10 Reasons 2026 Is The Best Time To Become A Costco Member

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Plenty of people know someone who can't help but talk up the benefits of their Costco membership. The chocolate cake everyone's enjoying at the holiday party? Turns out it came from Costco. Car's in need of a tire? Obviously they're going to recommend Costco. But even knowing how much money a Costco membership can save, or how many fun products are available exclusively to Costco members, sometimes it just doesn't feel like the right time to take the plunge and join a group that admittedly resembles a cult in more ways than one.

However, there's an argument to be made — or, more precisely, 10 arguments — that there's never been a better time to join than 2026. Ahead, then, are 10 ways the iconic warehouse chain has changed in or around 2026 that make a membership more valuable than ever. After hearing just how much Costco has improved in less than a year's time, you might just want to finally become one of us.

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Among the most well-known benefits of a Costco membership is access to the chain's line of proprietary Kirkland Signature products. Costco manages to keep its Kirkland Signature products cheaper than its closest competition in many cases while offering comparable levels of quality. In 2026, some Kirkland Signature items went down even further in price, bolstering what was already one of Costco's biggest selling points.

Costco executive vice president and chief financial officer Gary Millerchip announced reductions in the prices of four Kirkland Signature items — contingent on individual warehouses adopting the price cuts — during a May 2026 earnings call. Included in the initiative were king-size sheets, golf balls, frozen Buffalo wings, and milk chocolate-covered almonds, an item with which Costco fans are obsessed. The two food items decreased from $16.99 to $14.99, and $19.99 to $18.99 respectively. 

While this one instance doesn't necessarily guarantee that further Kirkland Signature products will drop in price in the future, it's evidence that Costco is perpetually looking to improve its Kirkland Signature items all the same. While customers seemed plenty happy with the included products' previous price points, they unambiguously improved in 2026.

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Perhaps the single cost-saving measure at Costco more iconic than its Kirkland Signature line is its food court's dollar-fifty hot dog combo. In 2026, the hot dog combo got just a bit better — customers can now opt for a bottle of water rather than the soda cup that used to come standard with every food court hot dog. Furthermore, some Costcos started offering a brown deli mustard beside the standard yellow mustard in the condiment dispensers, bringing back what was once a food court staple pre-pandemic.

In conjunction with those improvements to the Costco hot dog combo, the brand's food courts introduced a few new items in the first half-or-so of 2026 alone. First, the dessert selection was bolstered by a double chocolate mint sundae in February. That was replaced by a caramel churro sundae in April, and then a strawberry shortcake sundae in June. In other words, there now seems to be a rotating desert slot on the menu. 

Perhaps even more notably, Costco introduced chicken tenders to U.S. food courts in May, albeit in an extremely limited capacity through select test markets. The initial run must have gone well, as they're now available in Costco stores nationwide as of July 2026. While no single one of these food court changes is necessarily groundbreaking in and of itself, in their totality they add up to what may well be one of the most eventful years for the Costco food court in quite some time.

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Reasons for resiting the call to join Costco might range from not believing it makes financial sense, to a simple preference for a competing big box store. Perhaps the most practical reason of all to opt out of Costco membership is a lack of access to a nearby warehouse. Anyone in that situation, however, might find that a Costco is coming to their area sooner than they think.

Financially, Costco thrived through the start of 2026. Accordingly, the chain opted to turn its financial growth into physical growth — between just June and August of 2026, Costco's expansion plans cover new warehouses in 10 different cities. That's part of a company initiative to open 30 new locations every year for the next decade, albeit split between domestically and internationally. With a planned 15-or-so new Costco warehouses popping up across the country every year, the Costco-less should keep an eye on the company's U.S. expansion, in case a conveniently located store is on its way.

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Shopping at Costco is thrifty, and thrifty is typically not that cool. Driven by online influencers like the Costco Guys and their wild background, however, 2026 saw Costco become a legitimately cool brand among youth.

Whereas data from the end of 2025 indicated that the majority of Costco members are Gen X or older, the lion's share of new Costco members as of the start of 2026 were aged 40 or under. While it's impossible to isolate one single factor responsible for the change — Costco's low prices-per-unit in the face of rising costs for pretty much everything is probably one contributing factor — a Seattle Times analysis of Costco's growing cool factor attributes the change largely to social media. 

In short, Costco has embraced influencers with an affinity for its brand, and in turn, that's led to an uptick in Costco content across the internet. So, signing up for a Costco membership no longer means becoming like your parents, but becoming part of the store's increasingly young, hip, and online customer base.

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In 2026, Costco appears to be more popular on social media than ever before. That means there are more Costco products being discussed online than at virtually any point previously in the warehouse chain's history. In other words, anyone who likes to participate in viral internet trends can now find plenty of opportunities to do so at Costco.

