Costco - First Visit - What are your must haves?

[PomPomSugar]

I am visiting Costco for the first time next week and wondered if any of you have experience of this. If so, what’s your must have items? Anything to avoid? Any tips? Thank you.

Only ever been in the US - family there. I'd love to talk dh into going so I'm looking forward to seeing what others say. I would probably get bog roll on my first sweep- and squash the rolls down to put in a hold-all

Money.

People always spend more on a first visit.

That said, I had a bit of a shock the time before last. Keep an eye on the running total as you shop.

It's all good. 😁

Very easy to get carried away, so is it going to be a regular thing, will you have your own card or is this a one off? Remember that you will have to store all these things somewhere. We have been going to Costco for the last 15 years. We have a pantry and a separate larder freezer.

The first time we went we just went to look mainly and get an idea of cost compared to the supermarket. I would say that 70% of the products we buy are cheaper than the supermarket. Others are just better tasting or better quality like their bin liners or black bin bags.

Their hot chickens are amazing, so is their pizza in their food cafe thing at the end.

I renewed my membership last month after years in the wilderness. Trays of tins, juice, weetabix, boring cleaning stuff- dishwasher tabs/fluid, bleach, kitchen roll, toilet roll, condiments. I was aiming for stuff that I really resent buying when I go on a weekly shop so didn't have to for a while and resent them even more while prices go up. Do look carefully at the prices, some aren't that good value and you'd be better off in Lidl IMO. Albeit, I think that I made the mistake of not calculating VAT on the prices as I roughly totted things up on my trip around and was stung at the till, didn't go wild- the only "non-standard" purchases were jars of artichoke hearts and some really addictive wasabi pea type snack. Should have filled the car up with fuel at the same time really so that's my tip to OP. I was debating whether or not to buy meat and freeze that, I bought a tray of chicken in the end but I am trying to reduce meat consumption in any event. I do feel really lucky to be able to have done that shop- I was wondering what could be done to make bulk buying accessible to more people. I will probably go about 3 times a year I think and now that I have got the dull stuff I won't need to think about it for a year. But Costco is a 20 minute drive away from me, the trip needs to be worthwhile and proper car full.

Years ago I'd go infrequently with a friend & spend a fortune. More in stationery & house stuff than food.

i have had my own card for years now, so there's not that 'now or never' feel to it. I can go away, contemplate whether I really need that xyz & kniw I can go back for it if I do want it.

Im vegetarian & I low carb, so my standard 'pop in' shop is

coastal cheddar cheese
homous
olives
almonds
avocados

laundry /cleaning products can be cheaper but aren't always.

some things are a similar price to the supermarket, but if you have storage space are convenient to bulk buy.

Then there's the catering sizes of things like tin foil & baking paper, proper width rolls & a decent length.

I love their Christmas wrapping paper, it's double sided & lively to use.

... tents, bbq, shed, kayak, tv, Mac book, blankets, towels ....

just be warned that something can look small in there, but when you get to the car, suddenly treble in size!!! Or a block of chees looks 'normal' until you get it home to your domestic fridge!!

have fun!

Enjoy!

Essentials for us are:
toilet rolls
kitchen rolls
bin bags
washing powder
cleaning stuff in general
batteries
razor blades
Danish pastries (they freeze well)
muffins (also freeze well)
coffee
tea

petrol - cheap

Bin bags
Food bags
Dishwasher tablets
Floor wipes
Cookies
Chicken breasts
Frozen Kiev, chicken burger, beef burgers.

Normally spend £150 plus.

The own-brand is Kirkland, and it's generally very good quality.

Very good for Xmas presents - look out for toiletries and multi packs of tins of biscuits which can be split. I occasionally buy clothes too. I like Costco so I can buy in bulk and not worry about running out of toilet rolls, deodorant etc. Also good for buffet parties - large packs of ready made salads and finger food.

Head and shoulders shampoo

Bottled water ( not trying to encourage people to use plastic, but we always keep some spare in the garage, useful when we had no water for four days in this area)

Swedish meatballs

I don't particularly find things cheaper but it's great if you have space to store the bulk buys.

Meat is great quality
Toilet and kitchen roll
Bottled water - we always end up supplying school events, try not to use it ourselves
Coffee
Cheese
Coffee
And random shit you never knew you wanted or needed!

They have a special offers booklet on their website which is useful to look at before you go in.
We buy a lot of things from there on special offer. Not everything is cheaper though.

Ooooh I love a Costco shop. I went yesterday. I tend to go once a month. I always buy meat. The children love the chocolate brownie bites - which I'm currently eating for breakfast 🙈
Gyoza which is in the freezer section and lots of other random bits.

Be careful with laundry powder as some is intended for commercial machines and will mess up your home machine. Check the label.
Otherwise - they have everything so what you buy will depend on your tastes. The meat is good and good value. We always buy excellent large frozen spanakopitas which make an incredibly easy lunch for 5-6 (just add Greek salad) for about £3. Bread and pasties are good but trays are huge and they take up a lot of room in the freezer so I don’t generally bother. There are large things of grated cheese, Parmesan, smoked salmon, charcuterie which are good value. Just take your time and accept you will spend at least £250!

