Tuesday, July 26, 2016

I love Costco. I love the prices, the food court and how everything is in bulk. My pug is even named Kirkland.

Last Monday I had an opportunity to go to a Canadian Costco. Naturally I was thrilled.

Ben, Mirabelle, Kristen’s mother Irene, and I all piled into the car for the hour or so drive to Barrie, where the nearest Costco was located. We started off the morning with Tim Horton’s, where I got a maple-flavored iced cap (what’s more Canadian than ordering a maple-flavored drink?) and shared an order of Timbits with the car. Timbits are donut holes, basically. Our flavor options were chocolate, blueberry and apple fritter. They tasted exactly how you would expect: donuty, fluffy, sugary. Not bad for fast-food donuts, definitely.

Our first stop was Georgian Mall, the largest mall in Barrie. It had stores with which I was familiar (American Eagle, the Disney Store, Gap, Sears) along with some new faces (Hudson’s Bay, Roots, Jacob Connexion). In the food court I tried poutine for the first time. I ordered the fries, gravy, cheese curd concoction from New York Fries. It was delicious. At many restaurants and shops you can order a side of gravy with your fries. This is one of my favorite things about Canada and food joints.

Then came Costco. I took a picture with Vicki, the worker who checked our member card as we walked through the door. She was happy for me and my Canadian Costco experience.

We walked down the aisles, the kids hanging off the cart or walking backwards in front of the cart and drastically slowing down our shopping experience. The Canadian Costco felt relatively the same to my own Portland or Eugene Costcos. The food was arranged different, but the clothes were in the middle of the store and a large play structure rose from the center clump of aisles up to the ceiling, just like my own Costcos. There was a section of hockey sticks, which was one of the most Canadian things Costco could sell so props to them for target marketing. Also I found some butter tarts, something I’ve never seen an Oregon Costco sell, but something I really wish the Oregon Costcos would sell because butter tarts are heavenly.

Next stop was the fish store. We stayed there for a much longer time one would expect considering we picked out four two-inch long guppies. Eventually Mirabelle and Ben were happy with their guppy choices and trotted out of the store each holding two bags filled with water and a fish.

The children fell asleep on the way home. I felt like I could join them. Instead I drowsily watched the farms pass by.