Four items you should always buy at Costco and what to get elsewhere

COSTCO can offer customers great value – but not everything is worth buying.

Through the warehouse chain, shoppers can score bargains on certain products by buying in bulk.

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But keep in mind, to shop at Costco you must be a member.

The cost ranges from £15 to £74.40 depending on the perks you want or if you want to exclusively shop online.

Costco, which has 29 locations in the UK, sells a variety of products including groceries, electronics, clothing and other key household essentials such as cleaners.

You can find a local warehouse near you by using its store locator tool.

Below are the best items that Costco fans should buy at the warehouse – and others that are better avoided.

Note that these might not be the cheapest so make sure to price compare at other stores as well.

Items to buy

Cooking oils

One product to buy in bulk at Costco is cooking oil.

A one-litre option of Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil can be purchased for £7.29.

At Tesco, in comparison, the same size option can be had for £9.90, representing savings of £2.61.

But as always keep in mind that prices can vary by location.

Toilet paper

Buying toilet paper at Costco might seem expensive at first glance but bulk buying them could pay off in the long term.

An Andrex brand of 16 rolls sells for £11.85 at Tesco.

That would amount to £23.70 if two sets were purchased.

Costco’s Kirkland brand 40-pack of rolls can be purchased for £18.59.

That equals about 46p per roll compared to 74p per roll for the Andrex brand.

Water

Costco members can also get a wicked deal on water.

At the warehouse chain, you could buy a 40-pack of water bottles for £3.90.

This is significantly better value than other stores, as they cost about 10 cents per bottle.

At Asda, a 12-pack of mineral water costs £2, which equals £6 for 36 bottles, or 17 cents per bottle.

Each bottle here is 330ml compared with Costco’s 500ml.

Mayonnaise

Toppings could also be a good option to buy at Costco.

One example is Hellmann’s mayonnaise, which costs £5.89 for two squeezy tubes of 750ml each.

At Tesco, the same brand and size sell for £3.40 each.

Items to avoid

Pasta

Pasta is typically a relatively inexpensive grocery item – but buying in bulk at Costco often isn’t worth it.

Costco sells a four-pack (500 grams each) of Fusilli for £7.19, which amounts to about £1.80 per package.

Aldi, in comparison, sells Fusilli pasta for 79p per package, which also amounts to 500 grams.

How to compare prices

Regardless of where you shop, you should always compare prices to find the best deals.

To do this, you can do individual searches through your favourite store’s online marketplaces.

Also, grocery comparison app Trolley has an online tool you can check out.

You can search for your product of choice and it’ll show you a breakdown of a few prices at different stores.

For example, a 1.6 kg bag of McCain’s Home chips sells for £3 each at Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco and Morrison.

Normally it costs £4 at Tesco and Morrison but they are on sale.

For more related stories, see the amazing trick that shoppers are using to get groceries for free.

And here are six frozen food myths that cost millions of households £420 per year.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk