4 Costco Shopping Hacks to Try in 2024

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Want to be a better Costco shopper? Give these four tricks a try to improve your personal finances by making the most of your warehouse club membership. 

Shopping at Costco can be a great way to save money, which you probably already know if you’re a warehouse club member. But while you can simply buy in bulk at the warehouse club to keep more money in your bank account, you can also take your deal-savviness to the next level.

Want to know how? Try these four Costco shopping hacks to get the absolute best bargains available.

1. Look for items with a price tag ending in $0.97 or $0.88

Costco’s price tags can tell you more than just the amount that will go on your credit cards if you buy the item. The tags can also give you a clue as to whether the product is on sale or is going to disappear soon.

See, a tag ending in $0.97 means the item is on sale. The exact amount you’ll end up saving varies by item. You can find out how deep the discount is by asking the manager what the original price was.

Sometimes items are marked down more than once, especially if there are lots of items left and the initial sale isn’t great. But, if an item ends in $0.97 and there aren’t many left or the original price was substantially higher than the current one, you may want to grab it because it could go quickly.

Items marked at $0.88 are also important to pay attention to. This pricing code means there are very few of the products left for sale, so you should snap them up.

2. Act quickly if there’s an asterisk symbol

There’s another important thing to look for on a Costco price tag: an asterisk. If you see one, you should know you may not get to buy the item again. No matter what the other numbers are on the price tag, the asterisk means the item is not going to be restocked anytime soon and may disappear from the shelves for good.

If there’s something you like buying at Costco and you see the asterisk, consider buying a bunch of the item if it’s within your budget so you’ll have it once the warehouse club is no longer selling it.

3. Check out Costco’s coupon book

Costco does not accept manufacturer coupons. It provides its own coupons and discounted offers, though. You should always check out the warehouse club’s coupon book to see what’s on sale at any given time. This can help you identify deals on items you need to purchase anyway.

You can find the coupon book online, and it advertises both in-club savings as well as online savings. For example, the January coupon book is offering between $200 and $1,300 off of certain Samsung appliances, so if your kitchen needs an upgrade, this might be a good time to buy.

4. Give Kirkland brand products a try

Kirkland is Costco’s house brand and there are around 350 Kirkland products for sale. Costco ensures Kirkland brand products are at least 20% cheaper than name-brand counterparts, and many of these store-brand products are actually made by the same people as the branded items. For example, Kirkland batteries are made by Duracell, and Kirkland tuna is actually Bumble Bee.

Since you can get awesome products equivalent to name brands at a deep discount, you should try them and see what Kirkland has to offer.

By trying out these tips, hopefully you can become a better Costco shopper in 2024 and use your money more wisely at the warehouse club.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Christy Bieber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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