Costco Grocery Finds That Are Made In The USA

Costco is one of America's most beloved grocery stores. Its annual membership retention rate of 93% speaks volumes about customer satisfaction. However, it works slightly differently from other supermarkets. For one thing, it does not sell shelf space. The company also stocks significantly fewer products than a typical supermarket, approximately 4,000, compared to the market standard of around 30,000.

Between the integrity in refusing to hook products at eye level and the affordable hot dogs, it's no wonder that over 100 million Americans shop here (even though not every state has a Costco). Customers have high expectations for Costco products — including both its year-round products and the occasional specialty items. Many of these products may get more expensive due to the onset of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on countries around the globe. But, fortunately, Costco carries a bunch of stellar American products that are mercifully tariff-free.

Kirkland is Costco's in-house brand, which is very popular with members and spans a range of essentials. That includes this Kirkland Signature bottled water, produced for Costco by the Niagara Bottling water company. Despite its name, Niagara isn't actually based anywhere near Niagara Falls (that would be in New York), but is instead located in California. Founded in 1963, this family-owned company is the largest private-label water company in North America.

Its products are sold at Costco under the Kirkland brand and at almost every supermarket you can imagine under different brand names, usually store brands. Niagara has produced water for the likes of Walmart, Wegmans, 7-Eleven, and many more over the years. The company also sells some water under its Niagara brand.

Niagara Bottling operates multiple water bottling plants, mainly across the United States. While it does also have some plants in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Australia, the latter two plants are dedicated to sparkling water. One of its largest plants is in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, with over 1 million square feet of facilities to produce and distribute its products.

Kirkland Signature Microwave Popcorn comes with 44 3.3-ounce bags at around $16.99. That's the exact kind of bargain Costco is known for. This movie theater-style buttery popcorn also comes with a "Product of the USA" label.

As for which company is behind the popcorn, there is no clear verdict. There is speculation that ConAgra Foods — the company behind popcorn brands such as Orville Redenbacher's and Act II — is the supplier. The leading proof is an FDA recall notice for Kirkland popcorn that names ConAgra as the manufacturer. But that recall was in 2008, and ConAgra may no longer be the supplier. The Kirkland Movie Theater Butter Microwave Popcorn nutritional label, however, does track extremely closely with Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn Movie Theater Butter Popcorn.

There's also the possibility that Costco may be using multiple suppliers, something the company is known to do to ensure reliable supply chains and to use as leverage when negotiating prices. Whatever the source of the popcorn, however, it is sourced in the United States.

Ascent is a family-owned business that has made clean protein products for more than 30 years in Denver, Colorado. Its native whey protein contains no artificial ingredients or sweeteners, and each serving contains 25 grams of protein. The company partners with dairy farmers to source Grade A milk and then makes its whey protein blends in its facilities in Colorado and California.

Protein has never been more popular, but its inclusion in, say, cereal bars or yogurt usually comes at a price premium. Stocking up on Costco's 4.25-pound bag of Ascent's 100% native whey chocolate protein blend is one way to save money on protein. This gigantic bag of chocolate whey protein costs around $54.99, which is a good deal for high-quality protein, especially when you consider that buying a 4-pound bag of the chocolate flavor directly from Ascent's website costs $74.99.

Costco isn't exactly loud about the origins of its Kirkland Signature products. While some Costco products are known to be made at its own facilities, such as the hot dog, most Kirkland products are produced by a wholesaler. Sometimes that secret spills out, as was the case when the Food and Drug Administration issued a health alert for mixed fruit products in 2019 that, in turn, triggered a massive Costco recall by revealing that Townsend Farms is behind Costco's Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend. (The three berries in question are raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.)

Townsend Farms is based in Fairview, Oregon, and sells both fresh and frozen fruit. The company was started in 1906 and is still owned by the founding family. Funny enough, while Costco sells the Three Berry Blend under the Kirkland brand, the Organic Berry Supreme is sold in stores under the Townsend Farms name. The Kirkland bag, however, has about 1 pound more fruit than the Townsend Farms bag, although the latter is organic and a four-fruit blend (it includes the three aforementioned berries plus strawberries).

