The Best Things at Costco

Posted: January 17, 2026

Costco is a magical place, full of wonderful values, usually happy employees, and an incredible return policy! I am sometimes ridiculed for my Costco fandom and attempts at evangelization to join our club. I like to remind my wife that the place where I asked if she'd like to marry me, what she likes to refer to as an "arboretum", is in fact what I refer to as "the woods behind Costco".

Costco also holds a kind of special place in my heart with the nostalgia I feel remembering going there so often with my dad and brother, usually sharing a $1.50 hotdog and a Diet Pepsi combo. However my brother used to call Costco the $200 store. And he wasn't far off, because it's easy to go over budget if you're not careful and focused. But it's also not hard to save quite a lot of money on the essentials. And you can generally rest assured that the quality of the items you purchase (from the deli, electronics department, the in-store eye-glasses, or their tire store, etc.), is always very good. I don't know what the proper term is for someone who is such a fan of Costco (Kirklandian?), but to me Costco is a special place, and so here is a list of some of my favorite things there ...

Food

Of course: The $1.50 hotdog and soda combo!
The $3.99 rotisserie chicken
Stacy's Pita Chips - I first tried these 20 years ago at Costco and have been buying them ever since.
Kirkland Green Tea - IMO the best green tea around, comes with sencha and matcha powder you sprinkle on top after brewing.
Kirkland Colombia whole bean coffee in a 3lb bag - Costco has a wide selection of whole bean coffees, some of which are in fact roasted for them by Starbucks, but our favorite is the Colombia bag.
Kirkland Super Premium Vanilla Ice-cream - super premium and vanilla, kind of accurately sums up most of what you'll find in a Costco.
Shrimp cocktail platter - always the freshest and most delicious shrimp

Non-food

Dove Soap: good for your skin.
Allergy medicines: the Kirkland generic versions of most of your common allergy medications are insanely cheaper than the prices I've seen on comparable grocery store generics - And when they have periodic sales, I can usually find about year supply in a bottle for the same price of the generic 1 month supply in the typical grocery store.
Kirkland Toilet Paper / Paper Towels -
All the common personal and household products are generally a lot cheaper: toothpaste, mouthwash, trash bags, household cleaners, etc ... are all so much cheaper in bulk at a Costco.

Big ticket items

Televisions - many years ago I purchased a TV there with my dad, and even though I didn't have a membership they let me take it return it at a totally different store with no hassle.
Tires - there are often discounts if you can wait, but either way, the prices are fair, and like everythign else you can have confidence they are good quality.
Costco Optical: really good prices on prescription eye glasses.
Computers and Phones

Costco Tips

Pay attention to the price tag secret codes: such as items ending in $.97 being discounted, or $.88 being a manager's special lowest discount. More info and explanation about that here: https://www.wikihow.com/Costco-Pricing-Codes
Objects in Costco may appear smaller than in your living room. Everything you see in that big box store will seem larger when you have it in your home.
The least crowded nights to go there seem to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Take advantage of the free samples. With enough bites from the free samples you can supplement the $1.50 hotdog and Pepsi meal, and eventually recoup the costs of your annual membership over time.