Should you Buy Produce at Costco?

If you peruse Costco money-saving articles and blogs, many of them will tell you a list of items TO BUY at Costco.

And what to avoid.

We have put together a list of items that are “musts” at Costco….

And, we went a step further and we have a list of 20 Organic Deals that are an amazing buy at Costco as well.

But a common thread among savings blogs is that produce is a POOR item to purchase at Costco as a whole. 

Do you buy produce there?

Here’s a shocker: I’m here to say that produce is NOT an item to avoid at Costco – quite honestly, some of their produce is actually quite amazing!

While we DO belong to a Weekly CSA in our area, we do occasionally buy some of our produce at Costco – and while we don’t visit Costco weekly, the purchases we do pick up usually last us for over a week if not longer when properly stored.

Here are up to 8 produce items you WILL want to consider purchasing at Costco.

Organic Sweet Potatoes

You can score a TEN pound bag of these for just over $12.00 – that’s just over $1.00 per pound, and a great price for these. We pick up at least a bag each month – and they are great to add into Soup, and we also make mashed Sweet Potatoes and simply just them in our Instant Pot for easy meals.

Organic Power Greens

Organic Power Greens come in a 21 oz bag for $5.49 – they are $.50 more than what you would pay at Sprouts but convenient if you don’t want to make a trip – it’s great for making salads each day at lunch or before dinner, we use ours for smoothies. It’s a HUGE bag.

Organic Spinach

Organic Spinach is just $3.79 for 1 pound.  Although you MIGHT be able to get Spinach for $3 – $4 in the regular store,, but the price of this at Costco is GREAT compared to the regular grocery store).

Pineapple

Sure, I can wait for a sale and pay $1 – $1.50 in the regular grocery store, but we don’t always see sales. We eat at least 1 if not 2 whole Pineapple a week, and so having it here is a necessity.

The regular grocery store is $3.99 (NOT on sale) and so paying $2.99 at Costco for a HUGE Dole Pineapple is a bargain – at least to me!  It allows me to skip a trip into the grocery store where there may not always be a sale, and where I’d end up throwing stuff in my cart that I might not need.

Organic Carrots

Love carrots? My kids take them to school every day – so we have to buy them in large bags because they eat so many. The TEN pound bag of Organic Carrots is $4.99 – so $.49 per lb.

They ALSO have Baby Carrots, and they are 5 lbs for $4.99 – so $1.00 per pound. Sure, I can go to the grocery store for Baby Carrots, but you’ll be hard pressed to find Organic Baby Carrots for $1.00 on a regular basis. Getting a 5 lb bag and avoiding a trip to the store or waiting for a sale is great – at least for us.

Avocados

We love Avocados and Costco has 6 Large Avocados for $5.99 – that will last ONE person 6 days… my husband eats at least 1, if not 2 each day.

Although you can get them 5/$1 at Food City almost every week… we find that we end up tossing many since they are over-ripe or brown inside. Same with Bashas – it’s almost as if their sale is an intentional way to dump their overstocked, overripe Avocados so we gave up buying them there.

They are also on the Dirty Dozen list as one of the 12 least contaminated items, for those of you on a budget.

Onions

Onions are also a bargain if you buy them in bulk at Costco – they have several varieties slightly different in price that are a great item to toss in your cart – they are not one of the Dirty Dozen, so if you are on a budget, they are one of the 12 least contaminated items you can buy.

Do you have any produce items that you think are a bargain at Costco?  Don’t forget that you can pick up a membership right now for $55 + FREE Cash Card + FREE Food, too!