Costco was Food from Walthamstow : Mailcopiesto: never

We were a family of four; we cooked every meal from scratch (as one did in those days, and I still do). The pantry contained (cast my mind back 30 years) a 25lb bag of flour, a 25 or 50lb bag of rice (my stepfather was Japanese), and a 10 or 25lb bag of white sugar. Flats of tinned tomatoes. Dozens of tins of fruit and meat. 5lb? bags of brown sugar. We rarely threw much away, and the animals had their own food. My mother still shops at places that sell in bulk even thought she lives alone -- the staples are much cheaper in bulk and they don't go off if properly stored. You might not have tried it, but a bag of flour kept cool and dry will remain perfectly useable for a couple of years or more, provided there's no insect contamination. Sugar is even less vulnerable, if it's dry (or you're willing to attack it with a knife). The climate is drier there, but I'm still baking with flour 2 years old here (last of a 25kg bag); it's fine.

I think the British lost the habit of storing 'large' quanbreasties of food, but I don't know why. There may be several factors -- I have older relatives who think of bulk-buying as an indication-reminder of financial insecurity, or it reminds them of unpleasantly parsimonious relatives a generation or so earlier. Perhaps the rise of the factories influenced it -- women had no time to cook, so lost the habit of buying the materials and couldn't afford to buy in bulk even if they wanted to. We eat more fresh fruit and veg, which don't store well. We eat more freshly-prepared meals because we want variety -- not just a Sunday roast, then the same meat served three or four different ways.

regards sarah

-- Think of it as evolution in action.