11 Ways To Checkout Faster When Shopping At Costco

The average visit for a Costco shopper can last almost 40 minutes. That's nearly 10 minutes more than Walmart and 15 minutes more than Target. Costco has a knack for keeping customers in the store. More than a knack actually — a design. The members-only chain will change things up when it comes to store layouts and avoid aisle demarcations, so as to force the shopper to search for what they want. While they're searching, they're of course coming across items they didn't know they needed or wanted, until they saw them. Thus, shopping time is extended, and more items are bought.

Is it deception? Maybe technically. Most savvy shoppers seem to understand this, however, and accept it as a kind of retail gamesmanship. What customers are less understanding about: long checkout times. This simply seems to be a product of the vast number of items people buy in a Costco trip and the unwieldy size of some of the items — along with things like membership vetting and plain old cashier-customer chit-chat.

So, how can you, the shopper, remedy this protraction of payment, get out of Costco, and get on with your existence? Sometimes it takes a hack or a trick. Sometimes it's new technology. Sometimes it starts while shopping, sometimes it's timing. And sometimes it's just down to awareness of one's surroundings. Here are a dozen tips that encapsulate all those approaches — and hopefully help you speed things up come checkout time.

As mentioned, speeding up your checkout time at Costco may require a holistic approach. In other words, expediting your egress starts while you're in the aisles shopping. No, it's not barreling over fellow shoppers to get to your items faster (please don't ever do that). Rather, it all has to do with something simple — placing your items in the cart in a sensible way.

What is that sensible way? Whether it's a big or small item, it behooves one to place the barcodes up and visible as you're picking products. It doesn't matter if it's one of the exceedingly popular rotisserie chickens, a derided frozen pizza, or the prodigal-son All-American chocolate cake making its return. Get those barcodes easily accessible so that scanning is easily accomplished. Less scanning issues, less time at checkout.

And this is especially true for larger items that you're plunking down at the bottom of your cart. Trying to move it all over again so the cashier can just scan a barcode is not fun — or efficient. Remember, sometimes you're in control of your checkout fate. Use that control wisely.

Self-checkout has an up-and-down history with Costco. The chain started experimenting with the autonomous method of pay in the 2000s before shutting it down in 2013. Then-CEO Craig Jelinek expressed his belief that the company's cashiers just did the job better, and that self-checkout was more suited for low-volume stores (something Costco avowedly refused to be). Then, in 2019, it brought it back. Partly because the technology changed and scanning became much more streamlined, partly because store lines were only getting longer and longer.

The problem with self-checkout, even upon its redux, has been that larger items couldn't be scanned; forcing employees to help one do so, making one lose all the time they thought they were saving in the first-place. That is until now. Costco finally introduced scanning guns to self-checkout –- meaning the biggies can be accounted for and your independence has become valued again.

It's important to remind you of the first bit of advice given, and to still keep those barcodes up. That way you can walk out of there with a haul of bananas, frozen dumplings, a sun hat, and an industrial-size air conditioner with the same speed as any other self-checkout. And isn't that the meaning of freedom?

Costco is looking out for you. It may not feel like it sometimes. But it knows that a customer who feels valued brings value. And the way a customer feels valued is if their life is being made easier. The grocery giant has recently rolled out an innovative new way to move its vermiculate checkout lines along — one that is already being utilized across many other shops and industries. 

In 2025, Costco finally decided to test this speedier way for people to checkout. Arizona locations served as the company's laboratory for the pre-scan experimentations. After verifying membership, a staff member would scan small and medium-sized items that a customer has in their cart while they're still in line. Once the customer got to the cashier and their membership card was scanned, the items were immediately tallied and the only thing needed to be taken care of was payment. The initial results saw a 20% drop in checkout time.

The successful pilot program meant pre-scanning has been spreading to other stores. Next time you're in line, and you've got load of non-ginormous items, keep an eye for one of the roving employees holding a tablet. They might just be your ticket for a speedy exit.

For avid Costco shoppers, there's nothing more important than that membership (okay, maybe family and friends). Of the chain's over 80 million paying members or households, over 90% renew their subscriptions every year. Those 80 million-plus work out to around 145 million people walking around with a valid Costco membership card. It's what gets you into the store, it's what allows you to walk out with items, and it makes you eligible for all kinds of perks and deals (especially if you're an executive member).

Basically, it's your ticket to the show. Having that ticket readily available is in your best interest as a shopper — not least when it comes to checking out your groceries more swiftly. But feeling, fumbling, or rummaging for the physical card when it comes time to face the cashier happens all-too-often for folks. That's where the Costco app comes in handy.

Do you really want to attempt shopping around while holding your membership card aloft, the whole time, so as to keep it eternally ready for quick proof of your belonging? Of course not. Make life easier by just downloading the app — if you haven't done so already — and then pulling up the digital card in the account tab. No card excavations at checkout means no time wasted.

Sometimes, winning a battle means choosing the right time for battle. And aiming to checkout of Costco in a faster way can, at times, be a battle. So much so that trying to figure out the best days and times to shop there, in order to avoid speed-stunting crowds, has become something of an art form. There is no shortage of Reddit chains, articles, and TikToks dedicated to this very purpose.

As far as which days of the week are the least busy, the consensus seems to be the middle of the week. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are well-placed to avoid pre-weekend load-up and post-weekend reload-up.

Now, the specific time of day varies, from commenter to commenter. Some say mid-afternoon, to avoid morning and post-work rushes. Some suggest either the first or last hours of the day. Some say late morning. The truth is that it probably varies depending on the nature of the clientele and the demographics of the locals — be they mostly retirees, students, or busy families. But as far as the days, stick to the hump of the week for the best chance at expeditiousness. You may even have the time to decode Costco's price tag ciphers for discount hints.

