My first visit to Costco was last Monday on opening day. There was people everywhere, parking was a nightmare and although mostly positive the experience was a little bit overwhelming trying to take everything in.

Armed with a shopping list, an idea of where things are and my meanest ‘GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY’ face today I headed back to Costco to stock up.

After 6 days of trading you’d think the pace might have slowed down at least slightly…

Like hell it did.

costco membership queue

The line out the front for membership was even longer, somebody seemed to have invited half of all indians and east asians living in Melbourne to come down and the carparks, all three of them were batshit crazy.

It might sound kinda stupid reading how to shop at a supermarket but believe me this is the only way you’re going to get through it without

  • punching someone in the head for being a moron.

  • deliberately running over someone’s kids with your trolley because they are blind

  • avoid a punch on over the last available trolley

  • crack it and drive through the wall ‘hollywood style’ of the carparks upper levels because THE FREAKING EXIT QUEUE HASN’T MOVED FOR HALF AN HOUR!


If you’re thinking of heading down there, here’s what I’ve learnt after two visits.



1. Getting into the Costco carpark

Although Costco’s on-site carpark is huge, it’s nowhere near big enough so pretty much forget about it unless you’re going there on a weekday and it’s (relatively) quiet. The most painless way to get access to the Harbourtown carpark is going down Wurundjeri way, going straight past the Docklands Highway and then doing a right turn at the first set of lights.

Don’t bother looking it up in Google maps as it’s out of date and the street doesn’t even show up, well it does as a white line but that’s kind of useless.

Note that there are two Harbourtown carparks, the smaller one you get to by turning right just before the Bolte bridge turnoff on the Docklands highway is a waste of time. It’s too small and you just wind up being waved past the entrance and then have to navigate your way back to the main carpark anyway.

I didn’t get into the Costco carpark so I don’t know if they’re charging but any of the Harbourtown carparks will cost you $5 after one hour. Considering you might be waiting 30 mins+ to get out of Costco and then navigating your way back to the carpark, assume you’ll be paying $5.

Today it took me nearly 20 minutes just to get into the carpark (I wasted a lot of time stuffing around trying to find a shortcut from my previous route) and then nearly 40 minutes just getting out of the damn place.

I kept my cool but some people were losing it, I recorded this video while I waited because I found it amusing. There was so much honking the drivers could have cut a music album if they got their shit together.



Apologies over the jerkiness but all your seeing is my lap as I slowly driving around towards the exit. I didn’t have the balls to put the camera up near the windshield, seriously people were going apeshit crazy!

I don’t know why Costco only built one level of parking but they need about five extra levels of it under their store.

Alternatively there is bicycle parking just outside the entrance (yay!) on these giant red railings. Just take into consideration that for your first few shops you’re probably going to struggle to get everything home on a bike.

bicycle parking at costco



2. Eat food before you go in

Don’t worry about eating before going leaving for Costco, the food is so ridiculously cheap there you might as well enjoy it. Sure it’s not gourmet but at these prices who cares.

  • Pizzas $3 a slice or $15 whole (I believe these are the same pre-baked pizzas available in store)

  • Meat pie $3

  • Chicken bake log roll thing $5

  • Chicken Cesar Salad $6.50

  • Sundae with topping $2.99

  • Frozen Yogurt $2.49

  • Fruit Smoothie $2.99

  • Pork hotdog + unlimited 600ml refill softdrink $2.50


Personally I can’t go past the hotdog deal. If you grab one before you go in it’s light enough not to weigh you down and helps curb the munchies and stopping you from impulse buying too. The unlimited drinks refill is awesome too (chuga chuga softdrink!)

I’m not fussy and am happy to just have bread and a sausage for the price but there is condiments available (sauces, pickles, onions) if you want. Unfortunately it is self serve and the general public are slobs so I won’t be adding anything to my hotdogs anytime soon.

I was however tempted to crack open my bottle of Nandos sauce and pour it on but decided against it (someone might have asked me to share EWWWW).

The hotdog deal is so good hell I’d even stop there just riding through the docklands forget about shopping. Also note they don’t ask for Costco ID at the cafe although you’ll probably need one to get into the store unless you’re sneaky.



3. Bring a shopping list!

There’s definitely savings to be had at Costco but one thing that can screw up your budget is the impulse buys. Before I left the house today I sat down for five minutes and made a list of what I needed and what I was sussing out for possible future purchase.

If it’s stuff you’re regularly buying it helps to jot down the rough price (or exact if you know it) on the list, that way once you’re in at Costco you can do a quick comparison and see if you come out in front.

Some stuff is a no brainer though, for example mixed salad is $3 for a 500g bag ($6 a kg) at Costco, meanwhile Coles sells 250g bags for $4 or mixed salad loose for $16 a kg.



4. Stick to your shopping list!

Look around sure but don’t stray from that list you made before leaving unless it’s a something you forgot to put on there to begin with!

It’s very easy to walk around Costco and see a huge jar of something and want to buy it ‘just because’. I mean a 1kg jar of Salsa for $10 or whatever sounds AWESOME but if you’d only normally buy salsa when throwing a party, well then you’re not really saving anything by buying it as an impulse buy.

Infact you’re costing yourself money.

As hard as it is, make the list and stick to it. If something catches your eye you can always jot it down for next time that way you’ve got some time to think about it and do a price comparison as well.



5. Areas to avoid

1. The confectionery aisles

Stay away from the confectionery aisles, located to the left of the home theatre area when you’re walking in. Seriously if you have a weak non-existant will when it comes to lollies these aisles will murder your soul.

Stay further away from them if you have kids, this isn’t like Coles where you get to the register and notice a sneaky $2 Kinder Surprise in your shopping. At Costco it’s ‘the hell, $300 of what lollies now?!’

2. The muffin wall

Muffins at Costco come in big plastic tray things and it oh so easy to stand there and make yourself hungry. Unless you regularly bulk buy muffins from somewhere and have a damn good excuse, RUN!

3. Soft drinks

Even though I swore myself off buying cans of soft drink earlier this year due to skin problems (I can chug softdrink like it’s water) I couldn’t help myself. I seriously wanted to buy all the energy drink variety slabs and as many of the regular soft drink varieties as would fit in my mini.

I walked away with a box of the energy drink ‘Rush’ which was insane value at $20 for a box of 24 (although I have no idea how it tastes, expect a review tomorrow!) and two slabs of the 330ml Coke cans for $13.

I had to slap myself into not buying any more.


As you can see a little bit of modification to how you usually shop and some self control are key to making Costco savings work. Hopefully the mass crowds die down over the next month or so and the experience of shopping there can become a little less nightmarish.

Happy shopping!

Still trying to decide whether you want a Costco membership or not, why not read my article on Everything you need to know about Costco membership. You can also check out my first impression of Costco on their opening day.



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