Make your own peanut butter and find bulk-aisle heaven at WinCo

Steve Marcus

Three-year-old twins Armann, left, and Aryan Saadi wear Winco hats as their mother shops during the grand opening a WinCo Foods supermarket at Stephanie Street and Wigwam Parkway in Henderson Sunday, March 4, 2012. The Boise-based supermarket chain opened their 81st and 82nd stores Sunday, their first stores in Southern Nevada.

By Erin Ryan (contact)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 | 6:49 p.m.

Sunday. 8:45 a.m. The line is long and restless. We’re not teenagers waiting to get backstage with a boy band. We’re coupon-clutching adults waiting to get inside the best discount supermarket on the planet. It’s so good that we don’t really need the coupons. But it’s opening day, and rumor has it this sparkling new WinCo is out of shopping carts. “It’s like Christmas Eve,” one woman marvels.

Everyday is like Christmas at WinCo. Short for Winning Company, it’s a network of 82 employee-owned, 24-hour stores in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Utah and Nevada—including this new location in Henderson and another in Las Vegas. Wherever your WinCo, the selection is vast. The raw goods are fresh. The prices are insanely low. And the bulk section is a thing of beauty.

Rolling through, I overhear revelations about the cost of everything from asparagus to frozen lasagna to Gatorade. (It’s like they’re drinking out of Willy Wonka’s chocolate river.) But my favorite is this sweet exchange. Woman: “You can make your own peanut butter!” Man: “No. Way.”