If you have experience as a military scout, an international spy, or a behavioral sociologist, you might have a leg up when it comes to this method. It requires utilizing your senses, intuition, and perception to the best of your abilities. To read the field. Study humanity. But also, you can just see if a cashier is being a little chattier than the others.

Want to figure out a way to streamline your checkout as you're entering the lines? Take a moment to scan the cashiers on duty. Is one chuckling it up with an unhurried paying customer? Is another just having a mopey day and moving glacially accordingly? Is another bickering with a manager? Avoid those lines if you're going for haste (not for a bit of small talk though, if you're in the mood).

After all, checking out is a dance for two, a tango. And your partner is the cashier. Choosing the right partner means a successful dance. And a successful dance means a rose between your teeth and thunderous applause from spectators. Which is an obvious metaphor for getting out of a Costco quicker.

Paper money has had a good run. But nowadays, only about 17% of shoppers use cash to buy stuff. For comparison, credit and debit cards make up roughly half of payment methods, while mobile payments are at around the same rate as cash payments. Those numbers will probably keep trending that way, as cashless is the preferred method for the young set who grew up with it. Adults under 30 only use cash for a transaction about 10% of the time.

With that said, sometimes you just want to use physical legal tender. Sometimes you have to. For a faster checkout at Costco, however, it's best to keep the cash in your pocket. Tapping, inserting, or swiping your card (or mobile payment app) ensures the fastest possible exchange of money. Whipping out cash means you have to count it, the cashier has to count it, then change has to be figured out and returned. And if you decide to do a personal check, that's way more time added on, as management has to stride over and approve it. As old-school as you may be, a card is the quicker way to pay.

Depending on the bustle of any particular Costco, and the time that you go, just commandeering a shopping cart of your own can be problematic. Employees do what they can to collect loose carts from the parking lot (if they're not taken out and left around neighborhoods entirely). But sometimes the demand outweighs the reorganizing, and you're left combing the far reaches of the Costco campus for your own trolley. Time lost.

Once you have your cart, you're then having to navigate the cart-stuffed aisles with a vessel that has the hypermobility of an Ice Age armadillo. And what happens when Ice Age armadillos are jostling with other Ice Age armadillos? Bottlenecks. Impasses. Territorial growling. More time lost.

The solution — or as one commenting shopper on Reddit called it, their "superpower" –- is to bring your own cart or backpack: large enough to carry what you need but compact enough to allow you to weave in and out of the consumer maze into daylight. Self-checkout is best for this approach, as you can scan items how you want. Best part: you don't have to return a shopping cart after you unload. You might not even have to unload at all. Just toss your cart or pack into your car and take off. Time won.

This option for timesaving may take a little bit of reconnaissance at first; some online snooping, word-of-mouth intercepting. (Which, you could argue, will take up the time you're purportedly trying to save later on, but never mind that). Because this approach to quickening up your settling up at the cashier counter is still in the beta stages, and only possible at fraction of the Costcos out there. Intrigued? Tantalized? Of course you are.

In summer 2025, Costco began a pilot program in 27 stores with the aim of "changing checkout forever." It's called Scan and Pay, and it allows a shopper to open the Costco app on their phone, scan the items in their cart, and pay right then and there. A QR code is generated and acts as a receipt, which is what the staff at the exit quickly verify. Then that's it, off you go to rejoin life.

Problem is, Costco isn't telling the public which 27 stores are currently participating. That's 27 out of about 640 Costcos in the U.S., by the way. But if there is any type or person with the dedication to dig up this intel, it's the devoted Costco shopper. Or everyone can just wait, as there's a good chance this is the wave of the future.

If you're going the classic Costco checkout route — regular line, cashier, no fancy tech — there are still things you can do to speed things along. One of these can be a point of contention among both staff and shoppers, as it can feel counterintuitive to the latter. After all, you would think that leaving your items in one, solid place, not moving at all, would make it easier for a cashier to account for it all. But this is Costco. And Costco is its own universe.

Any small items – less than 20 pounds — must come out of the cart and onto the conveyor belt, at least according to one employee with decades of experience. Yes, even that huge wedge of cheese. This is to ensure everything is scanned. If a cashier isn't sure if all your items have been scanned, they're going to take the extra time to make sure they did. Help them out. Bestow them with certainty. Speed things up for all.

Another thing to keep in mind: Even though you may get help unloading from a staff member, there's no guarantee one will be available. And cashiers probably won't hold up the line to give you a hand. Also, they want to avoid any injuries from repeated strain at having to constantly do this. Fair.

Consider this one a straight-up warning from a Costco employee. Maybe warning is harsh. More of a strong but friendly tip. A piece of fervent advice, to help prevent their cashiering from being miserable and everyone's time from being wasted — yours included. After all, there are new Costco food court desserts to try, people need to get a move on.

If you're bringing reusable shopping bags (props to you for doing so), and you want to check out of Costco as fast as possible, then you need to make sure you're bringing the right kind of bags. Otherwise, packing them with your groceries will be some combination of either a mess, a disaster, a fiasco, or a debacle, in no particular order.

Make sure your reusable bags have hard bottoms. None of that soft-bottom stuff. See, when the bag is of malleable integrity, there is no sturdy foundation in which to stack upon and delineate. Efficiency goes out the window as bagging becomes an awkward fight against gravity, either for you or the cashier. Whoever has to deal with it, time ticks away, and your checkout has just become lengthier than a director's cut. Get your quality tote at Costco, get it somewhere, but just get it. You'll thank yourself in the parking lot after.