Why Costco Is The Absolute Best Store To Buy Meat From

You can tell a lot about a grocery store based on the meat department: A sub-par selection or sketchy storage solutions may have you thinking twice about quality and freshness. When it comes to high-quality butcher's sections, though, Costco is at the top of our list. In fact, Food Republic ranked the top 12 grocery store chains based on the meat departments, and awarded Costco with first place after researching online customer satisfaction.

Whether you are snagging a pre-made rotisserie chicken for just $4.99 or stocking up on all your favorite proteins for the next month, Costco has earned quite the reputation for offering members a wide variety of meat products at very reasonable prices. One user on Reddit, who buys a majority of their meats from Costco, wrote, "It is very hard to beat the price per pound. And the quality is noticeably better than the super markets around me." Multiple other users on the Reddit admitted that Costco's meat department was a big reason why they decided to get a membership card.

Research backs these assertions up: NASDAQ compared top grocery store steak prices in 2023, and found that a sirloin steak offered at Walmart for $12.94 per pound can be found at Costco for just $8.19 per pound. Ribeye steak was also listed as cheaper at Costco, priced at $14.20 per pound versus Target's price of $16.89.

Costco members are often impressed with the bulk retailer's ability to offer an extensive selection of meat in such large quantities on a regular basis. It's not uncommon for Costco to carry bougie cuts like USDA prime steak sirloin and wagyu beef. Seafood lovers can also score gourmet cuts of ahi tuna and large packs of lobster tails. And if you can't utilize the large amount of meat that Costco offers right away, you can always freeze what you don't eat for later uses. If you follow proper food safety procedures for freezing raw meat, you should have no problem enjoying most proteins for up to one year after purchase, with no drop in quality. 

In addition to Costco's usual prices, members have also found the occasional product with a mislabeled price in Costco's meat department. If you are lucky enough to score an incorrectly-labeled rack of ribs for pennies, the retailer will likely honor the price tag — as if shoppers needed another excuse to head to Costco. And for those who are still on the fence about investing in a membership, there are ways to score meat (and other groceries) from Costco without a card.