Costco vs. BJ’s: Which Membership Offers Better Value?

If you’re trying to make a decision between joining Costco or BJ’s, it can be challenging to determine which membership is a better deal. Sure, you can scour each website and make a spreadsheet with all available services and discounts — however, you probably don’t want to take the time to do that. So, we’ve done it for you.

Once you see the comparisons and which stores have the best deals on what, you can decide which club membership will work best for you. While one membership program seems to have a lot more advantages overall, the club you choose will likely depend on which services are more important for you, especially if one has a service the other doesn’t. For example, only one has curbside pickup or a pharmacy. There’s usually a better choice between one or the other when it comes to some membership costs and other discounts and services. We’ve analyzed all the major service and discount categories at BJ’s and Costco to let you see exactly which membership offers the better value for your lifestyle, and we’ll give you our final verdict at the end.

If you’re looking at price alone to determine which membership is the better deal, then you’ll likely decide to go with BJ’s price. It’s not terribly lower than Costco’s membership price, but there are also some discounts for certain categories of people that might make it a better deal for you.

Both of BJ’s membership tiers are $5 to $10 less than Costco’s. BJ’s yearly Club+ Card Membership is $120, which is $10 cheaper than Costco’s Executive Membership at $130. Meanwhile, BJ’s lower-tier membership, the Club Card Membership, is only $60 a year, which is $5 cheaper than Costco’s lower-tier Gold Star Membership. Luckily, both offer two total household membership cards.

While Costco doesn’t offer any discounted memberships, BJ’s offers several. BJ’s honors military members and veterans, medical professionals (including first responders), government employees, teachers and anyone working in education, and college students by giving them discounted memberships. Anyone in these categories can get a higher-tier Club+ Card Membership for only $50 with $20 in rewards or a lower-tier Club Card Membership for just $25 with a $10 reward.

While both Costco and BJ’s have a membership rewards program, we feel that Costco’s is better because it can earn you more in a year. Both clubs boast that they offer 2% back in rewards to members. However, at each clubs, a reward of 2% back is only available for the highest club tier members: Club+ Card Members at BJ’s and Executive Members at Costco. Lower-tier members don’t get this benefit. So, if this is an important feature, you might opt for the higher-tier card.

A negative here for BJ’s is that the rewards cap at $500 for the whole year. Meanwhile, Costco offers up to $1,250 in rewards for the year. Granted, you’d have to spend $62,500 a year (or $5,210 a month) on qualifying purchases to get that $1,250.

It’s a little difficult to say which of the clubs has the best credit card rewards program because it depends on which card you have (BJ’s has two versions) and how you mainly use it. So, we’ll break it down by discount category. 

When it comes to club purchases, BJ’s has the better deals. For club purchases, you get 5% back with BJ’s One+ or 3% back with BJ’s One, and only 2% back with the Costco Anywhere Visa. Similarly, the gas discounts are better at BJ’s. The BJ’s One+ gives you $0.15 off per gallon ($15 per 100 gallons), the BJ’s One gives you $0.10 off per gallon ($10 per 100 gallons), and the Costco Anywhere Visa only provides 5% off club gas ($5 per 100 gallons).

As far as rewards on other purchases, it’s a toss-up. So, it really depends on how you use the card as to how much you’re earning in cash back rewards. Costco provides 4% back on eligible non-Costco gas and EV charging, 3% on restaurants and eligible travel, and 1% for any other purchases. BJ’s doesn’t offer any special category-based rates; however, for any non-club purchases made with BJ’s cards, you get 2% back with the BJ’s One+ and 1.5% back with BJ’s One. So, it’s not as good of a deal in some respects.

Curbside pickup can be handy if you don’t want to have to walk through a huge warehouse to get your groceries or if you’re just in a hurry. It can make groceries more affordable in comparison to delivery options. However, not all warehouse grocery chains have this feature. Sure, you can order some items ahead at both stores, but how much effort it takes to get your order and which items you can get depends on which club membership you have.

While Costco has a pickup service, it’s not a curbside service and it’s not for groceries. Seriously, who doesn’t have curbside grocery pickup these days? The in-warehouse pickup option only applies to laptops, tablets, jewelry, watches, and cell phones with no way to get groceries besides regular in-store shopping or delivery. While you may be able to order curbside pickup through Instacart, we didn’t find this option available at our nearest Costco.

