Thursday, April 2, 2009

My trip to Cash & Carry

So I teamed up with my mom and sister this morning to go do a run at Cash & Carry. I was excited about the cheese and chicken, as well as some other deals I wasnt expecting. We got there at 9 am, and there were only about 3 other shoppers (professional looking chef-types) there. We got our huge platform cart thing and started perusing the aisles. THE CARTS HAVE NO SEATS FOR BABIES ON THEM! If you bring your baby youd better have an extra set of hands with you to carry it (or a stroller, but there is NO way you could pull your cart and push your baby at the same time!) This place is almost like Costco. The produce and frozen goods are in separate rooms through big heavy doors. They have everything here in industrial size, and I was pretty pleased with the prices.
Between the 3 of us, we spent $200.81, so my cut was $66.94. Here are some noteworthy items and their prices:

huge and I mean huge bag of little green onions -$2.98
Box of 4/5lb bags of medium cheddar cheese - $31.88
Box of hashbrown cubes (contained between 4-6 large bags we cant remember now...) - $24.12
Ginormous bag of shredded cabbage- $2.79
10 lb bag of potatoes - 99 cents!

And finally the chicken...Man you guys I have to say, NOT WORTH IT. Somehow I missed the part about the chicken being ALL FROZEN together in the bags. We bought a box of 40lbs for $52, and brought it home - only to cry out in shock upon opening the lid. We had to let it defrost on the counter for 2 hours before we could even get the 4/10 pound bags unstuck from each other, and then we were baffled as to how to cook them. They were HUGE CHUNKS of SOLID chicken! After defrosting in huge containers in the sink for 4 hours we were able to pry some breasts off the chunk, but ultimately ended up tossing the frozen mass in a big pot. And we boiled and boiled them, and then shredded it all up. Needless to say, we only got through 3 of the bags, and its still NOT done! I smell like chicken, I have th efat under my fingernails...and at any point during today I would have gladly paid 50 bucks for the smallest bag of INDIVIDULALY frozen chicken breasts.

(open your box....and see ginorm frozen chicken lump)

Just thought id sound a note of caution to anyone out there who was thinking of this deal. Cash & Carry was fun to peruse, and they are UNBEATABLE in terms of huge BULK foods items (rice, flour, produce) so totally worth a trip with some friends or family to divvy up the goods. But I warn you...steer clear of the chicken!!!! ( Sorry there are no pics. I had some but now I cant find them in my moms many folders on her desktop...)

6 comments:

Monica said...

Wow, Christy I have not made this trip b/c I was worried about the whole thawing and dividing of the chicken ordeal. Good to know. Thanks for the info.

Tricia said...

Thanks for the info Christy. I thought it might be a pain, so I didn't go for it, then regretted it. But now I'm so glad I didn't.

Heather and Dave said...

Oh NO! Sorry for the crazy chicken ordeal. Sounds like a mess. Hopefully the other great prices will make up for it! At least having shredded chicken will be nice for enchiladas or chicken salad sandwiches! Please find the photos and post them later ;) I always love to see the Crandall ladies! -Heather & Dave

Katie said...

I did a little research because I was wanting to get this great deal on chicken to but didn't want to have to cook so much chicken at once, here's what I found, the USDA states: "Meat and poultry defrosted in the refrigerator MAY be refrozen before or after cooking. If thawed by other methods, cook before refreezing." Great news! I thought that raw chicken could never be re-frozen, I guess I've been wrong for all this time! So, if you get a box of chicken, let it thaw in the fridge (not necessarily completely thawed, just enough where the chicken is manageable), separate them, and re-freeze them individually or in smaller portions. I think this is what I'll be doing with my chicken.
Sorry you had such a bad experience Christy! Maybe I'll be feeling the exact same after I actually have to deal with the raw chicken.

Unknown said...

Oh my heck - I have ALWAYS been taught that you cannot re-freeze unthawed previously frozen meat! If only I had known this yesterday! Oh well, live and learn!! Thanks so much for the tip, next time should go a lot better. And hopefully this will help others take advantage of this great deal!! (I still dont know how I could have fit that into my fridge though!)

Cassie said...

I posted an awesome recipe that you can use to cook bulk chicken purchased. It's very tasty and so easy to add to recipes that call for chicken.