When my iPhone freezes, I land a great deal on a new one at Costco

Atlantic cod is the fish that fed the world for centuries until limits were placed on its catch. Costco Wholesale in Teterboro offers fillets from a sustainable fishery in Iceland, where the cod are long-line caught. The fish turns snowy white and flakes beautifully when poached in roasted green salsa, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I planned to shop for food at Trader Joe's and Costco Wholesale on Tuesday, but my iPhone started giving me trouble right away.

When I tried to use the phone's camera at the Paramus Trader Joe's on Route 17, the screen was black.

I knew I was eligible for an upgrade in late January, so I drove to the Verizon store in the southbound lanes.

But before going inside, I called the wireless kiosk at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

I learned I could get a new, bigger iPhone, a free portable battery with flashlight, and a $100 cash card.

I then went inside the Verizon store, where the salesman said he couldn't match the offer.

At Costco, I paid the tax, $59.50, and agreed to pay $10 a month for two years for an iPhone 6s Plus with a lot more memory than my old iPhone 5s.

I got to the Teterboro Costco around 2:30 in the afternoon, and had my choice of parking spots near or far away from the entrance (Teterboro Landing shopping center off of Route 46).

Inside the store, only one other customer was ahead of me at the wireless kiosk.

After my phone was activated, I did my planned food shopping.

Icelandic cod

Costco sells one of my favorites, fresh wild-caught Atlantic Cod from Iceland for $7.99 a pound.

At home, in a large covered pan, I heated up 365 Everyday Value Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market, adding fresh juice from one lime.

I cut up the skinless and boneless fillet into serving pieces, and seasoned them with sea salt and crushed Aleppo pepper.

When the salsa began to boil, I put the pieces in the pan in a single layer and covered them. 

Depending on the thickness, the pieces were ready in 5 minutes to 7 minutes, and continued cooking in the covered pan when I turned off the fire.

I ate my first portion over leftover organic quinoa with organic diced tomatoes, both from Costco; organic chickpeas and whole garlic cloves.

I also had a salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.29 a pound at Costco), dressed with Kirkland Signature Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and balsamic vinegar.

Fresh Atlantic Cod poached in Roasted Salsa Verde over organic quinoa with organic chickpeas, organic diced tomatoes and whole garlic cloves.

Free-range organic eggs

At the Teterboro Costco, you can find free-range brown eggs, but the only organic ones are sold under the Kirkland Signature house label (two dozen for $6.99).

I've looked for large brown organic eggs at that price ($3.50 a dozen) in ShopRite and H Mart without success. 

I also picked up a 2-liter container of Kirkland Signature Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil for $13.29 with a $1.50 instant coupon or about $6.65 a liter.

Two organic eggs from Costco Wholesale with organic quinoa and sauteed spinach.

Oatmeal with blueberries and organic bananas from Costco Wholesale. Blueberries from Chile were $4.99 for 18 ounces and 3 pounds of organic bananas were $1.99.

Trader Joe's 100% juices

Earlier at Trader Joe's on Route 17 north in Paramus, I picked up a 3-pound bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes for $4.49 or about $1.50 a pound.

A 5-pound bag of the same Organic Sweet Potatoes was available during the holidays for about $1 a pound, but that has been discontinued.

I also picked up 64-ounce bottles of several 100% juice blends with no added sugar:

Trader Joe's Green Plant, Low Sodium Garden Patch, Heart of Darkness Mango Passionfruit and Carrot Tropical Blend.

Each was $3.49 or $3.99.

A 32-ounce container of Trader Joe's 3-in-1 Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash was $7.99.

Costco offers cash cards to members who join at new Teterboro store

At the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, a large banner shows what the bigger Teterboro store is expected to look like when it opens Oct. 14. The Hackensack warehouse store closes on Oct. 13.

Today, employees in Hackensack handed out pamphlets offering $10 or $20 cash cards to new members who sign up in person in Teterboro.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack is offering a $10 or $20 cash card to new members who sign up in person at the bigger warehouse store 3 miles away in Teterboro.

The store, in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off of Route 46, is scheduled to open on Oct. 14 at 8 a.m.

A Costco membership is $55 a year ($10 cash card) and an Executive Membership is $110 a year ($20 cash card).

Most members get the annual fee and more back in cash rebates on credit-card purchases at Costco as well as at gas stations, restaurants and other stores.

Executive Members get a higher 2% reward (up to $750).

A corner of the parking lot at the Hackensack Costco has been fenced off for construction of a large pump for the city's water system.

