Boise Co-op used to carry Anise Stars. I haven't checked in a while.
my mom went to costco about a year ago and found these vanilla bean packs that came with 8 beans for like 7 or 8 bucks. she was so excited about the price that she mailed us two packs of them. great quality. so you may want to hit cosco for those and for saffron. they have a similar package of saffron in a neat little unique glass bottle/container and its crazy cheap compared to everywhere else.
I've never seen them carry star anise or vanilla bean, or such things. More like peppers, soy beans, dashi stock and the like - Korean spices and ingredients that are harder to find in grocery stores. I can't give you a price comparison, but Costco usually has vanilla beans and I've occasionally seen star anise, or you might try Cost Plus World Market. Maybe Trader Joe's?
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