Costco is bringing back free samples in a week or two.
I have actually been buying from Costco more than ever since The Pandemic began and it's become so much a part of my life that the pace will probably continue. But apart from one in-person expedition, it's all been delivery.
Once a week — on a day my cleaning lady comes — I have them deliver two of their rotisserie chickens…one for me, one for her. She cuts up the one for me and it feeds me for two or three days, then the leftovers are chopped fine for Lydia the Cat. I eat well. Lydia eats well.
Two chickens runs me $12.42. Then I also have them bring me a two-pack of Rao's Marinara Sauce since I use about two jars of it a week. That's presently $13.42 so that gets me to $25.84. I then need less than ten bucks worth of purchases to get me over the $35 mark to qualify for free delivery and it's real easy to scale that hurdle. Sometimes, I overshoot it by a lot.
So I've figured out how to make Costco work for me in stay-at-home mode. I just haven't figured out how to make the delivery include some of those free samples.