The 12 Best Tips For First Time Costco Shoppers

I have just one regret about getting a Costco membership: Not doing it sooner. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my family's Costco membership has made a positive impact on our finances, the efficiency of our daily lives, and on making big decisions like choosing the right refrigerator. This Christmas, it even made shopping for my son a little easier. As he was inundated week after week with new toys lining the Costco toy aisles, we learned very quickly what was at the very top of his list. Perhaps that's why my husband and I won't stop talking about Costco and gushing about it to our family and friends. In these frequent conversations, we have much to share about our experiences with Costco, and now, I share those words of wisdom with you.

Shopping at Costco for the first time is intimidating. Just as you may have felt overwhelmed the first time you stepped into your now-favorite grocery store, learning how a new store runs can feel like a lot. Based on what we've learned, I'd like to offer some of my best tips to make your first visits to Costco a delicious success, so you can get the most out of your fancy new membership.

On our first visit to Costco, we visited the food court and were immediately impressed with the food. Granted, the seating area and ordering arrangements aren't much to see, but for the price, you simply can't beat the options. I recommend grabbing a bite to eat before your shopping trip so you don't have to keep track of your cart after loading up on all those Costco goodies.

Having sampled most items on the menu, there's a little something here to satisfy most appetites. Typically, I enjoy getting a hot dog and a smoothie, and my husband often orders a hot dog and an ice cream sundae. As part of the hot dog meal, you also get a cup of soda. Since Costco switched from Pepsi to Coke products in 2025, we're much bigger fans of the drink selection. My son especially enjoys mixing together lemonade and Mountain Berry Blast Powerade to accompany his own hot dog.

Sure, the hot dogs are great, but so are the other offerings. The pizza is perfectly cooked with a pillowy crust, served in whole pies or as generous individual slices. For something a little more filling, consider the chicken bake. This meal is dough wrapped around chicken, cheese, and Caesar dressing. When fresh, these are especially enjoyable.

The bakery and deli frequently rotate seasonal items. Premade Costco meals and sweet, bakery-made cakes often arrive with the seasons. For instance, even though tiramisu cheesecake is a delicious offering, it sadly isn't available year-round. So, it's worth noting whether an item you particularly enjoy is seasonal or not. This way, you can avoid being unexpectedly disappointed when you can't find a particular favorite.

Seasonal rotations aren't the only way items leave Costco shelves. You'll frequently find large items, such as sofas or even pianos, in the store one week and gone shortly after. On more than one occasion, I have purchased a particular item, enjoyed it so much I went to look back for our second, only to find out it had already left stores. I have found this to be especially true in the clothing department.

Therefore, in our house, we follow a buy-it-on-site policy. Meaning, if there's something you want from the store, purchase it. Don't assume it will be there the next time you visit. Since Costco's return policy is so excellent, you risk nothing by purchasing an item just to try it at home.

Having returned a few items to the store for one reason or another, I can attest to the fact that Costco's return policy is generous. If you purchase an item, try it out at home. If it isn't what you had hoped, all you have to do is bring it back with the receipt (although even this isn't always necessary). It doesn't even need to be in its original packaging. You can return items purchased in-store and through Costco's online store. Since we started our membership, I have not had a return denied.

Some items have some stipulations with their returns. Appliances, for instance, must be returned within 90 days. For example, my family purchased a nugget ice maker from Costco to replace our broken machine. Ultimately, it didn't last as long as we had hoped, failing just shy of the 90-day deadline. We brought the machine back — emptied of water, of course, but without its original packaging. The associate at the counter simply took the machine, said thank you, and refunded our account.

The return policy is good for more than just clothing and home goods, and Costco regularly receives return requests for food items, which definitely fall under the Costco guarantee. If you have items that were expired when you purchased them or others you simply didn't enjoy as much as you hoped, don't be shy. Bring them back.

After my family started shopping at Costco, we found that we could benefit from changing how we created our menu of meals for the week. Previously, we would create a weekly menu that included specific recipes, then head to the grocery store and purchase each item. After becoming faithful Costco shoppers, we find it much easier to purchase the basics in bulk from Costco and work through them using recipes that fall into similar groups.

This means, for example, when we purchase our chicken breast in bulk, we will have several meals that include chicken breast rather than swapping different proteins. This keeps expenses down and takes some of the pressure of coming up with new recipes.

This method of menu planning has also allowed our family to be a little more flexible in our planning. We will create dinners and lunches from what we already have rather than seeking out specific ingredients for a particular dish. Not only has it stretched our creativity and encouraged us to create more unique and delicious meals, but it has also helped reduce the cost of our food bill since many items are getting more expensive at the grocery store.

Before shopping at Costco, I couldn't say I felt much confidence when it came to private label brands. However, that has been wholly disproven thanks to Costco's Kirkland Signature line. I cannot think of a single instance when my family did not enjoy a Kirkland alternative. In fact, Kirkland once had an orange juice that my husband enjoyed quite a lot. Then, it disappeared from shelves and was replaced by Uncle Matt's orange juice, a favorite store-bought orange juice in my family before we switched to Kirkland. Although Uncle Matt's is quite delicious, we admittedly missed the Kirkland alternative.

What makes Kirkland products so great? Apparently, there are hidden brands behind many popular Costco products. For instance, the Kirkland Signature beer currently filling our drink fridge is a Deschutes Brewery product. Another favorite in our house is the Kirkland Signature Premium Vanilla Ice Cream, and the big creamy Costco's Kirkland brand ice cream is from none other than Humboldt Creamery. Suffice it to say, if you typically struggle with trusting a generic label from the store, those concerns need not apply to Kirkland Signature items. I would naturally gravitate toward them rather than away from them any day.

