Costco Vs Aldi: Which Meat Department Is Better In 2026?

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Aldi and Costco: So different, yet so similar. On the surface, these two supermarkets feel totally distinct from one another, with Aldi seeming to focus on lower prices and essentials, and Costco prioritizing range and a bulk-buy business model accessed through paid membership. However, dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear why so many people alternate between the two. You can compare Aldi and Costco products in most food categories, and whether you're buying Irish butter or Thanksgiving dinner, it's always worth weighing up which retailer is better to opt for.

Which store has the better meat, though, is a question that's relevant to millions of people across the United States. Both Aldi and Costco have an impressive array of meats on sale, and both stores price their proteins competitively — but once you zero in on specific meat items, it's evident one or the other has the edge. We decided it was time to determine, once and for all, whether Aldi or Costco should be your go-to for all things chicken, beef, and pork. We combed through reviews from both customers and professionals, taste tests, and price comparisons to figure out where you should be shopping.

Ground beef isn't exactly difficult to find — but finding the best ground beef is slightly trickier, especially at stores like Aldi and Costco, which pride themselves on their reasonable prices. As it turns out, the former might be the better option. Aldi's ground beef is well-regarded by its customers, who repeatedly highlight its consistency and quality, particularly when compared to the beef at Costco. Aldi's Simply Nature Organic Grass Fed Ground Beef is a particular favorite with its shoppers, with multiple store customers saying it's their go-to, both for its price and its dependability. "I've never had a bad pack," said one person on Facebook.

Aldi's ground beef also seems to have the edge on Costco when it comes to cost, although if you're willing to buy in bulk, the latter retailer does offer large chubs of beef that can be divided and frozen, thereby potentially saving you some money. You may well find a better selection of ground beef options at Aldi, too, with some Costcos only offering a few choices. That said, Costco's ground beef is by no means bad — by and large, people agree it's a totally acceptable place to purchase this protein — but Aldi may well offer more.

Anyone who's ever set foot in a Costco will know how large its stores are. When you compare them to Aldi locations, this becomes even clearer. Aldi's stores have (or require) a footprint of around 22,000 square feet, while the average Costco is more than six times the size, at approximately 147,000 square feet – and the world's largest Costco is considerably bigger. While more cavernous stores don't necessarily mean a larger selection of stock, when it comes to meat selection, it's evident Costco's using all that extra space to house more options for its customers.

A brief glance at the kinds of meats both stores sell confirms this. At Aldi, there's a good, but fairly standard selection of poultry, beef, pork, and lamb products, with numerous varieties of each meat type, but nothing especially unexpected. Costco, on the other hand, has an extremely diverse range of meats, from wild boar to goat cubes to beef cheeks. That said, it's important to remember not all Costco stores will sell every type of meat, and some options may only be available at Business Centers. You will also likely have to buy more unusual meats in bulk.

Chicken breasts are a staple purchase for so many people, and for good reason: There are countless things you can do with them, and they're generally not too expensive. Unfortunately, at both Aldi and Costco, the chicken breasts on offer aren't fantastic. Both stores are plagued by accusations of having "woody" chicken breasts, with stringy, tough meat that's hard to cut through and chew. At Aldi, this woodiness can come and go, with some customers reporting issues and others saying its value chicken breasts and Simply Nature organic chicken breasts are tasty and good-value.

At Costco, though, the picture is way starker. The store's shoppers have had issues with its chicken breasts for years, with shoppers criticizing it for its poor quality and woody texture, as well as its container. "Stopped purchasing due to leaking packaging and often woody breasts that were unpalatable," complained one customer on Costco's website. "Not worth the price if I can't/won't eat it." Aldi's chicken may not be significantly better, but it seems to be a wiser purchase.

