As everyone is horribly aware, the prices of groceries have gone up. I am a pretty avid Costco and Aldi shopper. I like to go to Costco first and get meats, pantry items, and paper products mainly for the next couple of weeks. Then I go to Aldi and get everything else weekly. On a recent Costco trip, without buying anything out of the ordinary, I came out having spent out ENTIRE grocery budget for the next two weeks. I had nothing left for my trip to Aldi and very little to make actual meals out of for the next two weeks.
This got me wondering…am I really saving money by shopping at Costco? We are a family of 5 and my kids do eat a LOT, but did I really need to be buying in bulk? It was nice to get lots of meat and throw it in the deep freezer, but there wasn’t an actual need to do that if it wasn’t saving me money. Plus, I didn’t get a lot of our produce there because we usually don’t get through the whole bulk load before it goes bad. People always talked about how much money Costco saved them, so I had never taken the time to compare prices myself.
I scoured the Internet looking for price comparisons, and I did find a few. However, they were all at least a few years old and in different places of the country, which can affect prices. So…our whole family headed to Costco one Saturday to make a 2023 list from Pittsburgh, PA! I priced out all of our go-to things while Evan and the kids enjoyed the samples. Then, we headed to Aldi and did the same thing, sadly minus the samples, of course.
I was pretty surprised at what I found. Things that I was sure were less expensive at Costco actually weren’t. Some things were pretty similar and others were cheaper at Costco. So, I’ll likely continue my joint grocery runs to both places, but I have a whole new list of what I’ll buy where. Without further ado, here are the price comparisons I got. I tried to compare store brand to store brand, organic to organic, etc. Some produce items, like berries, were hard to compare because they are measured in pints at Aldi and pounds at Costco. I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to figure out the exact comparison!
The cheaper one is underlined.
- Orange Juice: Aldi- $2.45/8oz; Costco- $12.99/32oz ($3.25/8oz)
- Eggs: Aldi- $4.99/dozen; Costco- $3.24/dozen (comes in pack of 2 dozen)
- Bananas: Aldi- $0.52/lb; Costco- $0.46/lb
- Spinach: Aldi- $0.99/8oz ; Costco- $2.20/8oz
- Multi-colored Bell Peppers: Aldi- $2.69/3 ($0.89/each); Costco- $6.49/6 ($1.08/each)
- Apples (Honeycrisp): Aldi- $2.39/lb; Costco- $8.99/4lbs ($2.24/lb)
- Yellow Onions: Aldi- $1.99/3lbs; Costco- $0.88/lb
- Potatoes: Aldi- $0.79/lb; Costco- $1.25/lb
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Shredded Cheese: Aldi- $3.99/lb; Costco- $3.35/lb
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Organic Mac and Cheese: Aldi- $1.65/box; Costco- $1.45/each
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Organic Quinoa: Aldi- $3.29/lb; Costco: $3.92/lb
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Ground Turkey: Aldi- $3.75/lb; Costco- $3.52/lb
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Wild Caught Salmon: Aldi- $9.49/lb; Costco- $13.99/lb
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Pork Chops: Aldi- $3.99/lb; Costco- $2.49/lb
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Chicken Breasts: Aldi- $3.49/lb; Costco- $5.49/lb
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Frozen Shrimp: Aldi- $8.66/lb; Costco- $6.99/lb
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Toilet Paper (store brand): Aldi- $22.99/30 rolls; Costco- $19.99/30 rolls
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Paper Towels (store brand): Aldi- $7.29/6 rolls; Costco- $9.45/6 rolls
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Diced Tomatoes: Aldi- $0.85/can; Costco- $1.01/can
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Canned Tuna: Aldi- $0.77/can; Costco- $2.12/canIn short, neither store is less expensive in general across all products. However, there were a few surprises for me about things that I thought were cheaper at Costco that actually aren’t. For example: canned goods, fish and poultry, and some produce. I will likely continue to shop at both places, but I’ve definitely changed a few things that I get at each place now.Costco is still cost-effective for red meats and turkey, but I will buy my fish and chicken at Aldi from now on. I was really surprised that the canned goods and pantry staples, like quinoa, were actually more expensive at Costco. I thought I was saving so much money by “stocking up” on those things, and it turns out I was spending more, both per trip and in general!
*All opinions and findings are my own.
