10 Mistakes People Make When Shopping For Holiday Food At Costco

It feels as though it can be hard to go wrong, shopping at Costco for your holiday food. The big-box supermarket has everything you need to put together a next-level Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, all housed under one roof, and at a price point that most people can afford. What's more, holiday shopping at Costco can give you access to some items you probably wouldn't find in other stores. Its level of quality is pretty good across the board, and the fact that you get everything in bulk means that you won't be caught short on the big day itself. Feels foolproof, right? Well, not quite. 

Just like any store, there's a right and a wrong way to shop for holiday food at Costco, and customers are prone to making some key mistakes that can end up ruining their experience (or their budget). Costco's bulk-buy format means that you can end up with amounts of certain foods or ingredients that you just don't need, and its propensity to sell out of specific items quickly can mean that you can miss out on some all-important essentials. If that wasn't all, you can end up spending a lot more money than you normally would when you're shopping at Costco rather than other stores. Learn from our mistakes, folks, and don't make the same ones yourself.

There's a tendency to assume that Costco is somehow cheaper than other stores, perhaps because its bulk-buy format can make you feel like you're stocking up and saving at the same time. That's actually not the case. Costco items may well be slightly more expensive than other retailers like Aldi or Walmart, and if you forget to do a price comparison before shopping there, you can end up spending more on food items. When it comes to holiday foods, items like the fresh cranberries for your cranberry sauce could be pricier at Costco than at a place like Walmart, although it's always worth doing an in-store price comparison to double-check whether you're making a saving. Remember that you should also consider the price of the Costco standard membership fee when calculating the overall cost, which immediately adds $65 per year onto your bill.

Don't let all of this put you off shopping there this holiday season, though. You may also find that some staples stocked at Costco are cheaper than at other stores. Name-brand items may be cheaper than at comparable shops, particularly if you're buying them in bulk. The lesson here is to do your research before you start shopping, so you can grab the best deals possible.

Black Friday's famous for being the day when holiday deals really kick off in earnest, and people flock to retailers to grab new fridges and TVs. However, it's not just electronics that are reduced at Costco. The supermarket also has a host of food items on sale, including several holiday options that you'd do well to snap up to serve as appetizers, sides, or just to snack on as the nights get longer. Items like its Savanna Orchards Honey Roasted Nut Mix and its Kirkland Signature Cranberry Walnut Round will see reductions in 2025's round of sales. The former can be a great snack for people to munch on while they're enjoying their first holiday cocktail, and the latter's an exciting alternative to standard bread rolls.

If you want a food item that could also double as a gift, Costco is reducing its Ghirardelli Gift Tower in 2025. Give it to a loved one, or buy it for yourself and crack it open before Christmas arrives (hey, we won't tell). Remember, too, that you may also see reductions on favorites like Rao's pasta sauce and Kirkland Signature chicken breasts in the Black Friday sales, so it's also a good time to stock up on your staples.

Here's the thing about buying food online: You'll pay for the convenience. That's certainly true when it comes to Costco, which tends to charge more for online shopping than it does in-store. Costco openly admits that "products sold online may have different pricing than the same products sold at your local Costco warehouse," and in practice, what that means is that comparable items may cost a few dollars more — and that's before you consider any delivery fees that you'll have to pay on top of that. In some cases, as online shoppers have found, goods can be over 20% more expensive if you purchase them from the comfort of your own home.

Things can get even more expensive if you're purchasing your goods through a third-party platform like Instacart, which may add even more onto the price of your bill. When you're dealing with already-expensive holiday food, that can be a real problem. We know it can be annoying to get into your car and drive down to the store when it's full of holiday shoppers, but if you want to ensure that you're getting the best price, it could be worth it.

You know that lull just after the holidays? It's the perfect time to head to Costco. This may sound like the last thing you want to do, but if you want to nab a deal on holiday food, going to the store the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas is a smart move. Customers have reported that the post-holiday lull is the perfect time to find cut-price holiday grub, with items like turkey, ham, chocolates, and cookies seeing big reductions in some stores, because Costco knows that it needs to shift its stock fast after demand drops. Jump in the car and get ready to make some savings. Oh, and you'll get the added benefit of the store being super quiet, which is just blissful.

Now, you may be thinking that this trick might not be super useful if you're trying to grab food for the holiday that's literally just passed, but bear with us here. If you're buying a ham to bake for Christmas, then the day after the Thanksgiving holiday is a great time to shop, particularly due to the fact that both holidays have similar foods. What's more, the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a good opportunity to buy shelf-stable items that you might be able to use the next year, like canned or bottled products.