Speaking of popcorn, there's at least one popcorn brand sold at Costco without any mystery. That would be SkinnyPop, which is billed as selling significantly healthier popcorn than many other brands on the market. Costco sells multiple kinds of SkinnyPop, including a multipack of Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn, Original, and Aged White Cheddar varieties.

SkinnyPop is now one of the most recognizable ready-to-eat popcorn brands around, but its first 1,000 bags were hand-produced and sold directly to specialty grocers in Chicago by the company's founders, Andy Friedman and Pam Netzky. By 2014, SkinnyPop was available in more than 50,000 stores in North America. Getting the Costco seal of approval could only have boosted the business further. Today, SkinnyPop is owned by The Hershey Company, which bought two new plants in Indiana and Pennsylvania to support production in 2023.

Costco sells plenty of cheese, and one favorite of ours is the BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella Snacking Cheese, which comes in the perfect snack-size packets of mozzarella balls that contain only 70 calories per serving. These ciliegine mozzarella packets (ciliegine means cherry-sized in Italian) also have 5 grams of protein. Costco stocks a bag with 24 packets.

The technique is Italian, but this mozzarella cheese is made in the cheese state of Wisconsin. BelGioioso Cheese was founded by Italian immigrant Errico Auricchio in Denmark, Wisconsin, where the company still has dairy facilities. The mozzarella is advertised as fresh because it is made from local milk sourced only a few hours after milking, according to the company.

Not only is BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella Snacking Cheese made domestically, but customers have also declared this Wisconsin export as delicious and ideal for children's lunch boxes, as well as advising eating it with a sprinkle of kosher salt, olive oil, or prosciutto and pesto, which is also stocked at Costco. Costco also sells a 3-pound container of BelGioioso's ciliegine mozzarella.

These Sonoma Creamery Pepperoni Pizza Crisps are crispy, packed with 13 grams of protein per serving, and 100% made in the USA. The serving size of 15 pizza crisps is just 160 calories, although the fat content is something to consider. This is cheese, after all. These crisps are made with mozzarella cheese, are keto-friendly, and are also both gluten-free and lactose-free. A 9.5-ounce bag of Pepperoni Pizza Crisps at Costco retails for around $13.99.

Back in 1931, Sonoma Creamery began as a cheese maker in California's Sonoma Valley, a renowned winemaking region. It started making its baked cheese snacks in 2014. All of its snack products are made at its facility in Sonoma. The company advertises a commitment to using rBST-free milk (which means it comes from cows that aren't treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin, a genetically engineered growth hormone) and all-natural ingredients.

Sugar Bowl Bakery's Madeleines are the not-too-sweet perfect accompaniment to tea or coffee — and a 28-count box costs just roughly around $10. They're incredibly popular with Costco customers, who praise their buttery taste, hint of vanilla, and soft texture. Many also rave about their freshness, which cannot necessarily be said for all Costco baked goods.

Sugar Bowl Bakery is the quintessential American success story. It was founded by five brothers who fled Vietnam on a small boat to come to the United States, and pooled their resources to purchase a small bakery in San Francisco. Thanks to their French-inspired recipes, Sugar Bowl Bakery quickly became a popular local spot, and they soon started selling to retailers. Back in 2013, President Barack Obama praised the company during a speech about immigration reform, claiming that their success story was the embodiment of "what America is about" as "the place where you can reach for something better if you work hard" (via SF Gate).

Today, Sugar Bowl Bakery is based out of Hayward, California, and is one of the largest minority-owned bakeries in the country. If madeleines aren't for you, Costco also stocks Sugar Bowl Bakery Brownie Bites.

All RXBAR products are famous for offering healthier alternatives to some of the more heavily processed protein bars. All of its bars also happen to be made in the U.S., with high-quality ingredients that are also primarily sourced from within the country. That includes the Costco variety pack, featuring 14 bars — seven each of the chocolate sea salt and blueberry variety. Each bar comes with three egg whites, six almonds, four cashews, and two dates, as well as packing an impressive 12 grams of protein.

In 2013, RXBars founder Peter Rahal – who was working in transportation logistics at the time — noticed that the protein bars on sale at his CrossFit gym were sitting untouched on the shelf. They were ultra-processed and out of sync with the current diet preference for whole foods. Teaming up with a friend, they each invested $5,000 and went to work trying to make protein bars exclusively with more wholesome ingredients. Working out of Rahal's mother's basement, they soon started selling them at local CrossFit gyms. Five years later, RXBar was such a success that it sold to Kellogg's for $600 million.

