4 Costco Items You’ll Regret Buying In Bulk (Don’t Make Our Mistake)

Shopping at Costco is a tricky game. We’re buying in bulk here. That means that once you buy into a product, you’re in for the long haul. There’s no real way to test a product unless you get lucky and see it being passed out as a sample. We have to be a bit more selective than a regular grocery store. That’s why we thought it’d be handy to use our experience and knowledge and let you know at least four items you’ll regret buying at bulk at Costco.

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Navel Oranges (8lbs)

Eight pounds of just straight up oranges from Costco is already a large task to take on before they go bad. Add in the fact that you’re buying them in a bag so you can’t see the quality they’re all in before you buy the whole lot at once.

It’s just a tricky game to play and we don’t have to play it. It’s okay to spend a little more per orange and buy your oranges at a regular grocery store. One that you can sign off on the state of each individual orange that’s going into your cart.

Quaker Oats Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (10lbs)

I’m speaking from experience on this one. No one man needs 10 pounds of oats by himself. Especially the oats that bubble up over the bowl he uses to microwave them in every day if he doesn’t sit there and babysit them the whole time.

Sorry, I got too personal there. I was just really trying to save a few extra dollars―literal single digit dollars―by buying these instead of the easily microwaveable (and more flavorful) Quaker Instant Oatmeal Variety Pack. Please learn from my mistake and never buy this behemoth from Costco.

Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise (64oz)

This is an interesting one. By all accounts, you should be able to get through a half gallon of mayo from Costco before it goes bad. My personal beliefs about mayo aside, the problem with that much mayo is that it needs to stay in a half gallon jar. There’s no real way to downsize your jar of mayo.

From the moment you bring it home and crack it open, that thing’s taking up room in your fridge. Space in the fridge is a lot more precious than your cabinets. Worst case scenario with a dry good, you can put it on the counter until you eat your stock of food down. Not the fridge! There’s no overflow on that thing. Just save yourself the headache of playing Tetris in your fridge every day and get a smaller jar elsewhere.

Philadelphia Original Cream Cheese Spread (48oz)

Genuinely, who is able to get through a whole three pound container of cream cheese before it goes bad? Am I required to prove that I’m going to use this in some sort of baked good (or crockpot recipe) before they allow me to buy it? Because that should be the standard.

That would save countless pounds of cream cheese from going bad every year thanks to Costco’s negligence. Just because you can buy something in bulk doesn’t mean you should. The real lesson to be learned here is that an item should only make its way into your cart at Costco if you know what you’re going to eat the entirety of it. Otherwise you’re just throwing money down the drain (or in this case into the garbage).