Costco vs. Supermarkets

I have expressed my love for the products at Costco and especially for such reasonable (often more than reasonable) prices. Costco generally has prices on par with or lower than the best sale prices you will find at traditional grocery stores or other types of stores. However, of course, buying them at Costco means that you will be buying a lot at once (so of course, if some or most of it will go bad before you can use it, it isn’t a good deal!) Most of my comparison shopping is in the food arena so this post will focus on those.

Certainly there are several products that are especially good deals at Costco and are generally even cheaper than grocery store sales because they tend to not be marked down too much, even when on sale. Some of these items are milk, eggs, rotisserie chickens, lettuce, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, whipped cream, cheese, packaged cold cuts (especially the kosher corned beef and pastrami), high end meat, and most liquor.

Any I missed?

Other products are often better to purchase at supermarkets when they are on sale. This is especially true if you are not loyal to one brand and therefore willing to purchase the brand on sale on any particular week. In addition, several of these items are produced by several companies, so if you are loyal to one brand, you may have to visit the supermarket to find it because Costco typically only carries one or two varieties of any product.

Some of these items are:

Cereal: the Costco prices are certainly reasonable, but cereal tends to be a frequent grocery store sale item and there are often coupons in weekly papers for additional savings (and of course, Costco does not accept manufacturers’ coupons https://cruisingcostco.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/non-costco-coupons/
In addition, Costco carries a very limited selection of cereal (about 10 different varieties). Therefore, with the exception of their granola  https://cruisingcostco.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/product-review-kirkland-ancient-grains-granola/, I tend to buy my cereal at supermarkets

Bread: Costco sells a few brands of bread for a good price, typically less than the traditional price and akin to the sale price at a grocery store for a name brand. However, when bread is on a big sale or if you don’t need name brand and are just as happy with a store brand bread, it may be cheaper to buy it at a grocery store.

Watermelon: The watermelons at Costco are incredible and at $5-7 during the summer are a very good deal. My family tends to buy one each week during the summer peak watermelon season (yes, that is a lot of watermelon but it is important to never be without one right? And preferably to have a spare 😜 ) however, we do cheat on our beloved Costco melons when supermarkets have their big sales, often enabling us to buy them for as low as $4.

Pasta: Pasta is another item that is often on sale at supermarkets and helps save money, especially if you are not loyal to a particular brand. In addition, because Costco does not carry many shapes of pasta, you miss out on the fun of selecting a variety (wagon wheels anyone?)

Soda: Periodically, grocery stores sell 12-packs of soda at 5 for $10, which is better than the Costco prices. Of course, these sales tend to be brand-specific each time, but if you catch your favorite brand/type on sale, it is better to buy it at the supermarket.

Bananas: Bananas used to be one if my favorite deals at Costco. At 3 pounds for 1.39, they were cheaper than paying 79 cents per pound at the store. However, now that many stores carry bananas for 39 cents a pound, I find it better to by them there because I can buy them at my desired degree of ripeness (I find that the Costco packs are often too green or too yellow) and can “stagger” the ripeness to last for several days.

Orange juice: With the rare exception, I have had a glass of oj for breakfast almost every day for most of my life. Aside from the concentrate version served in the dispensers at college, I have always had the “not from concentrate” juice. However, although I clearly enjoy oj, I don’t have a strong preference across the major brands (some store brands are not very good…Star Market and Wegman’s, I’m looking at you…). Therefore, I tend to buy my orange juice when Tropicana, Florida’s Natural, Simply Orange, Minute Maid, or Tree Ripe are on sale for 2 for $5.

Any other products that you prefer to buy at supermarkets?