The 5 Best Products from Costco, According to Employees

On the face of it, shopping at Costco seems like it should be a very straightforward experience. With any luck, you avoid impulse-buying a handful of diamonds on the way in (yes, Costco sells diamonds), and then you check out and stop for a $4.99 rotisserie chicken and a $1.50 hot dog at the food court on the way out.

But some of Costco’s deals are better than others, and nobody knows that as well as Costco’s own employees.

The best things to buy at Costco are the things you’ll actually use, of course. Even the best deals can be a waste of money if the food winds up getting thrown away. That’s why everything on the employees’ list seems to be staples that everyone is guaranteed to use. According to The Mirror, these are the five products Costco employees think you should stock up on (and customers on Reddit seem to agree.)

It might be daunting to pick up a giant Costco package of frozen chicken. “How would I possibly use all that?” one might say.

But it’s a Costco employee favorite because frozen chicken is extremely inexpensive in bulk, and you can keep it in the freezer for a while. It might not be fancy or exciting, but you’ll never be sorry it’s there. Just throw it into your freezer; it will sit there for a bit, patiently waiting for the Wednesday night you remember it exists and call it into service for a salad or a trip to the slow cooker.

A person with chicken frozen in their freezer never has to run out to the grocery store at the last minute. (Unless they forgot to stock up on toilet paper.)

Costco employees love the coffee, and it’s one of our favorite Costco products, too. My husband drinks coffee so much I have a hard time keeping it in the house. He just drinks it all! I tried buying coffee by the pound, but it seemed like I had to go to the store every day. Costco’s beans are an excellent combination of price and quality, and if you’re planning on entertaining a lot of people — or if you just drink an extraordinary amount of coffee on your own — a giant bag of Costco coffee beans is a great thing to have around.

I’m pretty sure snacks are the reason I have hands, and Costco certainly delivers in the snack department. And whatever snack you like, Costco probably has pillowcase-sized bags of it cheaper than you’ll find anywhere else.

Read more: 10 Healthy Snacks You Can Only Find at Costco

I never realized how expensive cereal is until I was an adult. If you’re going to buy cereal, you can save money by buying it in bulk from Costco.

This one is a no-brainer. Buying in bulk is designed for products you know you will need, and products that will never go bad. If you’re going to buy anything in bulk, it should be toilet paper. Everyone needs it; everyone is going to continue needing it for their entire lives.

Costco seems to know this, too, because they offer a wide variety of toilet paper options. You can get 96 rolls of the basic stuff stored in offices and restaurants, or you can get brand-name Cottonelle, if that’s what you like. There are even multiple varieties of Kirkland Signature toilet paper, and Kirkland products are always great.

What’s your favorite thing to buy from Costco?

This post originally ran on Kitchn. See it there: The 5 Best Products from Costco, According to Employees