4 Costco Kirkland Signature Grocery Myths You Shouldn't Believe

When it comes to Costco, there's a lot of true information out there. For example, it's irrefutable that you can turn old electronics into grocery money through the company's trade-in program. And you might have heard that Costco came up with its iconic name by combining the words "cost" and "company;" that's also verifiably accurate. However, when a big box chain has been around for as long as Costco has (since 1976 as Price Club and 1983 under its current name), there is bound to be some misinformation out there — in particular concerning its store brand, Kirkland Signature.

Some untruths that hang around Costco's house brand have actually reached mythological status, though, and your shopping experience is all the weaker for it if you believe them. That's why we're here to debunk four major myths once and for all, to better help you shop and save the next time you head to the store.

Store brands have received some great PR recently, with many shoppers noting the just-as-good or superior quality of non-name brand products. But the myth still persists that if it's a store brand, it's just not as great. Kirkland Signature, however, has long been held up as a paragon of groceries, household items, and other products; ask any Costco shopper, and they'll likely have a laundry list of Kirkland products that they love and adore and would purchase over the name brand any day, particularly as it saves them money.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's not. And it's all about how Costco sources its Kirkland Signature goods. Many of them are made by third-party manufacturers who are, or supply, the big brands, too. Starbucks coffee is famously behind a few of Kirkland's coffees, and Jelly Belly makes the store brand's jelly beans. So you're essentially getting the name brand products for the Kirkland prices, and the quality is exactly the same.

While Costco's entire business model — which is vastly different from most other supermarkets — is designed to help you, the customer, save big on everyday items from its store brand, the big box warehouse chain's Kirkland Signature doesn't always have the lowest prices. In fact, if you're dedicated to the idea of getting the very best deal, it behooves you to shop around and to keep an eye on sales and coupons at other supermarkets.

It's not often Costco is undersold, but it does happen. For example, German discount grocery chain Aldi sometimes ekes out the win in terms of lower prices, particularly on meat, seafood, and oftentimes eggs. And there's also the fact that you don't have to buy items in bulk at Aldi (or other regular grocery stores), so if you're a smaller household, it might make sense to pay a few pennies on the dollar more to shop there, rather than at Costco, because that enormous pack of sliced ham might go bad before you can finish it.

While it's true that some Kirkland Signature items come in larger-than-life packaging, like its pack of five dozen cage-free eggs, others are simply multiples of normal-sized containers that have been packaged together. So don't let the idea that you can only buy an enormous amount of something, and then have a limited amount of time to eat it until it starts to go off in your fridge, stop you from shopping Costco's Kirkland Signature brand.

In fact, items like organic tomato paste are sold in typical six-ounce cans, but in boxes of 12. Likewise, Kirkland organic chicken stock is sold in regular 32-ounces containers, but also as a set of six. As long as you have the space, you can stock up on many pantry staples and not worry about having to use up or preserve 72 ounces of something all at once.

Further, some items being larger than you might eat in one sitting can actually be beneficial, even if you're a smaller household. You can bake up a large Kirkland Signature lasagna and end up with plenty of leftovers for the next few days (or months, if you freeze portions).

Believe it or not, the food court items are mostly branded Kirkland Signature, and a myth persists that non-members can order them. This one is interesting because there was a time when Costco allowed — and some said, encouraged — non-members to eat at the food court thanks to its lax policing of memberships, as a way of drawing them in and convincing them to buy in. That all changed, though, in 2020, when signs began appearing at stores, indicating that Costco would start cracking down on food court purchases as a members-only benefit.

Further, in 2025, the warehouse chain was spotted adding card scanners to its food court ordering kiosks, meaning that non-members would be absolutely locked out of placing orders. So the next time you head to Costco, you may want to make sure you have a membership card on you before heading toward the beacon of light that is the Kirkland Signature hot dogs and chicken bakes.