Costco Wholesale's new store in Teterboro to open ahead of schedule

At the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today, this member took advantage of the liberal return policy by seeking a refund for a dozen items, including a large wedge of cheese, a bag of lettuce, a carton of creamer and other food piled on the counter in front of her.

The line for returns formed quickly right after the store opened at 10 a.m.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale is scheduled to open its bigger store near Teterboro Airport on Oct. 14, an employee said today.

That's about a month earlier than expected.

The new store is 3 miles from the Hackensack warehouse store, which opened on July 21, 1994.

The new store will have a Costco gas station and a liquor department with wines from its private label, Kirkland Signature, neither of which are available in Hackensack.

In recent years, the Hackensack store has become so crowded on weekends many members avoid the place at all costs.

The Hackensack parking lot is regarded as a zoo on almost any day.

Costco owns the 14.8-acre Hackensack site.

The new Costco will open in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center near Route 46.

Does the new Costco Wholesale in Teterboro look like it will be ready for members on Oct. 14?

The canopy over the Costco Wholesale gas station in Teterboro is complete.

Update

At Teterboro Landing, Costco Wholesale's new store and parking lot are surrounded by fences, looking very much like a work in progress.

The exterior of the building isn't complete and doesn't yet have the "Costco Wholesale" name on it.

Although the drive to the shopping center is only 3 miles longer than a trip to the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, there is a lot more traffic and the main road, Route 46, is being repaired and resurfaced.

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack is a victim of its own success

Large seedless watermelons were $6.99 each on Friday at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Editor's note: A replacement for the crowded Costco Wholesale in Hackensack can't come soon enough. Today, I also discuss inexpensive bottles at Total Wine in River Edge, and good deals on canned goods from Jamaica at ShopRite in Rochelle Park.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack opened nearly 21 years ago and has become so popular members know to stay away on the weekends.

I drove over on Friday, hoping to order prints of photos in my iPhone and get a new pair of glasses with HD progressive lenses.

The first sign of a crowd was a long line of cars turning into the entrance from South River Street, prompting me to make an illegal U-turn and enter at the back of the lot, far from the front doors.

The poor design of the lot allows lazy customers to wait for a space near the doors, but that often backs up traffic and blocks South River, especially on Saturdays and Sundays.

The photo counter wasn't busy at all, and I was able to hook up my phone with a store-provided cable and order more than 60 photos for our scrapbooks.

Evil eye

But when I walked over to the eye-wear counter, two other members eyed me suspiciously, silently letting me know they were waiting for a salesperson to help them. 

I didn't feel like waiting. I went looking for a few free food samples, but most contained chicken or beef, which I no longer eat.

Then, I strolled over to a refrigerated room, picked up a pound of organic baby spinach ($4.79) and went to the check-out counter.

My wife has been making our weekly food-shopping trip to the warehouse store in the last couple of months. 

I may keep it that way until a bigger Costco opens or remember to go to the Hackensack store only on Mondays to Thursdays.

No Costco wine in Teterboro

A new, bigger Costco is expected to open in Teterboro in the fall -- adding six miles to my round trip, compared to the Hackensack location.

But from what Hackensack employees say, the new store may not be such a big improvement.

Costco didn't buy a state liquor license for the Teterboro store, meaning members won't be able to take advantage of Kirkland Signature's good values in wines, such as a delicious California Cabernet Sauvignon and a "Superiore" Prosecco from Italy.

So, the closest Costco with Kirkland Signature wines remains the new store at the Willowbrook Shopping Center in Wayne, a 21-mile round trip.

The new Teterboro Costco will have a gas station for my wife's miserly hybrid, but I've heard the waits can be so long many members don't bother. 

And I won't have any use for it when I drive there in my all-electric car.

The tire store in Teterboro is expected to be larger, but I don't know whether members can have their wheels aligned after they buy new rubber.

In Hackensack, buying new tires at Costco means low prices, but you have to go to another shop for an alignment.

Costco offers extra-cost installation services, but you will have to take your new large-screen TV home by yourself.

Last week, my wife brought home a 20-pound bag of Deer-brand basmati rice from India that comes in a sealed bag tucked inside a zippered burlap one ($19.79). Consumer Reports says basmati varieties contain less arsenic than other types of rice, even those grown in California.

Kirkland Signature is Costco's house brand for premium products, but here the label is applied to artificially colored farmed salmon from Chile, with no information on whether the fish are raised on harmful antibiotics and other additives. Costco also sells canned wild pink salmon, a better choice.

