Costco Is Selling a Brilliant Retractable Patio Shade for a Steal

After a long, bitter, and snowy winter, the weather is finally starting to improve in New York City. I’m starting to fantasize about days spent at the park or on a patio at a friend’s apartment. But while the sun is a wonderful and necessary part of life, it can get quite bothersome if it blares at you for too long. A nice pull-down shade can handily block excessive outdoor brightness, and a well-reviewed one just arrived on Costco shelves for a steal.

A recent Instagram video by the Costco Twins, who create content about notable Costco products, showcases the Koolspot Outdoor Sun Shade. “These are perfect for patios and porches,” they write in the caption. The shade is $72.99 in-store, but a version of the sun shade can also be purchased online for $119.99 plus shipping. 

However, the Koolspot shade available online is not quite the same size. The online shade is 6×8 feet, while the in-store shade is an even 8×8 feet, a larger size at a lower price. You need to mount it on a wall or ceiling, but once you do, all that’s left to do is either pull down or retract the shade using a pole that’s hooked to the base. This shade would be a great addition to the sunniest side of your home, a front porch, or a freestanding patio structure.

Shoppers seem quite pleased with this sunshade. “I should have installed these a while ago. These work perfectly for us when the sun arrives in the rear of our home,” one reviewer wrote on Costco’s website. “We are very pleased with [the] quality of these shades. The one we installed last year looks as new as the ones we just installed, no fading or unraveling,” reviewer Lamite1 adds.

If you don’t have a Costco membership or simply don’t live very close to a Costco and don’t want to pay the higher online price, you can find a similar pull-down shade at The Home Depot. The cordless outdoor patio roller shade has a comparable look and design to the Koolspot shade from Costco, but this one comes in four different widths and three different finishes, perfect for different sized windows or areas that you might want covered outdoors.

You can choose from Sandbar (light tan), Seaside (medium brown-beige), or Driftwood (darker brown), and 48, 72, 84, or 96 inches wide. All versions are 72 inches (6 feet) long. Price varies by size, but the lowest you’ll pay is $69 for the 48-inch shade, and the highest is $94 for the 96-inch one.