If you're spending your hard-earned money on a steak, you'll want to make sure it's good, right? And so, it might be better to swing by Costco to pick one up. Generally speaking, customers and taste-testers find Costco's steaks to have a better overall quality and flavor than Aldi's, with more tender meat. When directly compared to each other, people often opt for Costco over Aldi: One customer on Reddit said Costco's steaks are "definitely higher quality," before stating, "I've bought steak at Aldi and could barely eat it."

We should highlight that sentiment may not be true across the board. There are plenty of people who enjoy Aldi's steaks, and who find them broadly comparable to Costco's options – and furthermore, Aldi's steaks can be cheaper (although this may well vary from store to store). It's also worth remembering neither store will likely deliver the kind of steak you'd get from an independent butcher. That's true of most supermarkets, though, and they still offer good selections of meat.

In a world dominated by beef, lamb can sometimes be an afterthought. It certainly isn't at Costco, though. The bulk-buy store caters impressively for people looking for lamb, with a wide variety of cuts available. Costco locations often stock lamb chops, shanks, loins, and racks, and it's typically regarded as a go-to place for a good selection of options. Some Costcos even stock whole lambs (although you may be more likely to find these in Business Centers or larger stores), should your business require a full one or should you be willing to test your butchering skills at home.

That doesn't mean Aldi's lamb is inferior, though. It just means it has less choice. Aldi stores will generally have a couple of lamb options, such as ground lamb and lamb loin chops, and some units may also sell prepared cuts like marinated lamb leg. Customers who buy the store's lamb are generally impressed by what they get, too. If you're concerned about quality, it's hard to go wrong with either store — but if you want options, Costco's the place to be.

Costco seems to have a chicken issue, and not just with its chicken breasts. The store's chicken thighs have been sharply criticized by its customers for their quality and flavor in recent years, with multiple shoppers flocking to social media to highlight leaking packages, bad smells, and a potentially rotten state. According to both employees and customers, this is a recurring issue. "The last 2 times I bought boneless chicken thighs, they were spoiled when I opened the package, before the date stamped," warned one customer on Facebook. "I ended up returning it and got my money back both times." This person is far from alone in having to do this.

Aldi's chicken thighs, by contrast, are much more consistent — and while it's a mistake to expect supreme quality from a lower-priced store, it's evident how much its customers enjoy them. Even its cheaper options cook up well and exude a certain level of quality. On the flip side, some customers have stated its chicken thighs can sometimes have a slightly unusual taste or texture, but they seem a far safer option than getting them at Costco.

Given Aldi's reputation for low prices, you might assume it's cheaper overall for meat. That would be a mistake. The truth is prices at both Aldi and Costco can be highly variable. While some people find Aldi's meat to be less expensive across the board, side-by-side comparisons can paint a more complicated picture. At the time of writing this article, for example, Costco's 80% Lean Kirkland Signature Ground Beef costs $4.59 per pound when purchased online in a 10-pound chub, while Aldi's 80% Lean Ground Beef costs $5.29 per pound in a 2-pound package.

There are a few caveats here, of course. The first is Costco's lower price per pound is for a bulk-buy purchase. You may get more for less, but you'll have to find a way to manage and store all the extra beef you're not using yet. The second is while Costco's prices may beat Aldi's sometimes, you're also paying a membership fee, which can drive your overall spend up. Finally, it's worth remembering prices can vary from store to store and location to location. As such, while Aldi may seem less expensive (and while that may often be the case), it's wise to double-check the price per pound whenever you're shopping at either.

Planning pork chops? You'll likely be safe at both Costco and Aldi. Customers at both stores have praised the pork chops, noting their good quality, selection, and flavor. Aldi gives you several options, with thick- and thin-cut pork chops, as well as bone-in cuts, and people generally remark the meat itself is a winner no matter which choice you go for. That isn't always the case, though: Some customers have reported problems with Aldi's chops turning rotten in their packaging before the best-by date. However, these are usually isolated occurrences.

