Costco

35 comments

1. You’ll only have to shop once a week, everything is in huge packages so unless you’re a family of 4, look forward to spending less time shopping groceries I guess

2. I live about a 20 minute drive from my nearest Costco, and I rarely go. Living on my own the Costco portions are just way too big, and there’s no real advantage over buying in bulk compared to just buying what I need when I need it.

3. If you can eat a lot of food before it expires or eat a lot of canned foods then it can work.

4. Costco vegetables choice is a bit meh. My local one sometimes has cabbage, but I’ve never seen lettuce of any kind on sale. Or celery. Or stuff like green onions/leeks. Or moyashi! Tomatoes are usually available, big domestic ones, or mini/packaged that are usually Australian or etc.

   I think they’re fine for bulk foods/materials like flour, large qtys of stuff that’s otherwise annoying to get in local supermarkets like potatoes or onions, but if you want domestic veggies you’re better off at a farmers market (something like JA直売<your region>) or a proper supermarket.

5. I go to Costco for eggs, chicken, butter, and rolls. My kids love the cheap rolls from Costco and we freeze a lot of stuff so once a month for us works since I have a deep freeze for meat and bread

6. There was one next to me when I lived alone. As a single guy, I only used Costco for

   -Gasoline, I probably save like 500 yean a month because of this.

   -Wine selection

   -Frozen foods like once a month

   -The once a week food court

   -I got a pretty good 10,000 discount on 4 tires upon signing up for my first year of membership

   Other than that, I never bought food because fruits and vegetables would have all gone bad before I could finish it. Meats at least you can freeze but I am not that much of a meat eater.

7. I’m there for the pizza and hotdogs!

8. It’s not a bad idea if you don’t mind the price, have a large fridge and a family that has a good appetite. If you live alone I hope you like to do meal planning.

9. I usually go there once a month, and it lasts me about three weeks

10. Primary for milk (latte every morning for 2) and soy milk for overnight oats. Of course gasoline. Other than that I only buy the occasional frozen items to store in the freezer. Any other thing gets bought in bulk only on occasion, like toilet paper / hand soap / body soap / shampoo etc.

11. Too expensive for grocery shopping; except for the eating area where you can incredibly cheap hot dogs and pizza.

12. We’ve been doing co-ops recently. They deliver groceries to your door and delivery is free if you have little kids or like 80 yen if you don’t. Prices are really good and everything is very fresh. Co-op Deli is one and Pal System is another. They both only deliver one day a week (but different days fortunately) so we sometimes have to run to the grocery store if we run out or forgot to order something.

13. I’m about 30 minutes from Costco. Sometimes we go once a week, sometimes once a month. It depends on our needs. We like to buy the muffins and freeze them, and we get their bulk fruit and nuts. It’s the only place I see blackberries and raspberries.

14. We use COSTCO for a lot of things, but not for the daily groceries. We cannot eat/use the quantities that we’d have to buy. But it is our main gas/kerosene station. The rest; maybe once a month.

15. I’d go there for lunch a few times a week if I lived close … you can buy milk, some kinds of bread, and some snacks if I lived that close..

16. Probably depends on the types of food you like to eat. If you don’t get tired of having the same foods for a while and want to have access to Americanized stuff, it could be a good option. I went there over Golden Week and finding decent bagels, hummus, cotton candy grapes, and cheap greek yogurt was a godsend. Their rotisserie chicken is comically cheap, too. I think I could make do with it.

17. It’s got some great deals and many terrible ones. I’m not entirely impressed with my experience, but I’ll go occasionally for the food court, the rotisserie chicken. i like the 6-pack towels and 2l shampoo, but a lot of things will be far more expensive than a local drug store or supermarket

18. I would have to supplement. At least at mine, there’s not enough variety of fresh veg and such.

    I also have the luxury of a separate chest freezer and a loft for storage so bulk isn’t an issue for me, but it may be depending upon your living space.

19. I really love Costco but if you’re living alone or even as a couple, the sizes are often a bit too large. Fridge/freezer space is also an issue. It’s good for stuff like milk and eggs, and can be good for meat and vegetables if you plan it right and have the freezer space.

    I love their bakery stuff like the big bags of bread rolls, but it’s usually too much for me to eat before it goes off 🙁 bread I can freeze (if I have the space lol), but cookies/pastries usually go to waste unfortunately, so I don’t buy them anymore.

    I go about twice a month and buy stuff like juice, cheese, sometimes a big box of salad, maybe a pre-made dish like pasta or wraps. Then I order the rest of my groceries online 🙂

20. If you’re a family of twelve, it *might* make sense to go to Costco once a week.

21. Unless you have exceptional freezer/general storage space or a family, Costco as a primary grocery store is not very practical. Everything is just too big.

    But if you can freeze stuff, portion stuff out, or put stuff in bulk storage, options open up.

    Either way, it’s worth getting a membership just for certain things that are hard to find elsewhere in Japan.

