Last Updated on 18 February 2026 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone. US warehouse retailing giant Costco has become increasingly a presence in the UK, and I found myself intrigued by seeing Facebook group online fans that remain incredibly loyal to the brand. After ordering some products from Costco online, I got myself an in-store membership and went along to investigate, review Costco and ask our classic question – is it worth your time and money?
I’ll note that I found that different people will have very different answers to the question of if Costco is good value, so read on to find out who it does and doesn’t work for!
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Quick Verdict on CostCo UK
We didn’t quite find quite as many bargains as we hoped at CostCo UK. Whilst you can absolutely make savings on big ticket items and buying in bulk, those looking to simply save money on standard grocery shops may be disappointed. It’s also not the most relaxing shopping experience.
However, some of the surrounding services like fuel or tyres offer really good deals that are tremendous value if they’re something you can make use of.
Who are Costco?
Costco is effectively best compared to a wholesaler. They sell largely bulk products out of warehouse-type structures, but differ in that you can either join as a traditional business wholesaler or simply via having a personal membership.
They started over in the US (out of aircraft hangers) and have been growing worldwide ever since! At the time of writing they have 29 branches around the UK.
You’ll pay an annual membership fee in order to visit a Costco, but the promise in exchange is that the actual margin on any goods purchased within is kept to an absolutely minimum – the vast majority of the groups profits come from the membership rather than sales.
Can anyone become a Costco member?
If you’re just looking to buy items off the Costco website, you can just sign up as an online member without being a member of any specific profession, although will need to purchase an online membership to buy items off the site.
If you’re looking for in-store membership, and you want to join on a personal basis rather than for business purposes there are restrictions as to which professions can join Costco.
I’ve been a bit mystified by this – I haven’t been able to find a confirmed answer as it why but it appears to be a side-effect of Costco’s classification of a wholesale business where they have to demonstrate they are not just a general retailer.
He’s the relevant professions that are eligible for membership at Costco. When you attend in person for the first time, you’ll need to provide some evidence of this in order to claim your membership card – for instance, I had to produce payslips from my company.
Alternatively if you’re applying for a trade membership, you’ll need to prove that you’re the owner of manager of a UK business.
For a Personal Membership, to be a Current or Retired Employee of:
- Banking / Finance
- Local Government
- Fire / Rescue Service
- Post Office
- Airlines
- Education
- Police Force
- Civil Service / Armed Forces
- Medical / Health Service
- Insurance
If you hold a Blue Light Card, you are almost certainly eligible for CostCo membership.
Or;
Qualified as:
- Qualified / Certified / Chartered Accountant
- Chartered Architect
- Doctors (MD) / Dentist / Optician / Pharmacist
- Chartered Surveyor
- Solicitor / Barrister / Magistrate / Advocate
- Chartered Engineer / Civil etc
What types of membership are available at Costco? How much does Costco membership cost?
Costco has a few different membership options, and I’ve written a summary below of which is the best for you. I’ve also highlighted for each level what the meaningful benefits of each programme are.
Alternatively, a guide can be found on the Costco website here.
(All prices are correct at time of writing).
Online membership
Online membership will enable you to buy most items off the Costco website for delivery (see our note below however), however you won’t be able to go into their warehouses or use in person related services like petrol.
As a reminder, you don’t need to be a member of a qualifying profession for this.
Important: There’s a few disadvantages that we should mention with the online membership.
Firstly, most items are available to online-only members, but not absolutely everything is. Secondly you should be aware that online costs even with the membership are higher than at warehouse, with differences up 15%. Whilst they’re advertised as no fees and free delivery, these costs are baked into the online order cost.
Regardless, the online membership absolute still can be worth it on big ticket items like TV’s, just don’t expect to be making significant savings on smaller items after factoring that in.
What does an online membership at Costco cost?
Online membership is £15 a year.
Gold Star (Individual) Membership
Gold Star (Costco’s name for an individual membership) will also get you access to Costco’s stores and in-person services like fuel and tyres.
You will need to be a member of a qualifying profession to qualify.
What does an Individual membership at Costco cost?
Individual membership is £42 a year.
Are there any other benefits?
The main one is that you can also get an additional card for a partner or spouse to shop at Costco.
There are various other benefits listed on the Costco website for access to various related services, but nothing we’d particularly highlight as a great opportunity you can’t get elsewhere.
Business Membership
Business membership is only available to those using it for a profession, however is slightly cheaper than individual membership so this is the one to go for if you qualify for both
What does a Business Membership at Costco cost?
Trade membership is £30 per year.
Are there any other benefits?
It’s the same as the individual Gold Star membership, but on a Monday-Friday you can also visit early during trade-only hours in order to avoid the worst of the crowds.