So what about Costco? Well, if we had to call it, we'd say its customers are even more enthusiastic about its pork chops than those at Aldi. Costco's pork chops routinely get strong reviews from shoppers, with one person on Facebook saying its bone-in pork chops were "tender and delicious ... really are very nice quality," and others saying they're the best you can buy. You shouldn't be too concerned about grabbing them from either retailer, though, despite the odd dud batch of meat from Aldi.

If you're a ground turkey fan and you shop at either Aldi or Costco, we've got some bad news for you: Neither of them do it especially well. Customers and reviewers have found the ground turkey from both stores to be lacking, and while Aldi's option is sometimes said to be decent, most people hate it. The list of problems with its Kirkwood ground turkey is extensive: Customers complain about stringy, chewy textures, terrible flavors, and poor quality. "It might be OK for dog food," said a particularly scathing review of Aldi's Kirkwood frozen ground turkey written by Snarkle-Sauce. "If you hate your dogs."

With a verdict like that, it's hard to fathom Costco's ground turkey might be even worse — but it is. Costco sells Butterball and Norbest ground turkey, and both have received scathing reviews from its customers, with one person on Facebook who said, "Is it me or is it like slime?" And others questioning the edible nature of its Butterball products, as well as the watery composition. One Costco shopper said on Facebook: "Anyone else a little suspicious of the butterball ground turkey? Texture right out the package has me questioning life." To be frank, we would recommend shopping elsewhere entirely for this meat.

Who'd have thought Aldi's bacon was one of the best around? This may sound like hyperbole, but it's true. Aldi's Appleton Farms Premium Sliced Bacon has been named in multiple publications and taste tests as being perhaps the best example of a solid quality-to-price ratio there is when it comes to supermarket meat. At just over $4 per pound, each pack is full of thick, full-flavored, consistent slices that cook up easily, producing a knockout texture. Aldi customers love it, too: One person on Facebook basically called it perfect: "I could not keep this Bacon a secret .. 10/10 does not disappoint. Not super greasy and it doesn't shrivel up."

On the other hand, Costco's bacon isn't the worst purchase you can make — but nor is it especially exciting, and it has more problems than you might think. Customers have found its bacon can have trouble crisping up, and instead remain limp, chewy, and unpleasantly fatty. Others have also pointed out that what you get in each pack can vary considerably, with well-cut slices mixed in with ones that have barely any actual meat. It may not be terrible bacon, but Aldi's is way better.

Ultimately, Aldi takes the trophy here, for its balance of the individual quality of the majority of its items to its price. Aldi may not succeed on all counts — its ground turkey is best left on the shelf, and its steaks might not be quite as tender — but for the majority of standard meat purchases, it beats Costco on sheer flavor and consistency. Interestingly, too, price wasn't a huge factor in our selection process, although it could be argued Aldi customers' higher perceptions of its meat are influenced by feeling as though they're paying less for more. Aldi nails the basics, and while Costco's standard meat selection isn't terrible, it just has too many discrepancies to call it the better choice overall.

That said, Costco does beat Aldi in some places. If you want a wide range of options and slightly more niche meats, the bulk-buy store is the place to go. Its lamb is also a clear shining star in its meat stock, both in terms of selection and quality, and overall, its meat isn't as expensive as you might think. However, for day-to-day shopping, Aldi's the winner.

To fully determine whether Aldi or Costco's meat department was the best, we knew we had to look at a wide range of recent opinions. As such, the majority of our findings and conclusions were based on customer reviews and comments posted on retailer websites and social media platforms like Reddit and Facebook from the last 12 months. After determining the comparable products in each meat category, we then looked at swathes of customer responses, as well as professional taste tests and reviews where available, to determine the overall feeling and perception of quality about the stores' respective items. Once we worked out which items were seen as better in which stores, we then established exactly what the positives and negatives were of each option.

Understanding which store was better on a price level was trickier, as prices can vary considerably from store to store and location to location. As such, here we focused again on customer perception, but we also incorporated price comparisons from the Costco and Aldi websites. Ultimately, all of this research allowed us to build a comprehensive picture of where the supermarkets' meat categories sat in customer estimations.