22. What I don´t like at Costco is that the free samples are way better than the product itself… Try a free sample cookie or piece of cake. That is delicious. Buy the product and be disapointed trying to figure out what trick they use to lure costumers…

23. Forget Costco as a primary supermarket. Their stock range is limited, everything is huge and they’re not that cheap for most things. Every now and again for a pizza or something particular you can’t find elsewhere in Japan they’re fine though.

24. The only advice I can give is do NOT go on a weekend if you can help it. Costco on a weekend is on par with IKEA on a weekend.

25. I could not do it. As others have mentioned, the quantities are huge, the prices are not all that great, selection of vegetables is pretty average.

    We go every 2 or 3 months as there are some great things to buy but we nearly always end up with 5 or 6 items and that’s it. We will buy maple syrup, uncooked tortillas, butter every time and then 1 or 2 other things for convenience.

26. They are importing inflation from overseas.

    Everything is expensive, except for the gasoline, and kerosene.

    The food court even saw a price hike on everything, except the sausage and drink combo.

    Rarely do I find myself shopping there, unfortunately.

27. Ideally group buy with neighbours, we do that for cheese, cold cuts, toilet paper, lemons and limes, etc…

28. Get a big fridge

29. As for food, it really depends on your diet. I eat mostly eggs, chicken, meat, and rice, so I go twice a month and it’s perfect for me. I’ll occasionally get frozen fruit, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, etc., for snacks. I can get household items (toilet paper, cleaning products, personal toiletries, etc.) a couple times per year. Once in a while, I’ll get a slice of combo pizza, which was discontinued in the US during COVID. When we visit my in-laws, we get fish/seafood or a big sushi/sashimi platter. As for veggies, my wife gets those from the local supermarket, but for a lot of things, Costco works for us.

30. I live by myself and do a CostCo run about once per month on my bike. I upgraded my fridge/freezer so that I have plenty of freezing space.

    Bagels, naan, tortillas, and meats are the staples. It’s really good for helping me eat more fish – I find it easier to meal plan with frozen fish fillets.

31. I wouldn’t use it as my primary grocery – there isn’t a lot of fruit & veg, and most “little” things are missing. It is great for stocking up on kilos of cheese, half a pig, and they have lots of good frozen food too.

    I wouldn’t see a costco next door as a benefit. Maybe within a 45 minute drive, though.

32. Family with pets and kids and cars. Some groceries make it worth it while others dont at all. Example- we eat yogurt for breakfast virtually everyday; local supermarket Oikos is 140yen but Costco is like 85 so that’s 5000 yen savings a month. Cheese, butter, chicken breast, dog and cat food, kitty litter, shampoo, alcohol , cherry tomatoes, ice cream, frozen fruit, infant formula, nuts, oat milk, cereal, maple syrup, and rice are all decently consumed in our family and the price per gram/weight/amount is usually best at Costco, though a local supermarket sometimes has bomb deals and discounts.

    The real “value” of the membership for us is two fold though:

    1) single/seasonal purchases that have huge cost difference so make it worth it for that one high ticket item alone anyways. For example, I wear daily contacts and can buy months of disposable contacts at once for a FRACTION of the price of Japanese contact stores. Like just the savings for my contacts alone pays for the membership every year. Others could be like tires, furniture (like a new mattress or desk chair), kitchen appliances like blender or instant pot,, outdoor and seasonal stuff (charcoal for bbq, tent or camping goods, winter usually has cheaper gloves and clothes/jackets, summer has cool shit like kayaks, sewing machine, whatever), office or school supplies, if you need a TV or computer or engagement ring, the cards that save you 20% at a place you always shop, etc . Even just a couple of these high ticket and relatively expensive things a few times a year might pay for the membership.

    2) the “fun” stuff you cant really easily get other places or random roadshows or if you like something in particular. My brother in law is addicted to red bull, or if someone loves ice wine, you have parties and need big sushi platters, you regularly eat pizza, whatever. Costco can satisfy that itch.

    bonus- we got costco credit card and the family cards to earn that sweet 1.5% across the board cash back and use that as the households main card for everything and get a nice bonus every year.

    edit- currently living in Ishikawa and both the “nearby” ones have a gas station so we pop in almost weekly. We also bought one of those giant ass deep freezers at Costco a few years ago (so double win in that it was the same cost as a tiny freezer at YamadaDenki at just 35,000yen and it holds so much shit which helps with a big family and in laws and stuff) so stock up on frozen things when there are crazy sales or for the stuff we always use.

33. I go about once a month. The high priority items for me are: Brussels sprouts, cheese, whole chickens and ribs for BBQing, scallops and salmon. Brussel sprouts are hard to fine in most supermarkets, salmon and scallops too expensive usually, ditto for cheese.
    I’m going tomorrow in fact just for Salmon and cheese, and that’s a 14 km bicycle ride one way. I love it.

34. I go about once a week. That’s all we really need. We usually buy our Kerosine and Gasoline there as well. Which helps with saving money on those items. The only issue with costco is if you are living by yourself everything is sold in bulk so it be a bit of a waste.

35. Lots of comments about Costco gas savings. Unfortunately, Costco here in Japan doesn’t sale gas. As for groceries, it’s good for meats, consumables and household items. However, I personally feel that Japanese markets are far superior in terms of overall food quality.