Costco Executive Membership
Costco offer (and push quite heavily for you to upgrade) to an executive membership option, which includes cashback on purchases.
There’s both a business and a Gold Star individual version of the executive membership, and the same joining requirements apply as to the regular version.
How much does an Executive membership cost?
The Gold Star individual version of the executive membership is £84 per year, with a cap on cashback rewards of £500.
The business version of the executive membership is £78 per year, with a cap of cashback rewards of £750.
What benefit do I get with a Costco Executive membership?
The tangible difference to the regular memberships is a 2% cashback (capped) on most spending at Costco. This is applied annually as a gift voucher to your account on the card.
It’s most spending because there’s a couple of exclusions, such as fuel, EV charging and travel services. You can see details of exclusions as part of the Costco Executive Terms and Conditions here.
Is a Costco Executive Membership worth it?
You have to be a fairly heavy shopper at Costco to make an executive club membership worth it. Let’s do the maths:
For a Gold Star individual, executive costs £42 more than the standard membership.
To earn £42 cashback to cover the additional membership cost, this equates to £2,100 of spending. At this point, we break even on membership – spend more and you are saving, spend less and you’ve wasted money.
For avoidance of doubt, this is applied only to items purchased via the main warehouse – so fuel is exempt from contributing to the reward.
The business figure is a £48 difference, with a break even point at a £2,400 spend.
We think most won’t spend this much, but if you’re a diehard Costco loyalist, or buying some bulk items like appliances it may be worth it in those specific instances.
What is shopping in Costco like?
One thing to be clear on is that whilst Costco sells many similar things that you’d find in the supermarket, it’s a very different experience.
Expect it to be a lot busier, especially at the weekend. It’ll also feel a lot more like shopping at a cash and carry than a supermarket – nearly everything is stacked up for bulk-buying in large sizes, although very logically laid out. An example picture below:
I will say it wasn’t the most relaxing of shopping experiences. When we arrived we were directed to customer services where we had our photos taken for our membership cards, along with providing the evidence of our employment in a qualifying field.
Everyone gets scanned in on their way in to make sure they match their photo, and staff were actively checking receipts vs. trolleys on the way out. Some of that is an unfortunate inevitability of the unjustified rise in shoplifting in the UK, and also to ensure that people aren’t abusing and sharing their Costco membership. I understand it, but I’d be lying if I said I found it added to being a pleasant in-store experience.
The Catch Out: CostCo and VAT Pricing Exclusion
One other think I noticed is that the headline big number prices on the labels in store tends to be exclusive of VAT, despite VAT needing to be included for personal users not using for business purposes. This isn’t always very obvious until you get to the till.
I found this a little frustrating pricing wasn’t marked more clearly in terms of what each type of user would pay, and aware it’s a big thing that catches people out at UK CostCo.
Can I save money shopping at Costco?
I found a very mixed picture in shopping around at Costco. I was going in with an expectation that because Costco’s products are bulk items, I would make significant savings as the compensation for purchasing in size.
In practice, whilst I wouldn’t describe Costco as particularly expensive I found the (non-special offer) pricing more equivalent to being marginally better than buying large items a mainstream supermarket such as a Tesco or Sainsbury’s. The flipside to this is that the quality of any goods is absolutely excellent, particularly with regard to meat products. An example picture of this below:
I was left feeling that if my main aim of visiting was to save money, it still wasn’t beating the discount supermarkets in Aldi or Lidl on pricing (even if it was on quality).
There were some bargains to be had, but these were focused around where Costco had special offers on – as a result I’d be more inclined to check on Costco’s offers and go if I saw something I needed.
One area I was very impressed by was the in-store bakery, which included some large scale sandwich platters and (with ordering in advance) you could get some personalised cakes, which were really competitive compared to catering options.
I also look at look at larger items like fridges and TV’s. Again I was slightly underwhelmed on the pricing – I wouldn’t describe it as uncompetitive but I didn’t come across anything that I wasn’t able to match at an online retailer or via Amazon.
However I also identified two areas where I thought Costco was an absolute bargain as connected services, covered in the next section…..
Are other services available at Costco?
Despite my mixed feeling on the food section, there are a number of other services available at some branches of Costco which I think offer a lot of value.
Fuel at Costco
Not every Costco has a petrol station, but those that do are getting an absolute bargain with their Kirkland brand fuel.
You can look up the live prices on their website as they may vary depending on where you are in the country.
When I first wrote this review, I found that the fuel at CostCo was about 10p cheaper per litre than I could get at a standard petrol station. On updating this review I found that gap has fallen, and was now often 3p-5p difference to a cheaper supermarket fuel station.
This still adds up to a good deal, but narrows the break even calculation – let’s take a look:
CostCo Fuel Break Even Calculation
(Obviously this makes the big assumption you’re only using CostCo for fuel, so is an approximation).