With a BJ’s Membership, curbside pickup is completely possible for anything online labeled as being eligible for pickup. Even better, if you have a Club+ Card Membership or a BJ’s One+ Mastercard, the curbside pickup is free. It’s free for Club Card Members, too, as long as you spend at least $50. If your total comes up to less than $50 and you’re just a regular Club Card Member, you’ll have to pay a $3.99 pickup fee.

Reading the fine print on your membership can help you determine that it’s actually Costco that has the better grocery delivery and shipping options. If you order strategically, all Costco deliveries can be free, whereas a habit of getting deliveries from BJ’s will end up costing you quite a bit.

When we first looked at BJ’s grocery delivery service, we were misled by the fact that the membership information says that Club+ Card Members get two free same-day deliveries as long as they order at least $50 worth of groceries. However, when we looked closer, it turned out that those two free deliveries were for the whole year. Otherwise, the same-day delivery charge is around $15 per order, which is kind of pricey. However, there are some delivery packages that customers can enroll in. One offers 12 free deliveries for $55 (under $4 each), and the other is unlimited free deliveries for $100. These packages require a minimum purchase of $60 to use free delivery on an order.

Costco’s same-day delivery has been criticized in the past, but there are a few pros about using the service. Over at Costco, members don’t have to pay shipping as long as they buy enough items. Same-day shipping is available for a variety of items and requires a minimum $35 order. However, you’ll notice that the groceries cost slightly more to cover the Instacart costs. Two-day delivery is for non-perishable items only, and delivery is free as long as you spend at least $75. If you don’t order at least $75 worth of groceries, the delivery cost is $3 per item.

When it comes to shopping at big warehouse clubs, the hope is that by buying in bulk and being a club member, you are getting better prices than at the regular grocery store. For example, both clubs are known for their well-priced meat selections. While there are some tricks for saving money at Costco, it appears that BJ’s prices are usually better.

BJ’s advertises its prices as being up to 25% off average grocery store prices. When Consumers’ Checkbook compared Costco prices to area grocery stores, it found savings as low as 3-4% when compared to places like WinCo and Walmart, as well as savings as high as 31-32% when compared to places like Albertsons and QFC.

So, we decided to do a little online comparison shopping ourselves, and it seems that BJ’s prices tend to be lower on most products throughout the store. An 18-pack of Kraft Mac & Cheese is only $15.49 at BJ’s but costs $18.99 at Costco. You can see another instance where it’s cheaper to shop at BJ’s when buying a 20-pound bag of Royal Basmati Rice, which is $19.29 at BJ’s and $23.99 at Costco. Although, we did find 40.7 ounces of Cheerios cereal to cost $1.81 more at BJ’s ($9.99 versus $8.18). However, by and large, across everything we checked, the best deals seemed to almost always end up being at BJ’s.

Not only does BJ’s tend to have better prices, but it also has store coupons and will accept manufacturer coupons. Meanwhile, Costco doesn’t accept manufacturer coupons at all, which may make a difference if you collect a lot of them.

Costco says that it doesn’t accept manufacturer’s coupons at all, but it does have its own store coupons. The club mails out its own coupon books each month. However, you don’t have to clip actual coupons to get the savings; you just need to know what’s on sale. If you miss them by mail, you may be able to pick some up at the membership desk. You also might receive some special physical coupons when you first sign up for membership.

Not only does BJ’s accept coupons, but it also allows you to stack coupons. So, if you find a BJ’s coupon for an item as well as a manufacturer’s coupon, you can use both of them for even more savings. We found several coupons online for BJ’s, including ones for 25% off store prices, coupons that make membership cheaper, free shipping on select items, and savings off a set of four tires. So, be sure to look online to see what types of coupons you can find before your next shopping trip or major purchase.

While both Costco and BJ’s carry over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, only Costco has a pharmacy. So, if you’re looking for a club membership that also gives you deep pharmacy discounts, then you might want to give consideration to how much Costco may be able to help you save.

Costco has great prices on several different medicines. Costco’s savings on popular medication can be as high as 80%, with some 90-day supplies of popular medication costing as low as $9.99 — even without insurance. So, you’ll want to check to see if your medications are cheaper here than at your regular pharmacy. Plus, for your convenience, you can even get your prescriptions by mail.

