Costco Members Are Sharing Their Methods for Bringing Their Groceries Home and You’ll Want to Try These on Your Next Trip

As Costco members know, when they get to the end of the checkout line, they have to reach for a box (not a grocery bag) to pack up their items. According to the brand’s website, the decision to not provide bags for customers during checkout is to both prevent waste and to keep wholesale prices down for their loyal customer base. And for those who frequent the beloved warehouse, that requires a bit of thinking outside the box when it comes to unloading and lugging those giant mayonnaise tubs and 12-pound chicken thigh packs into their homes.

Coming to save the day with their creative knowledge, customers of the membership-only big-box retail store got together on Reddit to share ways they have streamlined the A-to-B trip from car to home with all of their oversized grocery items. Their handy ideas to get you organized and help you unload and transport with less effort leave us asking, why didn’t we think of that?

“I use plastic totes,” one shopper commented on the Welcome to Costco thread, while another noted that laundry baskets can do the trick, too. 

While some containers — like the plastic storage bins and laundry baskets — are a little more suited to the job, others seem a little more conceptual like the collapsible wagon that user u/tommybolts fills up with items: “I use three of the Costco cooler bags and load them into a collapsible wagon from Amazon to wheel into an elevator up to my apartment.” 

There’s even a company cross-over tip of enlisting the help of giant IKEA bags for all your totables. U/bloodredyouth wrote of the iconic blue bags, “Easier to divide up the odd-shaped items and carry them into the house.”

Though there are plenty of ways to bring in your groceries, I think we can all admit that adding one or two of these methods into our routine is worth a try. And, you can bet I’ll be trying the wine box method on my next run!