Costco with Griffin Newman

"Costco with Griffin Newman" is Episode 260 of *Doughboys*, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Costco with Griffin Newman" was released on July 16, 2020.

## Synopsis

Actor and King of Kranch Griffin Newman (*The Tick*, *Blank Check Podcast*) joins the 'boys to talk Disney, New York supermarkets and review Seattle-founded club store Costco. Plus, the debut of Slop Quiz.

## Nick's intro

In June of 2020, developer Naughty Dog released *The Last of Us Part II* for PlayStation 4, the sequel to their 2013 critical and commercial sensation about humanity coping with the aftermath of a fungal plague that turns the infected into zombie-like creatures. Set two decades after the outbreak, the world of *The Last of Us* is desperate and brutal, under constant threat of attacks by swarms of infected Runners and Clickers, though it's often surviving humans who pose the biggest threat, divided into factions warring over scarce resources and perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence.

In the story of *Part II*, the player traverses the American West, including an extended campaign in a post-apocalyptic vision of Frasier's hometown of Seattle. Mostly vacant, demolished, and overgrown by plant life, one institution helps connect the ruins with the Emerald City we know today: the ubiquitous outpost of Ruston Coffee, the game's fictional stand-in for Seattle-founded coffee shop, Starbucks.

    And while Starbucks has become a part of Seattle and American cultural identity, there's another Seattle-founded chain that is similarly entrenched in our lives: a warehouse-sized club store founded in 1983 by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman.

Requiring a paid membership, the store developed a fanatical following among budget-minded shoppers with its bulk offerings of foodstuffs, paper goods, and alcohol, and expanded its footprint across the Pacific Northwest throughout the '80s. In 1983, the chain acquired the similar San Diego-founded concept Price Club, and the two stores combined branding and kept growing like a Bloater infected with cordyceps.

Beyond its grocery offerings and free food samples (currently put on hold due to our own real-world plague), the store features a bustling food court offering loss-leading hot dogs, pizza, and sweet treats.

Today with nearly 800 outposts, it trails only Walmart as the largest retailer in terms of sales volume in the world.

And so, in the future depicted in the *Last of Us* franchise, where one's survival is predicated on shanking stalkers with switchblades and detonating dogs with explosive arrows, you might find success scavenging for supplies in the ruins of a warehouse-sized club store founded in Seattle.

This week on *Doughboys*, our month-long review of supermarket eats, **Friendly Green Grocer Mitch's Grocery Store Month**, continues with Costco.

## Friendly Green Grocer Mitch's Grocery Store Month

For this month-long look at grocery stores, The Doughboys take these aspects into consideration:

1. How's it looking? (overall impression/name/mascot/etc.)
2. Parking
3. Produce
4. Original Snacks
5. Frozen Snacks
6. Room Temperature Snacks
7. Check-out
8. Hoity-Toityness
9. Bagging and carts
10. Price

The scoring is not the usual five forks, but out of ten carts. A basket is half a cart.

An average of 8/10 will get into the Green Grocer Mitch's Freezer Club (the equivalent of the Golden Plate Club).

## Cart rating

As with the other Grocery Store Month visits, The Doughboys focus their purchases entirely on the store's own brand of goods (in Costco's case, Kirkland Signature items).

* Hot Dog
* Fruit Smoothie
* Spanish Queen Olives
* Red Grapefruit Cups
* Ancient Grains Probiotic Granola
* Chicken Bakes
* Italian Sausage and Beef Lasagna
 Mike Mitchell
* Slice of Cheese Pizza
* Hot Dog
* Berry Smoothie
* Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
* Organic Dried Tart Montmorency Cherries
* Organic Tortilla Chips
* Organic Salsa
* Organic Raw Ginger Lemonade Kombucha
* Sliced Roasted Turkey Breast
* Organic Chunky Guacamole
* Trail Mix
* Breaded Panko Shrimp
* Chocolate Almond Dipped Vanilla Ice Cream Bars
* \*Diet Cokes
* \*Half Tea & Half Lemon Spindrifts
* \*G Zero Glacier Freeze Gatorade
* \*Pressed Juice
* \*greek yogurt
* \*70" big screen TV
 Griffin Newman
* Slice of Pepperoni Pizza
* Hot Dog
* Berry Smoothie
* Strawberry Sundae
* Coffee
* Frozen Pizzas
* Elephant Ear Cookies (Palmiers)
* Peanut Butter Pretzels
* Milk Chocolate Raisins

*Mitch also bought some non-Kirkland items, which were not part of the rating (the starred items above).*

Costco's Grocery Story Month rating is 10.00 carts, which scales to 5.00 forks. Thus, Costco joins the Platinum Cart Club!

(*It will be removed from Platinum club in a later episod*e. -ed.)

## Slop Quiz

In this new segment, Nick has a food-related exam (pop quiz) and Mitch and the guest compete for superiority.

For this episode, the slopic (topic) is to guess whether the restaurant named is from *Family Guy* or *Seinfeld* (as Griffin Newman shares names of characters from those two shows).

Whoever gets the most answers correct is declared the winner.

Griffin wins! Mitch declares this was the most fixed game show of all-time.

## Mitch's Scorsese Poem

Rupert Pupkin had a sad grin; the crowd found his jokes quite shitty
Billy Costigan got himself lost again while dodging crooks in Boston
Henry Hill, he had his fill, found mob life quite exhausting
Samuel Rothstein, he went unseen making deals with his Vegas crews
Willem Dafoe said 'no no no, don't crucify the king of the Jews"

## Quotes

**Griffin**: Yea, it's a Wiger-sized hot dog. It really is something you'd struggle to fit in your mouth all at once.

## Related Episodes

* DD. The Great Ice Cream Sandwich Competition
* 259. Whole Foods
* DD. Stephen King's Sierra Mist
* 260. **Costco**
* DD. Checkout Aisle Bounty
* 261. Albertsons
* DD. Biggie Feedbag XXIII
* 262. Kroger
* 146. The Slice is Right: Semifinals Match 2
* 147. The Slice is Right: Finals
* 260. **Costco**
* 322. Costco 2
* DD. Tombstone (The Movie)
* 250. Tombstone (The Pizza)
* 260. **Costco**
* DD. BK Kid's Club Is Back!
* 324. Nathan's Famous
* DD. Muppet Treasure Island
* 376. Eataly
* DD. Gorko's Planet Clergmas Spectacular

## Photos

Slice of Cheese PizzaBerry SmoothieChocolate Almond Dipped Vanilla Ice Cream BarOrganic Tortilla ChipsChocolate Chocolate Chip MuffinsOrganic Medium SalsaOrganic Ginger Lemonade KombuchaOrganic Dried Tart Montmorency CherriesTurkey Melt using Kirkland Signature Sliced Roast TurkeyTurkey Melt with Chunky GuacamoleHot Dog and Raspberry Iced TeaHot Dog