I Compared Millions of Products: Costco isn't always better

Costco has famously low bulk prices, right? Yeah, we thought so too. We compared a million products and... turns out you can still save ~40% off of Costco's prices. Read below to see us prove it for batteries, deodorant, and more common daily essentials. And then check out Popgot to find the best prices on your daily essentials across Amazon, Target, Walmart, and, yes, Costco.

Skeptical of Popgot? We keep track of the price per unit of daily essentials, and we're pretty good at it. Combine that with sifting through millions of products, and we find better deals than Costco.

Costco Batteries aren't cheaper

Are AAA Batteries cheaper at Costco? No.

The best buy:

(That data on this page updates every hour or so, so it has nearly live pricing. )

But the best Costco buy?

And at the time of this writing Costco is a little more expensive per battery than the next cheapest retailer. That per-battery price beats ~90% of the other batteries, so it is still a great price -- but not the best. Besides, the Kirkland batteries get a poor rating from customers -- evidently they leak.

If you have the room to really buy bulk, you can actually cut your costs by 50%:

What about across other batteries? Does Costco fare better?

From AA to D, Costco's prices consistently clock in at a few cents more than its rivals. Ten or twenty cents doesn't sound like much, but multiply that by 48 and you'll see where the bulk "bargain" starts to unravel. Every row in this table tells the same story: Costco is pricier, sometimes by a few cents per battery, sometimes by a dollar, but perhaps surprisingly, the best deals are often found not on Costco. By searching deep into the Amazon, Target, and Walmart price lists, we can usually find batteries that are both better rated and cheaper (per battery) than Costco's picks.

Costco's Hygiene & Toiletries are expensive

Fine, batteries are a mediocre category for Costco. What about toiletries?

Starting with Men's Antiperspirant Deodorant here's the best deal:

But the best Costco buy?

Note that we're comparing the price of deodorant per-ounce, not the total price. That makes sense, when you buy deodorant regularly or in bulk, you want to buy by the ounce. Nevertheless, deodorant isn't a great category for Costco. It's a quite a bit more expensive than the next cheapest retailer.

Expanding beyond deodorant, here's a look at body wash, toothpaste, mouthwash, diapers, and pull ups:

Now, before you email me (which is [email protected]) about comparing Costco to sketchy dollar store toothpaste that might actually be wall spackle in disguise, let me explain our methodology. We're not trying to compare Kirkland Signature to junk toothpaste. Here's how we keep things fair:

• Unit Price: You go to Costco to buy in bulk. That's why we break it down to price-per-unit, not just "big box costs more than small box".
• Quality Control: Costco selects products that are both great quality and low price. So to keep things fair, we only compare it to products that also have great ratings and enough reviews to prove they weren't all written by a content farm.
• Apples-to-Apples: We match attributes. Costco whitening toothpaste is compared to non-Costco whitening toothpaste; our antiperspirant deodorant is compared to non-Costco antiperspirant deodorant.

Other Daily Essentials are expensive

Moving on from batteries and toiletries, here's a look at cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, and more:

Note that for the dishwasher detergent pods we compare the price per pod, for the dishwasher detergent liquid we compare the price per fluid ounce, and the powder per ounce.

And for coffee, tea, peanuts, dog supplies, and more -- Costco prices aren't necessarily better.

Dig deeper to beat Costco's prices

Look, Costco's pricing game is solid about 90% of the time – they consistently beat the first page of search results on Amazon, Target, or Walmart. And Costco's margins are famously low, so how can we find better deals? The answer is simple: we calculate the price per unit of each product, and then search millions of products. If you're willing to exhaustively dig through each page of search results, you would stumble upon some truly killer deals with even better ratings -- or you could just use Popgot!

So check out Popgot; we make hunting for high quality but inexpensive daily essentials easy.