they're organic items I feel like are a lot cheaper than normal grocery stores. Of course they're bigger bulk, but at that same time you can kind of meal prep and, and create, you know, a freeze and whatnot and use for later. So that's one great thing about Costco. I think another great thing about Costco for new parents is the deals on diapers and wipes. They're always on sale. So, and, and their diapers are, from my understanding, their Kirkland Signature diapers are huggies, I don't know, don't take my word for, but that's, that's the rumor around that I've heard.

Henry (16m 44s):

So basically there's always savings at Costco. I mean, buying in bulk diapers, wipes, I mean, you're going to go through wipes like galore with the baby, right? Or diapers. So I mean, it's a no brainer to shop at Costco.

Katie Ferraro (16m 56s):

And they're more like eco-friendly now too. I I've noticed they made a lot of changes to their wipes. Even when I started having kids. I still buy their wipes, my kids babies are totally out of diapers, but once you start using wet wipes...

Henry (17m 5s):

Yeah, and you know, they have tons of snacks. They have, they bring, they rotate a lot of healthy snacks and now too yogurts and fruit and veggies and stuff. So definitely there's a plethora of different types of products that you can find at Costco that are perfect for your new baby. And the savings, I think alone you're going to see it in your bill.

Katie Ferraro (17m 25s):

So one of our family friends works in marketing for Costco locally here in San Diego. I love hearing her like behind the scenes stories and tips. She told me that the Costco meat department will split packages for you if it's too much. So for example, if you just like want the dark meat of a rotisserie chicken, they'll cut it and package it for you. Is that true?

Henry (17m 40s):

Yeah. So you know, from what I hear, it depends on the store. So some stores are very, some butchers, are very eager to help. I think most butchers at Costco are eager to help with splitting stuff and cutting things up and you know, slicing things specifically if you ask them, right? There's a story, I've heard that in the bakery at some Costco's you can buy frozen cookie dough and take home and cook at home versus buying the already baked cookies in the store. So that's rare from right here. But I've heard it depends on the store. So

Katie Ferraro (18m 12s):

You should start another competing page called Costco Rumors and people could share all the stories that they've heard about Costco and then you tell us whether they're true or not.

Henry (18m 19s):

There's a lot of rumors, but yeah, there's, I think the bottom line is just ask. They're always super helpful and if they can do it, they'll do for you. If

Katie Ferraro (18m 27s):

Not, especially the butchers. I agree with you. Like it's a little threatening sometimes parents a lot of times, like they know the benefits if they eat animal foods of feeding their baby meat. Sure. But they're scared of the different cuts. And then like the butchers are behind like the glass door. But like if you stand there or you stand at the side and you're nice and polite, they will help you out so much. Like I know our butchers here, a lot of them are like, they're like, don't buy that carne asada, this one's way better. I'm like, "Wait for real?" Like yeah, this is the one that we use. And I was like, "Okay, cool." Like I feel like you kind of feel like you're getting a little bit of an inside tip, but they're real. And you can tell they shop there too.

Henry (18m 54s):

Yeah. And, if you knock on the window, if they're behind, they're working, they'll open up and say, "Hey, how can I help you?" Like, I've done it multiple times. Right. And like, like you said, they will give you tips like, you know, I was looking for a specific cut of cow meat, like, "Oh yeah, we just sold that out. It's not coming back for another bit, but you can try this one instead." Right? So they'll give you, they'll, they're so helpful at Costco. I mean I love all the employees that, I mean they're probably the best people.

Katie Ferraro (19m 17s):

And the sample people don't work for Costco, is that right? Is that third party out?

Henry (19m 20s):

They do not, you know, they, they work for a third party company. Yeah.

Katie Ferraro (19m 22s):

They're very knowledgeable about that particular product. But like I feel like your typical Costco team member know like everything about everything.

Henry (19m 27s):

For sure. Yeah, definitely. Do

Katie Ferraro (19m 30s):

You think you could pass the test to like work at Costco because you now know everything about it?

Henry (19m 34s):

That's my future goal when I get old. My goal is to be a sample person at Costco handing out samples when I'm retired. You know, I just want to greet people out the door or hand out samples,

Katie Ferraro (19m 44s):

Henry, any other Costco deals or tips that you can share with us? Yeah,

Henry (19m 48s):

So this is a great deal that most people, some people know about and some people don't. So on the price tag there's different numbers on the price tags. So those are 99 cents, 97 cents, 49, 79, 00 and all those mean different things. So if on a sign and it says let's say $20 and 97 cents, that 97 cents means it's on clearance. So if you see that sign they're getting marked down to basically go away. So stock up on the item, if it shows 99 cents, that means it's full price. If it shows 49 cents or 79 cents at the end of the price tag, that's kind of usually a manufacturer special where they offer prices that are products that are having a trial run and are usually priced like cheaper than a retail will be.

Henry (20m 30s):

If it shows .00 on the price tag, those, that's a managers store discount where they're trying to get these products off the shelf. So the prices are super low and they're nearly out of stock. So grab that if you are looking for that because it might not come back. And the last one is an asterisk. If there's an asterisk at the end of a price tag, we kind of call the "death star" deal. And basically it, most of the time it's price lower but sometimes it's not. And it just shows an asterisk and that basically means that once it sells through, it's not coming back. Although we've seen some product come back maybe seasonally or come back maybe a couple months later. But most of the time once that pallet goes through it's not coming back. So those are couple tips I think are good to know when you're walking through a Costco.

Henry (21m 14s):

Also, some stores post signs already in green and that means that product is organic. So, and my store doesn't do that but I've gone to other stores that do green signs for organic and then white signs for not organic. So something to keep out for when you're shopping at Costco.

Katie Ferraro (21m 30s):

Okay, now I'm gonna have to actually go in person now; no more Instacart because I need to see all the prices cause you know, Instacart, jacks with the prices. But if you're actually in,

Henry (21m 37s):

But you know what, I gotta admit it's very convenient, Instacart

Katie Ferraro (21m 40s):

Because you don't have to physically go to Costco,

Henry (21m 42s):

Right? And prices are jacked up a little bit, but sometimes, you know, to not have to go in there and, and look for everything and you know, do all that and you know, battle with the traffic and the people and all that stuff, it's kind of worth it. So you're kind of smart doing that route.

Katie Ferraro (21m 57s):

Dude, Henry, thank you so much. This is so awesome chatting with you. Where can our audience go to learn more about you and your work?

Henry (22m 2s):

Yeah, you can follow me on Costco Deals on our Instagram page, on TikTok, on our Facebook page as well. Or you can follow us on our website, costcodeals.co and you know, and subscribe to our newsletter.

Katie Ferraro (22m 14s):

Well I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Henry from @costcodeals. He is such a nice guy. If you guys are at Costco, you have to tag him in your finds. He's so nice. He reshares everything that you tag him in. He loves to find deals through you guys as well. He's on Instagram and TikTok @costcodeals and I'll link up Henry's pages and deals on the shownotes page for this episode, which you can find at blwpodcast.com/278. Thanks for listening.