Last week I took a trip out to Costco here in Taipei. A bit of disclosure, I was never a Costco shopper in Canada – something about owning a SmartCar and buying giant vats of mayonnaise didn’t seem to mesh together. So, I suppose part of my amusement with my trip to Costco here in Taipei was Costco itself, and not so much the Asian experience. Although, i had high expectations as to what sort of amusing bulk items i would find.

Much to my sadness there really weren’t that many local offerings. No big barrels of soya sauce, no crates of wanton wrappers or barrels of kimchi. Instead, it was just local Taiwanese stocking up on things like bulk Vaseline, plasma tvs, and dinner rolls. Sure, there was meat offered thinly sliced perfect for hot pot, sold along side the kilos of ground beef and 24 pack steaks. But the beef was USA beef, and the buffalo mozzarella i bought was proudly made in Wisconsin. If anything this really ended up being a trip to America town:

Interestingly, I saw only two other westerners on my visit. I assumed this would be mecca for homesick Americans, perhaps they were all at TGIFriday’s enjoying chicken fingers no doubt sourced from Costco.