St. Martin provisioning tip
Right on the corner of Hard Beat to the East St. and Reasonably Pleasant Reach South Blvd. is the island of St. Martin. It is an island that 99.9% of cruisers heading south are sure to stop at and many will find that, by the time they reach there, most of the reasonably priced provisions that they stocked up on in Puerto Rico have long since been consumed. It is with this in mind that I share the following provisioning suggestion: visit Cost U Less.
Cost U Less is a super store akin to Costco or Sam’s Club, the difference being that no membership card is required to shop there. The store is located on the public bus route between Simpson Bay and Philipsburg and you can get there quickly and easily with a $1.50 bus ride. We have found that the prices on most things are excellent so it is well worth the trip. The best thing though, a secret that we only just leaned during our trip there yesterday, is that they will deliver your purchases back to Simpson Bay for free! That’s right, leave your dinghy at Simpson Bay Marina and take the bus to shop there. When you’re done shopping, go grab a bite to eat or whatever else you like to do to kill a bit of time, and when you get back to the marina, they’ll bring all your purchases there for you. Did I mention that they’ll do this for free?
When we visited the store yesterday, we travelled there with two other couples. While walking through the aisles, we met up with two additional couples that we knew who were doing the same type of pre-passage provisioning that we were. Cost U Less ended up delivering two full pallets of purchases for the 5 couples. In other words, a lot of stuff! We know from experience that on most of the islands south of here, things will not be so easily accessible nor as inexpensive. Take our advice… before you leave St. Martin, check out this store.
No, we did not buy these.
Sounds like you found a gold mine there. The cheese balls look very tempting. Where are you planning to celebrate Carnival?
We have no carnival plans.
Looks like they have another one in Curacao. http://www.costuless.com/store028/
Yes, it appear to be a chain.
Oh how can something so bad taste so good!
And make you feel so bad later?
As an FYI there is a Cost U Less on St. Thomas and St. Croix. There is also a similar store on Caicos Island, can’t remember what it was called, but the same concept.
And Curacao!
I think that if you check the link I supplied in the post you’ll find the addresses of all of their locations.
Now if only those were actual balls of 5 year old cheddar…. Mmmmm
That would be much better.
Say ……..”Processed CHEEEEEESE”
Can you say any of these other ingredients? I can’t. I can’t pronounce them and don’t know what they are! But hey, they’re gluten free!
Basic Ingredients (cheese balls and curls): Corn meal, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: cottonseed, corn, canola, sunflower, safflower), whey, maltodextrin, cheddar cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), milkfat, whey protein concentrate, salt, mono and diglycerides, buttermilk solids, natural flavor, disodium phosphate, lactic acid, yellow #6, autolyzed yeast extract, yellow #5, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, artificial flavor. Contains no partially hydrogenated fats. This is a Gluten Free Food.
And you know all that because… ?
Are you looking at a bag of them?
Just consulting the great Oracle. If I can’t pronounce it and / or don’t
know what it is, I don’t eat it.
http://utz.affinigent.net/products/cheesecurls.html
Smart.
I didn’t say that to her, but I should have. 🙂
Mike,
Very timely post. We will be heading to St. Martin shortly. With 3 kids my wife is always searching for the stores that deliver!
Eric
I think she’ll like this store.
Love my Sam’s membership. My office is located behind a Sam’s, so my afternoon leg stretching stroll sometimes includes a stroll through the great hall of consumerism to partake in some of the H’our D’vours (ignore spelling) they call them samples, but considering that I pay a membership fee I like the alternative.
Funny how we concern ourselves with the di-this and the mono that, yet we’ll pour glass after glass of a chemical that will sanitize things or run a gasoline engines without any concern…?.?
I Highly recommend the expensive cat litter, it makes a difference!
Funny but we never used our Costco membership when we lived on land.