Here's How to Get Free Same-Day Delivery From Costco

You can have Costco goods arrive at your door without paying a delivery fee.

There's a reason so many people love shopping at Costco. When you load up on bulk items, from groceries to household essentials, you can do so at an affordable price point. The result? Extra money for your savings account.

But taking advantage of Costco is really difficult when you don't have a car, or when your closest warehouse club store is really far away from your home. If you don't have a car, you'll pretty much need to pay for a rideshare service to get your Costco haul home (unless you have a nice friend who's willing to drive you back and forth).

And even if you have a vehicle, if your nearest Costco location is a 30-minute drive, that means you're spending an hour on the road to do your shopping. You may not have the time for that.

Thankfully, it's possible to get Costco goods delivered to your door -- even perishable items like baked goods and dairy products. And if you sign up for one specific program, you can get same-day Costco delivery without having to actually pay a delivery fee.

The power of Instacart+

Costco offers same-day delivery that's powered by Instacart+. You can order Costco same-day delivery through Costco itself, or through Instacart. But if you don't want to pay a delivery fee for same-day service, then you may want to sign up for Instacart+.

Instacart+ costs $99 a year or $9.99 a month if you don't want to charge an entire year of service on your credit card in one fell swoop. But that membership gives you access to no-fee delivery for orders over $35. In fact, you get unlimited same-day delivery for free if you meet that spending threshold. And since Costco items, by nature, tend to come in bulk, it's not so difficult to meet that $35 requirement when shopping there.

Should you order same-day delivery from Costco?

If you can't easily access your nearest Costco location, or you have a week when you're simply too swamped to make a trip to the store, then paying for same-day delivery could make sense. But you should know that when you order same-day Costco delivery, you'll pay more per item than you normally would at the store. In fact, Costco is very transparent about this on its website.

Now, the extent of that markup will hinge on your local area. Costco prices vary by geographic region. What you pay for muffins and milk in New Jersey might vary from what they cost you in Delaware. So you'll need to do your own comparisons to see how much extra money you're looking at when ordering same-day delivery from Costco.

But ultimately, if you can't make it over to the store, same-day delivery is certainly a reasonable option to fall back on once in a while. And if you decide that it makes sense to sign up for Instacart+, you can avoid paying a delivery fee not just on Costco orders, but on grocery delivery from a host of different supermarkets.