The things we like are:

• sushi platters
• tomahawk steaks
• chicken hot pot
• pizzas - They actually taste very good
• the bakery stuff like cookies but we try not to get these very often due to the calories
• loo rolls
• bottled water

Random stuff we've picked up that we've needed and has been a real bargain

• a microwave (the same onecwe were planning to buy from Argos but at least £20 cheaper)
• a really comfortable and good quality bike helmet

Our main problem is no room to store all the things so we have to limit what we buy.

Things that look fairly large in the store in fact turn out to be massive when you get home. The large scale of everything in the store can be deceptive.

Batteries
Bottled water
Toilet roll
Tinned tomato's
Ketchup
Mayonnaise
Pet food
Butter
Fries
Chicken bits in breadcrumbs

With Christmas in mind:
Books / book sets for all ages
Gift vouchers - they do iTunes, pizza express, cinema etc at discounted price - for example £40 of gift card costs you £35

The books and gifts are great value for Christmas presents The food is lovely, but not necessarily cheaper. We often stock up on cleaning products etc, just worth checking it’s actually better value than your own supermarket. The clothes section is a bit of a hidden gem. I bought some Sketchers shoes I’d been eyeing up online for just £24 last time. Have often picked up bargains in the clothes section.

It’s easy to get carried away as PPs have said, so do a running total if trying to stick to a budget. Make sure you use the VAT price not the price ex VAT too.

We always stop in the cafe buys for lunch too. It’s such great value and we love it. It’s become a little ritual now.

We go about once a month and my advice is check the prices as not everything is cheap/ cheaper than supermarkets and don’t get carried away .Good buys are loo roll , cereal , porridge, rotisserie chicken , laundry stuff , tissues , maple syrup , coffee and petrol if they have a filling station .

If you're aiming to save money then you need to have a good sense of how much your usual purchases cost. As a rule of thumb, branded products that you find in the supermarket will be cheaper at Costco. Eg Kelloggs, Heinz, Hellmans. But they are unlikely to be cheaper than the supermarket's own-brand versions.

OTOH you might prioritise the convenience of bulk-buying. I have no idea how prices of toilet paper compare, but I vastly prefer buying a 6-month supply and shoving it in the understairs cupboard over having to lug bulky stuff home from the supermarket very frequently. Or running out unexpectedly because of the kids having friends over just as we near the end of a packet.

As others have said defo not always cheaper but the quality is better than Aldi and Lidl. As others have said it's often being able to buy in bulk.

We like:
Fancy nuts
Wokey Hole Cheddar
Hummus
Guacamole
Meat
Pizza
Wine
Grated Parmesan
Grated mozzarella
Bakery

It's prob easier to say what I don't buy:
Kirkland laundry liquid
Kirkland dishwasher tabs

Re clothes, it is always worth a look. Socks pants bras and cashmere sweaters are often v good. Eg last time I went they had v nice and cheap Calvin klein sports bras so I bought 2 boxes of 3 (or 3 boxes of 2) for dd2 and chucked out all her old manky ones. She was thrilled. Huge bargains in socks so I always stick up. Good for athletic gear but sometimes also named brand jeans for men /Teen boys like gant or diesel hiding amongst other stuff.

Toilet roll

Kitchen roll

Tinned tomatoes

Water

Beer

Detergent

Dishwasher tablets

Cheese

Their ribs are great according to DS. (chiller section in a bag that looks vaguely american)

Sometimes wine, but they have stopped doing decent wine at decent prices. IMO

I have been going for years, and I have it down to a fine art and get in and out like something from supermarket sweep, DH has recently retired and the other day wandered around like a fart in a trance, I swear to God it was like he was on a day trip......it is not like he hasn't been there before. 🙄

-Cooked chicken
-Pesto chicken flat bread sandwichy things
-Frozen noodles that you can microwave - really quick dinner
-New York Cheesecake (Frozen) - not been in stock for months, tastes just like the Pizza Exoress one
-Shortbread biscuits with choc chips
-Hummus

• Pesto sauce chilled
• Spaghetti dried

-Prawns chilled in tub -Aberdeen Angus mince beef

• Lurpak
• Cardinales Caesar dressing in 2 pack

Non food

• Ariel powder
• Foil
• Clingfilm
• loo rolls
• kitchen roll
• batteries

Love Costco! Our nearest is not very near now, so we don't go very often but hoping to go next week. Their Halloween stuff should be in shortly.

As posters have said, everything is giant sized so be careful if you are tempted by the furniture! It's good quality but definitely on a larger scale.

The bakery stuff is nice, batteries are cheap especially when on offer and we get a large pack of filters for our Brita water jug from there. I think last year we got a large pack of DD's favourite pens for school quite cheaply too. We buy multipacks of the balm-coated tissues as well, me and DD go through boxes at a time when we've got a cold or flu virus!

On a good day, you can snack your way round with the 'try me' stations, we've found some lovely stuff through that.

We do buy toilet rolls and kitchen rolls from Costco, they did run out at the start of the pandemic which was a first for us - the staff said they'd never seen anything like it!

Our standard purchases are

loo roll
kitchen roll
binbags
tinfoil trays
toilet duck or equivalent
chocolate brownie mix
croissants
socks
Half baked rolls
Diet Coke trays if on offer
Chicken breasts
caster sugar