Schwartz Brothers Bakery's Organic Everything Bagel Chips are as American as apple pie. At Costco, the Schwartz Brothers Bakery Organic Everything Bagel Chips come in a 15-ounce package for approximately $9.99. These chips make for a great snack with not too many carbs or calories.

The company got started in Seattle back in the 1970s after the two Schwartz brothers opened their second restaurant — a concept eatery dedicated to sandwiches and pies — but couldn't find any pies that met their standards. They soon started making their pies and other baked goods. The bakery became the supplier for all their restaurants. These restaurants came and went over the years, but the bakery remained and started selling to other businesses.

Schwartz Brothers Bakery was the original provider of baked goods — from muffins and scones to cookies and croissants — to another Seattle company, Starbucks. In 2012, Starbucks bought its own bakery chain, with Schwartz Brothers suffering a setback when their contract was canceled. Still, the company kept expanding into retail sales and today operates two manufacturing plants in Washington. If you ever order a hamburger, hot dog, or pizza at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena, home to the NHL team Seattle Kraken, that's Schwartz Brothers made buns and focaccia you're eating.

Giordano's is one of Chicago's most famous deep-dish pizza spots, considered a must-visit for tourists and locals alike. But you no longer have to trek out to the Windy City for a bite. You can go to Costco and pick up a Giordano's Chicago Frozen Single-Serve Deep Dish Pizza Variety Pack. This pack comes with 12 six-inch frozen pizzas — four each of cheese, pepperoni, and sausage. If you need more than a single serving, Costco also stocks Giordano's 10-inch Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza.

Frozen pizza, of course, is rarely as good as freshly-baked, but we'll settle for frozen Giordano's over no pizza at all. The first Giordano's opened on the South Side of Chicago back in 1974. According to company lore, Efren and Joseph Boglio brought Mama Giordano's famous double-crusted, cheese-stuffed Easter Pie from Turin, Italy, to the Midwest. Its pies sold at Costco are made with Wisconsin-made mozzarella cheese and sweet tomatoes grown in Northern California, using the same recipes and ingredients that Giordano's uses for its in-house pizzas.

Nuchas Empanadas appeared on Season 10 of "Shark Tank," where founder Ariel Barbouth presented his empanadas to the dais of investors. Barbouth started selling Argentine-style empanadas with an international twist — such as the Philly cheesesteak version — at a Times Square kiosk in New York City. By the time he made it to "Shark Tank," his business had $5 million in annual sales.

Barbouth received two offers on "Shark Tank" to help him expand his business, but he walked away empty-handed after rejecting the terms. Costco members, on the other hand, can today walk away with a Nuchas Empanadas Meat Lovers Combo that comes with four boxes and six empanadas in each. Made in the U.S., the variety pack comes with ground beef (Argentinian style), chipotle chicken, adobo chicken, and Italian sausage.

If you don't eat meat, there's also a veggie combo with empanadas stuffed with portobello, spinach, and mozzarella, spicy cheese, vegan pinto beans, or shiitake curry. With Costco stocking his empanadas, both Barbouth and Nuchas seem to be doing just fine without the sharks' support.

Country Archer founder Eugene Kang credits his parents and the time he spent working in their convenience stores for sparking his entrepreneurial spirit. After a serendipitous taste of jerky on a trip to the Grand Canyon, Kang tracked down the manufacturer in California's San Bernardino County. In 2011, Kang and his aunt purchased the business, intending to expand its footprint. Their big break came when the business, Country Archer, started selling sriracha-flavored jerky in 2014. It later teamed up with Costco in 2019 to introduce its beef mini sticks

Country Archer Grass-Fed Beef Stick Minis come in a 28-count bag of 0.5-ounce jerky sticks. Each jerky stick is made with 100% grass-fed beef and contains 4 grams of protein. Just like all Country Archer products, they're made in the U.S. The meat sticks also happened to perform well in our ranking of the best on the market. The bag retails for roughly $19.99 and is a big hit with customers.