Cost of Individual Membership: £42
Avg. Saving: 5p per litre
Litres needed to break even: 840 Litres
Verdict: 840 Litres is roughly 17 full tanks (for a 50L car).
This is still well worth it if you can make most of your fillups at CostCo, but the flipside of this equation is that because it’s such a good deal, long queues at the petrol stations are pretty commonplace – I would advise not going at peak times if you can. However, this is an excellent deal.
You must be an in-store member of Costco in order to use their fuel services.
Tyres at Costco
The other really good deal offered at some Costco’s is Tyre servicing. I found I was able to get four high quality tyres (Goodyear for my car) fully replaced and installed, and was notably cheaper than local garages or tyre servicing centres.
You can find tyres that Costco can fit for you on the tyre section of their website, entering in your registration number to find what is right for your car and then selecting your tire option. Once delivered, you’ll get a call to arrange a fitting date.
It’s worth noting that for most tyres, you’ll usually need to have all four fitted and the installation cost is not included in the price that comes up next to the tire. However, I did find I was getting a very good deal here even after accounting for that.
Tyre Guarantee
One factor I’ll particularly call out as a postive on Costco’s type service is their excellent 5-year road hazard guarantee – if you get a puncture or flat, they will repair it for free or give credit towards a new tire.
That’s much better than most other garages and a compelling reason to get the work done here.
You must be a Costco in-store member in order to take advantage of the Costco Tyres service.
Costco Opticians
The Optician service gets absolutely fantastic reviews and in a recent Which customer service poll I’ve seen beat out all the other high street opticians, both on quality of service and price.
So if you’re a glasses or contacts wearer looking for an eye exam, Costco can be a surprisingly great option, despite possibly not being the first place you’d think of!
Costco Hot Dogs!
Some stores pick up a bit of a cult following for their cafe’s (IKEA meatballs I’m looking at you….) – Costco is in a similar position with their Costco Hot Dogs for £1.50!
I didn’t make this a part of my review, but I’m aware there’s a big fan club so I’m mentioning it, and I will update this if I sample them on a future visit!
How do I sign up to Costco?
You can either sign up in store or register online at the Costco website here.
Any membership will give you instant ability to buy online, and you can register in-store and get your membership card the first time you visit.
So is signing up Costco membership worth it?
It really depends on your personal circumstances and proximity to a Costco as to if it’ll be worth it, but it’s not for everyone.
Add a star to our review if: You have a car (fuel savings), need new tyres (warranty), or host large parties/BBQs.
Remove a star from our review if: You are a single person, have no storage space, or are hoping to save money on basic weekly groceries (Aldi/Lidl are cheaper).
Let’s start with those who it’s an easy yes – if you’re near one that has a fuelling station and are willing to put up with some queuing, it’s a no brainer. You’d earn your membership fee back using it regularly and anything else would be a nice bonus.
Then there’s those who it’s an easy no for – with everything being sold being a bulk item you’ll need storage space, either in your home or your freezer. If you only have enough for a couple of bits, it’s unlikely any savings will outweigh the membership cost (although for a few one off items, going for an online membership and having items delivered may still do the job).
I’m on the fence. My nearest Costco is quite a bit further away from local supermarkets. I have decent storage space, but not to an extent that regularly buying in super-bulk isn’t just going to be a little bit inconvenient.
The time I absolutely could see myself using Costco is for hosting a Summer BBQ or Christmas Party where I can get in a lot of good quality food and drink very quickly for a large group, but not have to worry too much about storage on the other end.
If I was making a bigger save on prices I’d go out of my way, and if I lived closer I’d be more inclined to keep it. I’m going to go back for a couple of repeat visits, but I suspect I’ll probably end up not renewing the membership at the end of the year.
But Costco clearly has a loyal following and there are plenty of people that definitely make it worth for them – so take a look at the website and see if anything you need works out for you and judge from them.
How have you found Costco?
Are you one of the Costco diehards I found online, or do you have questions about Costco in general? We’d love to hear from you, especially with stories of any great bargains you have found!
FAQ’s on Costco membership
Yes, if you have a membership card you can make use of any branch – and this applies worldwide rather than just in the UK, so you can even stock up on your holidays!
Members can bring up to 2 guests into Costco, however only members will be able to make purchases.
No, you must purchase an annual membership.
Yes, Costco will refund your membership as part of their satisfaction guarantee if you are unhappy with the service.
Generally pretty generous (for instance 90 days on electronics) but the specific policy varies by specific class of item. You can see the policies under the 100% satisfaction guarantees terms on this page at Costco.
You’ll need Photo ID to prove your identify and something to prove your membership of a qualifying profession if signing up for an in-store membership, like a payslip.
And that’s it!
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