The pharmacy also provides other services, such as common vaccines, pet medications, and always-available virtual doctor’s appointments with no waiting times. Having a virtual physician connected directly to your pharmacy can be super handy.

When people use their local wholesale club for eye care, they’re expecting good deals, and it seems that BJs has more than Costco. Not only does BJ’s have better deals, but it always has on-site exams.

BJ’s has several special deals that you can take advantage of whether you wear glasses or contacts. Complete single-vision glasses start at $99.99, while progressives start at $199.99. BJ’s also claims that its contact prices are 26% better than 1-800-Contacts and that you can save an additional 10% if you get a full year’s supply of contacts all at once. You’ll also appreciate that some clubs have doctors available to provide eye exams rather than needing to do the exams off-site.

On the other hand, we couldn’t find any special deals from Costco’s optical center at the time of writing this piece. In comparing contact prices, however, we found several instances where the prices were slightly better at Costco than at BJ’s for the same type of contacts. However, it seems that the price of a basic pair of glasses at Costco starts at a little higher price than at BJ’s, and there aren’t any discounts on getting a full year’s supply of contacts like at BJ’s. Another negative is that Costco only sometimes has independent eye doctors onsite. Although, usually, if Costco doesn’t have a doctor onsite, there’s one located near its club.

Having more available services sets Costco apart from BJ’s when it comes to automotive care. You’ll find that BJ’s only has a Tire Center, while Costco has a Tires & Auto center.

First, let’s look at the tire services that each club has available. When it comes to tires, both provide a road hazard warranty, rotations, inflation checks, balancing, and flat repairs with tire installation. Costco also offers nitrogen tire inflation. While all tire purchases at Costco include free tire installation, free installation is only available on some brands of tires at BJ’s. However, to make up for that, BJ’s also has great deals with deep discounts on a lot of its tire brands.

Costco, on the other hand, has a lot of additional automotive services you can’t find at BJ’s. Some of these include motor oil, batteries, car electronics, and accessories. In fact, Costco offers its members a savings of 15% on all automotive services and products. Just keep in mind that this discount only applies to the first $500 per visit per car.

While both clubs have a lot of extra members-only savings opportunities for products and services, each club offers a few services the other doesn’t have. Regardless, anytime you need to spend money on something beyond everyday grocery items and personal products, you’ll want to be sure to check to see if the club you join has special deals.

Both feature special deals on some of the same services and products. For example, both have deals on travel (including vacations, cruises, and hotel discounts), car rental, bottled water delivery, and insurance. Although, Costco has more types of insurance available, including life and pet insurance.

Some services, however, are unique to just one of the two clubs. Only BJ’s has deals on handyman services and home-buying services. However, only Costco has savings on photo products, Budget truck rentals, and business services. So, it’s really a toss-up when it comes to extra savings opportunities.

More of us have heard of Costco because it has more locations in more states than BJ’s does. So, for practical purposes, you may not have had a choice between these two wholesale clubs in the past. However, with BJ’s planning to expand, you might find yourself trying to decide whether BJ’s or Costco is the better value.

As of 2025, BJ’s has over 210 locations in 17 states with plans to increase to around 240 locations in 18 states. You can find clubs in a few Northeastern states, like Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. There’s also one up in Michigan. However, they’ve started creeping down the East Coast into North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, too. And one of the locations coming soon will be in Tennessee.

On the other hand, Costco has over 620 locations in 47 states, as well as one in Washington, D.C. and five in Puerto Rico. And California has the lion’s share of Costco locations. The only states without a Costco are Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

When you count up how many categories each club membership excels in, it turns out that BJ’s has the best membership value. Granted, you’ll want to look at each service category separately to see if it applies to you when you make your choice of which club to choose to belong to if you have both near you.

Costco is a better value when it comes to membership rewards, delivery prices, and automotive services. It’s also the only one with a pharmacy. However, it ties for credit card cash back and members only services.

On the other hand, BJ’s has better membership prices, including deep membership discounts for lots of categories of people. It also has better deals on gas if you use a club credit card, the prices on products inside the club tend to be better, and it has more eye care discounts. It’s also the only club that has curbside pickup and the ability to use manufacturers’ coupons to increase your savings opportunities. So, with so many more savings possibilities, we find it to be the better deal even if there are fewer locations.