Costco’s In-Store Prices Are Usually Lower — but Here’s Why You Might Save More by Shopping at Costco.com

I do my shopping online whenever possible. If I need a birthday gift, I’d much rather find one on Amazon than go to an actual store full of people.

In fact, people are my least favorite thing about shopping at Costco — not the store employees themselves, but the crowds I have to work my way through to load up my cart with groceries. It’s for this reason that I strategically time my Costco shopping. I usually make a point to go during the week right when the store opens, and I refuse to set foot in a warehouse club store on a Saturday or Sunday.

Given my dislike of crowds, sometimes, I’m tempted to turn to Costco.com instead of shopping at the store. But there’s a downside to doing that — you’re going to pay more for the same items.

Costco generally builds the cost of shipping and handling into its online prices, so a given item that’s sold online and in stores will generally be cheaper when you buy it in person. And if you order same-day grocery delivery through Costco, you’ll definitely pay a lot more for an online order than you will in person.

But shopping on Costco.com might also save you money for a surprising reason. So you shouldn’t write off the idea of making some of your Costco purchases online.

Avoid the temptation to buy more stuff at Costco

Despite my dislike of crowds, shopping at Costco in person can be a fun experience for me — especially when the store is relatively empty, which sometimes happens. The problem, though, is that the more free I feel to roam the aisles, the more likely I am to buy items that weren’t on my shopping list originally. The result? A higher credit card bill.

It’s for this reason that you may end up saving money by shopping on Costco.com, despite paying a little bit more for your purchases. When you plug in a shopping list online, you might save by virtue of not adding more items to your cart the way you would at the store.

In fact, one big so-called perk of shopping at Costco is getting to enjoy the free samples. But I can’t tell you how many times those samples have led me to buy food I didn’t really need — and didn’t end up finishing after I brought it home.

I don’t shop at Costco.com that often. But when I do, I pretty much never make impulse purchases, whereas I buy extra things pretty often when I shop in person. You might have the same experience.

Be careful if you’re already in debt

Impulse buys — at Costco or elsewhere — can be harmful to your finances if you’re already juggling debt. During the fourth quarter of 2023, U.S. credit card balances reached a whopping $1.05 trillion, says TransUnion. So if you’re part of that number, it pays to do whatever you can not to add to your debt. And staying out of Costco could be a good way to do that.

To put it another way, let’s say you make a $15 Costco impulse purchase each time you go to the store. If you spend $110 at Costco.com on items that would’ve cost you $100 at the store, you’re still ahead by $5 — plus some savings by not using gas. So while shopping at Costco in person could save you money, if you commonly make in-store impulse purchases, then shopping online could make more sense.

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