To shop for holiday food effectively, you need to plan, plan, plan. Never is this as true as when you're shopping at Costco. It can be very tempting to do your Costco shop in one go (mainly because its stores are so cavernous and its products are so large that the prospect of going back twice is stressful), but we'd recommend avoiding that. Buying certain holiday foods from Costco too early can cause them to perish by the time you want to use them, and bulk buys can be harder to freeze.

As such, we recommend timing your holiday purchases carefully and doing two trips to Costco. Your first trip should be to stock up your pantry and for the best frozen foods you can find there, like appetizers, as well as flour, sugar, and canned items. This should be done about a month out from the holidays, giving you plenty of time to go back if a few things are out of stock. Your second trip is the one where you buy your fresh goods, like produce, dairy, and meat that you're not freezing. We'd aim to do this about a week before the big day. Remember that if you're shopping online, you may want to buy them slightly earlier than this, to ensure that the items you want are still in stock.

Perhaps the greatest trick that Costco ever played on customers is convincing them that they need to bulk-buy everything. Well, people, we're here to tell you that you don't, especially around the holidays. Costco's big-box nature can be super useful if you're cooking up a massive holiday feast, but there are certain items that you just won't need that much of, and if you buy them at the store, you'll end up with more than you know what to do with. 

A prime example of this is its spices. Costco sells Olde Thompson Ground Nutmeg in 20.1-ounce jars, and its Kirkland Signature Organic Ground Saigon Cinnamon comes in 10.7-ounce containers. Now think about how much nutmeg and cinnamon you'll actually need for the holidays. If you're cooking for you and your family and throwing these seasonings into occasional pumpkin spice foods, you probably won't get through more than a tablespoon or two of each, and then they'll just sit there in your pantry. When you consider that ground spices may only retain their potency for a couple of years, you might end up throwing a large amount of them away. There are some situations where smaller is better.

Costco's food sells out just like any other supermarket, and its holiday food is particularly prone to disappearing from its shelves as customers rush to snap it up. A lot of people, though, still think that they have to take a chance and hope it'll still be in stock when they need it. Well, you don't, folks. You can preorder certain holiday items in advance from Costco, ensuring that you're well-prepared for your parties and meals. Costco lets you preorder its party platters, which will give you an easy catering option that you can pick up on the day of your holiday event. Just head to the store, place your order at the deli kiosk, specify your pick-up time, and you're good to go. You can also preorder full holiday meals like a Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner online, which significantly cuts down on the stress of doing it yourself.

As with all things, though, it pays to be prepared. It can be easy to think that placing a preorder means you're getting ahead of the pack, but there's generally a cutoff point to purchase these products in good time, to ensure that they can be made or delivered for the big day. Don't wait until the last minute.

Costco isn't just a great place to get holiday food to feed yourself and your loved ones — it's also an awesome option for edible holiday gifts. The Holiday Gift Guide that it releases each year is full of ideas and options for all the food-lovers in your life, and a lot of them are at an excellent price point. In 2025, you can pick up gift sets from Hickory Farms and The Fruit Company, with both of them filled with snacks and edible treats, or you can grab some A'cappella Classic Hot Chocolate BevBombs. Give them to your friend who loves warm drinks, or buy for yourself and enjoy some holiday comfort.

Costco also stocks gift cards for restaurants like Fogo de Chão, which are a great choice for loved ones who deserve a good meal out. Beyond its Holiday Gift Guide, Costco sells a range of food gifts that may not specifically be on sale, but which will bring a smile to everyone's faces. It's got a host of gift baskets, serving boards, and chocolate sets that make awesome edible options for Christmas.

So, here's the thing. Some of Costco's holiday foods are popular. Very popular. While you might expect its premade meals and party platters to sell out pretty quickly, other, more standard items can also fly off the shelves before you have a chance to grab them. Thinking that you can score them at your convenience may well leave you lacking in Christmas cheer: You've got to get them as soon as you can.

The Kirkland Signature Traditional Holiday Egg Nog is one such item that tends to sell out fast. Once it's all gone, this seasonal beverage usually isn't restocked until the following year, so it's best to buy it as soon as you can — especially considering that it's shelf-stable, so you can keep it for a good few months. Firm favorites like Costco's beloved pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice bagels can also disappear relatively quickly thanks to high demand. As a general rule of thumb, if you want a holiday food product and you know you can store it, you should probably get it while you can.