We loved a new item, Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt Fruit on the Bottom, but the second time we purchased it, the yogurt was much too thick and unpleasant to eat. We used the remaining cups to make smoothies with frozen strawberries, fresh bananas and juice.

Reds under $6.50 at Total Wine

An advertising flier for Total Wine & More in River Edge listed a 750-milliliter bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from California for $2.67.

So, I stopped there on Saturday and embarked on a search for that bottle and other inexpensive reds.

Red wines under $6.50 are scattered throughout the large store, making you work for the bargains. 

I picked up two bottles of Pacific Peak Cabernet ($2.67 each), a bottle of Double Dog Dare Cabernet ($4.49), Canyon Oaks Cabernet ($4.99), Mendoza Station Malbec from Argentina ($5.99) and Oak Grove Merlot Reserve ($6.49).

If you buy six bottle of wine with prices ending in "9," the store gives you a 10% discount on all of them.

Total Wine & More, 135 Kinderkamack Road, River Edge; 201-968-1777.

Ackee and callaloo

A Jamaican fruit called ackee and a green called callaloo are essential when preparing Jamaican food at home.

Ackee goes into the national dish, Ackee and Salt Fish, which uses the bland fruit as a foil for hot peppers and salted cod.

Callaloo is a spinach-like green that can be served as a side dish with or without diced sweet peppers.

On Friday, at ShopRite in Rochelle Park, my wife picked up a two dozen 19-ounce cans of Grace-brand Ackees in Salt Water for $7.49 each.

At Hackensack Market on Passaic Street, a 19-ounce can of ackee was $10.99.

A 19-ounce can of Grace-brand Callaloo, chopped, was $2.29 a can. She purchased 19 of them.

Good and bad news at the Hackensack Costco Wholesale

Teterboro Landing will be an enormous new shopping center across the street from Teterboro Airport. A Costco Wholesale with a gas station and a Walmart will be the anchor stores. The Costco is scheduled to open in November 2015.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale won't be closing its Hackensack warehouse store after a larger Costco with a gasoline station is completed about 3 miles away in Teterboro.

That's the good news. And the bad news?

Members who rely on the Hackensack store for wild-caught fish, organic and non-GMO groceries, clothing and other items no longer will be able to shop there.

The store, which opened in July 1994, is expected to be converted into a Costco business center exclusively for members who buy by the pallet, a store manager said on Monday.

The Teterboro Costco is scheduled to open in November 2015.

The walls of the Walmart store went up in about three weeks, a Teterboro police officer said.

The new Costco will go up in this area.

The main entrance to the shopping center will be via Teterboro Landing Drive, which is about a block from Route 46 and across the street from a busy business airport, below.

Costco v. Walmart

I plan to boycott the new Walmart in Teterboro -- because of its labor policies -- but will go into the store to see if it offers anything to compete with Costco Wholesale's Kirkland Signature store brand and its selection of organic, antibiotic-free and non-GMO food.

I appreciate a bargain as much as any shopper, but don't shop by price alone, which is the main appeal of Walmart.

I am not interested in the gas station the new Costco in Teterboro will have.

My Toyota Prius gets better mileage on Shell than it does on any other brand, including the low-price fuel sold at Wawa.

The Walmart in Teterboro will be 160,000 square feet and the Costco will be 156,000 square feet, compared to 122,000 square feet in Hackensack, according to press reports.

There should be enough room in Teterboro for a wine department offering Costco's Kirkland Signature label, and for wheel alignment, which is missing at the Hackensack Costco tire store. 

Two new items at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, above and below.

A large bottle of cabbage kimchi is a good value, but the label lists "beef bone extract" as one of the ingredients, below.

Missing items

Will a bigger Costco in Teterboro mean the store will not run out of items as much as the Hackensack Costco does?

In April 2013, I bought a 164-foot roll of Kirkland Signature Parchment Paper for $5.99, and when it finished, I could never find it again in Hackensack.

The "genuine vegetable parchment" eliminated the need to use aluminum foil when roasting fish, meat, poultry or salt-free almonds in the oven.

On Monday, I couldn't find any salted fish in the Hackensack warehouse store -- not the Canadian cod we had been buying or the Alaskan pollock we used as a substitute.

I also came up empty when I asked for a 3-pound bag of peeled garlic from the Christopher Ranch in California.

A manager said the store had run out of the refrigerated item, and that there may be a shortage.

I e-mailed the company, but haven't heard anything back, which is typical of Christopher Ranch.