On your first visit to Costco, you might be tempted to skip the bakery, assuming that it is the same as any other grocery store bakery. However, this would definitely be a mistake. Especially when visiting the store for the first time, be sure to take a look at everything the bakery has to offer. You'll find breakfast breads, muffins, cookies, cakes, and seasonal offerings, such as pumpkin pie or carrot cake, many of which are baked fresh in-store. If anything jumps out at you, I highly recommend giving it a try. My family has yet to be disappointed with any bakery item we have purchased at Costco.

Of course, as you sample enough bakery items, you'll notice that while some strike your fancy just a little more than others, in all likelihood, many will become favorites in your household, just as they have in mine. Like most other departments in Costco, the cost can't be beaten here. Your typical grocery store sweet treat just can't compare with the sweet treats on offer in each store's bakery.

When it comes to food items, you'll be hard-pressed to find items in the typical quantities you encounter at most grocery stores. For instance, rather than one bottle of orange juice, you may purchase them in packages of two. Even the vanilla ice cream comes in a two-pack. To prepare for this additional onslaught of items in your kitchen, you'll want to make space in your pantry, fridge, and freezer before you pick up those Costco treats.

My family has found the best way to do that is to time your visit to Costco with your garbage day pickup. This way, you can complete a fridge and freezer cleanout weekly by throwing out the items that have expired. This means you avoid creating a waste pile that will sit and become smelly in your garbage bin till your next pickup day. If you live in a warm climate as I do, this is essential.

An essential part of any grocery store trip is a visit to the produce section. Admittedly, I was nervous to purchase produce from Costco. It seemed a risky endeavor, considering how many items are piled on top of each other on the sales floor. However, I have found the produce to be just as good, if not better than any other produce I would find in my usual grocery store visit. Thankfully, the sizes are not unreasonable either.

The only trouble is that sometimes the store won't have exactly what I need. In those cases, I'll need to stop at a smaller grocery store on my way home. However, the pricing is good, and I've never had an issue with fresh produce being bad as a result of it sitting on the sales floor for too long or being piled on top of too much. Quite the contrary — my family has found that the produce we get from Costco typically seems fresher, and even lasts longer than the produce we've purchased from other grocery stores.

Since you're shopping in such a large warehouse, you may even find yourself shopping around chefs and other people who need to purchase items in bulk for their place of business. It only serves to add confidence to the shopping experience, and therefore, my confidence in the product.

My family has had a Costco membership for a little over a year, and in that time, we've replaced our refrigerator and dishwasher. In both instances, we conducted thorough comparisons between brands and stores, and ultimately found that Costco was one of the best options for this purchase.

Not only is the price of the appliance often less than that of a typical big box appliance retailer, but the cost also includes delivery, installation, haul away service, and even a two-year warranty. With our dishwasher, we were sent two different providers — one who delivered the appliance, and a second, a plumber, who installed it a few hours later.

The experience of purchasing both our refrigerator and dishwasher through Costco was seamless. We ordered online, chose our preferred day for delivery, and accepted delivery all within a week. On the horizon, we are expecting to purchase a new stove and will likely choose Costco again. If, for some reason, we weren't thrilled with our appliances, we had the opportunity to return them within the first 90 days, but happily, we did not need to do so.

Costco does not bag your items at checkout. Since so many of the items are in very large quantities, bagging them would certainly be difficult and rather inefficient. Therefore, you're encouraged to utilize cardboard boxes you might find along your shopping experience. Although this certainly works, I found it to be cumbersome, and we did not enjoy dealing with the cardboard at home after the fact. Therefore, we searched for a solution and came across foldable crates. The storage bins collapse and expand as needed and easily hold our items, relieving the need for cardboard from the store.

Typically, we use a shopping cart to carry our items throughout the store, go through checkout, put the items directly back in the cart, and wheel that same cart out to our car. Once there, my husband pops open the crates and fills them with the items in our cart. The process takes a few extra moments, but it significantly reduces the number of trips we take from the garage to the house, which makes it all worthwhile.

We purchased the crates from Costco's website, but since then, I have seen them sporadically throughout the stores. Before you visit for the first time, I recommend picking up some of these foldable crates and leaving them collapsed in your trunk until you need them. As a bonus, they stow away very easily when not in use.

It's no secret that weekends are absolutely packed at grocery stores, Costco included. To help remedy some of this madness, I recommend visiting on weeknights. My family has found Tuesday nights to be particularly slow, and the later you can go, the better. Often, we eat dinner at a leisurely pace in the food court and then do our shopping trip. Be sure to keep an eye on the clock, however. If you're still in the store after closing, you'll find items in the deli blocked off and unable to purchase. You won't be rushed out of the store, but your options will be substantially fewer the later it gets.

That said, even during busy times, we have been able to successfully complete a Costco shopping trip. We find that the crowds can be large, but we are still able to meander through the store with little trouble. If you really want to avoid the crowds as much as possible, definitely visit during times when associates are not offering free samples of Costco products. These activities certainly draw a crowd and definitely make for a busier store.

If you must visit on a Saturday or Sunday, remember to be patient with your fellow customers and friendly Costco staff. After all, everyone is trying their best, and the checkout lines move rather quickly. Even if a line seems ultra-long, you'll likely be surprised by just how quickly it moves, especially if people are kind and understanding of one another.

This sentiment applies to more than just the checkouts, however. During busy times, the parking lot at Costco can become a little challenging, too. Reminding yourself to take your time and be aware of others isn't just for keeping a positive environment. In places like the parking lot, it's essential to keep everyone safe.

If you happen to be returning an item, avoid the weekends at all costs. I've seen that returns line grow especially long and move a little slowly on Saturdays and Sundays. Although patience is important here too, do yourself a solid and keep your item returns to weekday visits.