6 Mistakes To Avoid When Shopping for Costco Wine

Long time readers may remember our stories on Costco wine shopping tips and FAQs about Costco wine and this website.

Those stories covered a lot of ground about shopping for wine at Costco, and today we're going to take a slightly different angle and discuss some of the things to avoid when perusing the wine aisles at your local warehouse.

1. Not Using the warehouse search feature properly in the Costco mobile app.

We're going to start here before you even get to your warehouse. The Costco mobile app is starting to get good. Not only can you keep your member card on there, but you can now search inventory by warehouse.

There are some important things to remember though. First, make sure you are searching within the "Warehouse" tab at the bottom. If you are searching under the "Explore" tab you are searching all of Costco online, not your specific warehouse.

Next, some good broad search terms are "wine" or "Kirkland Wine" and another one that readers use is "750" referring to the 750ml in a standard bottle. Of course, using the item number we include at the bottom of every review works really well.

But no matter what, we've found the results to be inconsistent, often not listing the entire inventory. So we use this as a "nice to have" tool, but a trip to the store can sometimes turn up bottles not listed in the app.

2. Assuming a bottle is not in stock if it's not readily visible

In addition to searching for bottles in the wooden bins and the stacks of wine cases in the aisle, there are two other places to make sure you look and most people don't think about them.

First is under the wooden bins. You'll see stacks of boxes underneath the bins that typically are backfills for wines already on display, but occassionally you'll find bottles down there that either haven't been put out yet, or haven't yet refilled bins that are empty.

Also, look for wine boxes, often unopened, on the flat carts that are awaiting being put out. Several times we've been looking for a bottle and the app shows it in stock, but it was still on the cart waiting for its place on the shelf.

In this case, open the box and grab a bottle or two.

3. Assuming Only One Vintage Per Bin

Costco is one of the only wine retailers that keeps a consistent price across different vintages. The item number stays the same every year, and you can often find multiple vintages of the same bottle in the same bin.

A great example is the photo above. A few years ago we found three different vintages of the same wine in the same bin. So if you have a preferred vintage, be sure to look a few layers deep and see what's in there. You never know.

4. Not Stocking Up When You Should

We've written about Costco's pricing structure, and there are countless articles about it online. There are so many clues on the Costco placard that need to be observed that tell you about the longevity of the bottles.

Quick pricing summary: Wine ending in $.97 is below regular price, like a sale price. Wine ending with an eight like $9.88, or 0's ($9.00) indicate the store is trying to sell through it quickly so you might want to stock up. Kind of like a manager's special.

Other wines ending with a 9 that isn't $.99, for example $10.89, $15.79, is a special deal given just to Costco. This means you likely won’t beat that price at other stores; but the bottles ending in $0.97 might still be more heavily discounted.

And then there's the "star of death," that little asterisk in the corner that means the item will be gone, maybe forever, once it sells through. This is always a good time to stock up on bottles you enjoy.

5. And...Stocking Up When You Don't Need To

It seems a little counterintuitive, and this is not a hard and fast rule that applies all the time. But it does apply quite often from our experience.

Everyone loves seeing the yellow bars on the Costco sign indicating a limited time discount. The discounts can be steep and very compelling, which is the point: to create some urgency to buy. But the secret is that many times that discounted price becomes the standard Costco price after the discount period is up.

Again, it might not happen not every time, but it's something to keep an eye on.

So if you're on the fence whether you will like a bottle that's discounted, instead of buying a bunch of them to secure the discounted price, you might get away with buying one, tasting it, and coming back for more later.

And last but not least...

6. Not trying new wines or venturing out of your comfort zone

We view wine as a lifelong journey and it changes every year with new and different vintages. The wine world is also huge with so many varietals, regions and producers to explore.

Shopping at Costco is different than walking into your local wine merchant where you get individual attention and curated picks. At Costco, a lot of times you have to rely on the information on the Costco placard, the label and whatever you want to search on your phone.

Sure, some Costco stores, mostly on the weekends, have wine stewards on hand, which can help. But the key is to get outside your comfort zone, and perhaps even commit to buying one bottle on every trip that you're not familiar with.

And by doing that you will expand your wine knowledge little by little over time, and really begin to zero in on the regions, varietals and wine makers you enjoy the most. That's the name of the game.

As we wrap this up...try your best to avoid these Costco wine shopping mistakes. Happy hunting, and thanks for following our site. Cheers.