In June of 2026, for example, Costco influencers spotlighted peach and mango-flavored ice cream pops shaped like their respective fruits. Months prior, in March, Costco made headlines for selling a 10-pound chocolate Easter bunny. Meanwhile, also in June, Costco content creators enjoyed simple jars of whole peaches in syrup, praised for a flavor that was sweet but not cloying. Those are just three among countless examples, so anyone who appreciates online product trends — and don't we all kind of enjoy trying something after seeing it hyped up online? — can find a constantly rotating selection of viral products in their local Costco warehouse.

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Unavoidable during practically every Costco trips is a large crowd, ranking among the biggest complaints from Costco shoppers. In 2025, the chain announced an hour of operation in the morning open exclusive to its Executive members in an attempt to provide an opportunity for a less frantic shopping experience. Then, in 2026, Costco introduced a couple of new technological innovations intended to speed up checkout times for all members, Executive or not.

Most notably, Costco employees will now sometimes scan every item in a customer's cart while they're still in line. Then, when they reach the front of the line, scanning their Costco card will instantly bring up that customer's full purchase on the register. Shortly after incorporating that system, Costco also began allowing members to add a Visa card directly to their profile in the official Costco app, which also hosts a digital membership. Come checkout time, then, the app can handle both membership verification and payment. Theoretically, with these new systems in place, checkout times should be shorter than ever before in 2026 and beyond.

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Every year, Amazon's Prime Day — technically spanning a few days — provides Amazon Prime subscribers with some of the site's biggest sales. Knowing just how enticing shopping at Amazon is for some during this time, competing brands have started counter-programming Prime Day. Independent online bookstore Bookshop, for example, offers free shipping during a so-called Anti-Prime Day event. In 2026, Costco scheduled a multi-day Member Appreciation Days during the same timeframe as Amazon's annual sale for the first time.

For what it's worth, Costco's Membership Appreciation Days sale itself was not new to 2026, but its timing coinciding with Amazon's sale was a first, resulting in what was, by all appearances, its highest-profile savings event yet. Featured products discounted during Costco's five-day sale ranged from Nintendo eshop cards to couches, air conditioners, and TVs. That said, plenty of standard grocery items were available at lower prices during that time as well. Furthermore, Costco offered a rare sale on new memberships, via a Costco gift card incentive for signing up. While 2026's Membership Appreciation Days may have passed around the end of June, new members can look forward to Costco's next high-profile sale, now that the chain is attempting to compete more directly with Amazon than it ever has before.

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The benefits of shopping at Costco that everyone should know before buying a membership are numerous, ranging from discounts on travel, to competitively priced electronics, to a famously generous return policy. One of the most widely praised perks of a Costco membership is access to the chain's gas stations, typically lower in price than most, if not all nearby competitors. In 2026, Costco improved access to its cheap gas with expanded gas station hours across the country.

Costco's CEO detailed this new initiative during a quarterly earnings call in March of 2026. While gas station hours range from location to location, most are now open later than they were prior to 2026, with some opening earlier as well. As is the case inside Costco stores, lines at its gas stations are typically long. While those lines are probably not going anywhere, the expanded gas station hours hitting most domestic Costcos should, at least, make getting gas at Costco a little quicker than it was in years prior.

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Baked into the cost of the multitudinous benefits of a Costco membership are certain idiosyncrasies, like, for example, checkout not accepting American Express cards. For quite some time, another Costco quirk was the fact that custom orders from its deli or bakery had to be submitted on paper forms in-store. As of 2026, however, concluding decades of an outdated system, members can now submit custom cake or deli platter orders on the official Costco app.

Given the time it takes to prepare a custom cake or deli tray order, the paper form system required two separate Costco trips — one to submit an order, and another to pick up the custom item or items. Now, on the app, the need for that first trip has been eliminated, with every step of cake and deli tray customization moved to a digital system. In fact, new signage in stores now instructs customers on how to order in the app, indicating that online ordering is not just an alternative but has eliminated paper forms entirely. While the change may have been long overdue, Costco members can take solace in the fact that they'll never have to deal with a paper order form ever again.

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Costco used to require that members buy two packages of six muffins each, for a total of 12 muffins minimum. In 2024, Costco altered its muffins, transitioning to single eight-packs, and easing some of the burden on, say, single customers with no need for 12 muffins in one shopping trip. That said, the update also involved a change to their recipe, leading to muffins becoming a Costco bakery item shoppers sometimes regret buying. As controversial as the switch may have been, that was more a result of the new muffin recipe rather than the change in minimum quantity — which, for what it's worth, did result in a higher price-per-unit.

In 2026, Costco instituted a similar change to its bagels. Whereas previously, a bagel purchase required a minimum of two six-packs, warehouses started transitioning to single eight-packs. For the most part, customers shared their appreciation for the new system, especially since it didn't appear Costco's bagel recipe was altered. There are, however, some unhappy about an increase in price-per-unit, as happened prior with the muffins. 

So, while it may have necessitated the slightest decrease in value, Costco shoppers no longer have to figure out what to do with 12 muffins, or now, 12 bagels in a single purchase. For many, that should make shopping at Costco a little easier.