The 7 Best Kirkland Brand Products to Buy at Costco

Why pay more when you can snag products that are better and less expensive than the big name brands?

If I decided to buy only Kirkland products, I would have no trouble filling my refrigerator, freezer, pantry, and medicine cabinet. Carried only at Costco, Kirkland offers just about everything a family needs to make it through until their next shopping trip.

I know that I can’t tell you which Kirkland products are best for you and your family, but here I’ve compiled a list of products I consider to be favorites. In choosing these products, I looked at two factors:

1. Whether I believe the item to be good or better than the name brand.
2. If the product saves me money and leaves more in my bank account.

To date, here are the Kirkland products I find to be exceptional.

1. Medicine cabinet staples

I cannot tell one ibuprofen from another, so why pay for fancier packaging? At Costco, I spend approximately $0.01 per tablet for ibuprofen. The lowest price I can find at my local CVS is $0.036 per tablet.

Kirkland’s Super B-Complex cost me less than $0.04 per tablet. If I picked up Super B-Complex at CVS instead, I would pay $0.086 per tablet.

I could go on, but in my experience, filling my medicine cabinet with Kirkland products saves me money. Everything I've found, from D3 to multivitamins, costs less.

2. Paper products

There are certain things all of us need in our homes, but aren't especially fun to buy. Bath tissue and paper towels fall into this category. I consider it a good purchase as long as the bath tissue is double-ply and the paper towels don’t fall apart. Again, it makes no sense to me to pay more for a name brand because it features cute bears, or because I’ve seen thousands of commercials touting its effectiveness. It's just silly to tap my savings account to pay for big names in toilet paper.

3. Water filtration

We’re not big fans of bottled water in our house due to the plastic packaging, but we want to know we’re drinking clean water when we travel. Kirkland sells a water filtration system for less than $30 that easily fits into a carry-on bag or suitcase. That way, we have some control over water quality when we’re out of the country or in an area with funky-smelling water.

We’ve lived in areas of the country known for “iffy” water and have found ourselves using the filtration system daily. Currently, it’s used solely for travel. The basic system comes with two water filter cartridges, but when we need more, we can buy a 10-pack for just shy of $28. It’s a great product at a great price.

4. Baking products

I’m a lousy cook, but I love to bake. One of the most pleasant surprises for me has been the quality and price of baking products Kirkland offers. For example, I can pick up two pounds of Kirkland pecans halves at Costco for $18. At the grocery store down the road from me, the same pecans cost $28.

When I need anything baking-related, from butter to semi-sweet chocolate chips, I can find a Kirkland version. Better yet, the baking items I typically pick up are almost always in stock.

5. Kitchen staples

While I may not be a great cook, I have figured out how to throw things together in a crockpot and hope for the best. Kirkland spices, herbs, organic chicken stock, and cheeses are go-to purchases. I’ve never been disappointed by one of these staples.

6. Wine

I know tequila, and my husband knows whiskey. One thing neither of us knows much about is wine. Our lack of knowledge is one of the main reasons we don’t want to plunk down a small fortune on a bottle we may not enjoy. Kirkland Signature Wines offer a chance to try a rosé or pinot noir for as little as $9. The low price means we don’t feel compelled to slug through a bottle we don’t like. We can mark it off our list and move on to another.

7. Candy

Because I dislike in-person shopping, I reward myself with something sweet before hitting the cash registers. I cannot say enough about the quality of Kirkland brand candy. Its chocolate-covered almonds and chocolate-covered raisins are not only inexpensive, but they taste better than most of the big brand names. That may be because Costco gets Kirkland Signature chocolate from Blommer Chocolate Company, a company that’s been around since 1939.

As someone who recently changed my membership from Sam's Club to Costco, it's been fun to figure out which products I like most. The great thing about having thousands upon thousands of products from which to choose is that we'll all come up with slightly different lists of favorites.