7 Best Grocery Items To Buy at Costco Before School Starts

It’s officially back-to-school season and savvy shoppers are heading to Costco to bulk-buy grocery essentials for the upcoming fall semester. Doing so gives them the chance to stock up on breakfast, lunch and snack staples to keep stomachs full all day long and save money doing it.

Ahead of school being back in session, GOBankingRates pulled seven of the best grocery items to shop for at Costco. Some of these items are currently on sale while others are not but are still a great value to shop nonetheless. See which seven back-to-school groceries you should buy at Costco.

• Price: $7.39

Check breakfast prep off your to-do list when you add Post Honey Bunches of Oats cereal to your Costco shopping cart.

Originally priced at $9.69, members receive $2.30 off their purchase now through Aug. 25. Two bags of cereal are inside every box, so members only pay about $3.70 each.

• Price: $13.99

Costco has several bulk cracker and pretzel options available to shop, but one of the cheapest deals are Snyder’s of Hanover mini pretzels.

This 60-count box of individually packaged pretzels is $13.99, which comes out to paying about 23 cents per pretzel bag. Pack them in school lunches or bring along as a snack for classroom parties and events.

• Price: $11.99

Pure Organic layered fruit bars are the kind of snack kids and adults alike will love at a price that won’t break the bank.

Each box is filled with 28 fruit bars which means Costco members pay roughly 43 cents per fruit bar. The variety pack is also loaded with delicious flavors including eight raspberry lemonade, 12 strawberry banana and eight pineapple passionfruit. Best of all, they’re on sale for $4 off the regular price of $15.99 now through Aug. 25.

• Price: $12.49

On-the-go families will want to grab a box of Ritz cracker sandwiches while they’re on sale at Costco. Now through Sept. 1, members receive $2.50 off their purchase. 

Inside every box are 40 individually packaged sleeves of Ritz cracker sandwiches in peanut butter flavor. When we crunch the numbers, Costco members only pay about 31 cents per cracker sandwich sleeve. And if you’re not a fan of the peanut butter flavor, Costco also has Ritz cracker sandwiches in cheese flavor on sale for the same price as their peanut butter companion through Sept. 1.

• Price: $12.59

Shoppers looking for cheap granola bars to fill school lunches may have trouble deciding whether to buy the Kirkland Signature granola bar brand or Quaker chewy granola bars, which are also sold at Costco. 

While both are competitively priced at roughly 20 cents per granola bar, GOBankingRates recommends the Kirkland Signature brand thanks to its 64-count box. This gives shoppers four more granola bars than they’d receive shopping for the Quaker brand.

• Price: $12.19

Regular readers of our shopping roundups know we’re often partial to shopping sales on Welch’s fruit snacks whenever possible. 

Now through Aug. 25, Costco members receive $3.80 off their purchase of 90-count boxes of Welch’s fruit snacks. This means the cost per fruit snack bag drops to just 14 cents: a deal not to pass up.

• Price: $11.79

Add a Capri Sun variety pack to your Costco shopping cart to make packing drinks in school lunches a breeze.

Capri Sun variety packs are now $4.20 off their regular listed price of $15.99 now through Aug. 25. Inside every box are 40 drink pouches with flavors that include 20 in fruit punch, 10 in berry and 10 in apple.