Walking through a Costco warehouse with a prepper’s eye changes the way those towering shelves look, since a good share of what sits on them can’t be found at the corner grocery store. Costco’s own house brand never leaves its warehouses, and a few members-only offerings go well beyond anything a supermarket would carry.
Our grandparents judged a pantry item by two things: what it cost and how long it would keep through a hard winter. Those same two tests still sort the bargains from the clutter at Costco, where a low sticker price means little if the food spoils before anyone opens it. The warehouse lineup also shifts from region to region, so a few of these items may take some hunting at your local store.
17. Canned Roast Beef
Costco’s canned roast beef has built a loyal following, although plenty of members have never once spotted it on a shelf. Each warehouse manager decides whether to carry it, so the four-can pack of Kirkland roast beef turns up in some stores and never in others. One warehouse listing this year showed it at $18.99 for four 12-ounce cans, which works out to roughly 40 cents an ounce for fully cooked top and bottom round.
Commercially canned meat keeps for years in a cool, dry spot, and the best-by date on each can makes rotation simple. Nevertheless, members who can’t find it in the warehouse can sometimes order it through Costco Business Delivery instead.
But as you can see, quality canned beef is hard to find, so if prepping is important to you, it’s worth spending a weekend learning to can it yourself. I tried it with the beef in a jar recipe, using good local beef, and then put it to the test a few months later. Turns out it still looked and tasted like I’d cooked it just a few minutes before.
16. Canned Chicken Breast
Costco’s canned chicken holds chunks of white breast meat packed in water, and it comes in multi-can packs that bring the price per can down. Like the roast beef, it’s fully cooked and safe to eat straight from the can when cooking isn’t possible. It also lasts for years on a pantry shelf, and a single can stirred into rice or noodles turns a thin meal into a filling one.
Costco’s chicken has earned its spot in my pantry, but it shares the shelf with jars I canned myself. Meat is one of the most versatile foods you can can, and as a prepper, there are a few things you really should learn to put up on your own. That’s why, when I followed the Amish Way Academy, I paid close attention to the classes dedicated to this exact subject.
That’s how I found out which foods are safe to pressure can and which ones should never go in a jar:
Then, after finishing the course, I spent a few days at an Amish farmhouse with my family, and that’s where I got to see everything I’d learned in class done in real life. The technique that impressed me most was pressure canning, since they made it look so easy. Now I make their pressure-canned chicken from scratch, and not only for prepping, but for those lazy days when nobody’s in the mood to cook.
If you’d like to try the recipe without taking the class, you can find it here.
15. Canned Wild Salmon
Canned salmon was a pantry staple long before refrigerators were common in American kitchens, and Costco sells wild Alaskan pink salmon in multi-can packs. Fresh salmon costs far more per pound than the canned kind, which makes the cans an affordable way to keep fish in the rotation.
The soft bones in the can are edible and add calcium, while the natural oils supply healthy fats that a rice-and-beans stockpile tends to lack. Like other canned fish, it keeps for years in a cool pantry.
14. Restaurant-Size #10 Cans
Costco runs a separate chain of Business Centers built for restaurants and small shops, and anyone holding a regular membership is welcome to shop there. These stores carry large #10 cans of beans, tomatoes, fruit, and vegetables in sizes most supermarkets never stock. A single #10 can holds about as much as seven standard cans, and buying one big can usually costs less than buying seven small ones.
The sealed cans keep just as long as their smaller cousins. Once opened, though, the contents have to be used up or refrigerated fairly quickly, so smaller households may do better with smaller cans.
And once those #10 cans are empty, don’t toss them, because they’re surprisingly useful in a survival situation. You can turn them into a DIY rocket stove, for example, and a few strung together with some pebbles inside make a perimeter alarm that rattles the moment someone brushes the line.
13. Emergency Food Bucket
The Ready Wise bucket drew a wave of attention when shoppers online started calling it the apocalypse bucket. It has sold for around $80 for 150 servings of freeze-dried and dehydrated food, and the maker advertises a shelf life of up to 25 years.
The price per serving looks low, although the total calorie count on the label tells a truer story, because some servings are smaller than a grown adult needs. Kits like this also lean heavily on pasta and grains, so pairing the bucket with canned meat rounds out the diet.
12. Freeze-Dried Meal Pouches
Costco also carries Mountain House freeze-dried meals, from small power packs to kits holding a month’s worth of pouches. The company advertises a shelf life of up to 30 years for many of its meals, which puts them among the longest-lasting foods a family can buy. Each pouch needs only hot water, so a camp stove and a kettle are enough to serve a real dinner during an outage.
The larger kits carry a hefty price tag, and some buyers start with a smaller pack to learn which flavors their family will actually eat.
11. Pure Maple Syrup
Real maple syrup is expensive at the grocery store, but Kirkland Signature organic maple syrup comes in a big 1.3-liter jug that costs much less per ounce. Unopened, it keeps for years in a cool pantry. Once you open it, though, it belongs in the fridge, and if you want it to last even longer, you can keep it in the freezer.
Turns out pure maple syrup never freezes solid because of its high sugar content, so you can pour what you need straight from the jug. And if a little mold ever shows up on top of an opened bottle, the syrup isn’t necessarily ruined.
Many maple producers still swear by the old-timer trick of skimming it off, bringing the syrup to a boil, and pouring it into a clean container.
10. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil holds up in storage better than most cooking oils because its high saturated fat content resists turning rancid. Costco sells organic virgin coconut oil in large tubs, and a single tub goes a long way for the money. It works for frying and baking, and it seasons a cast iron skillet nicely too.
And because one of those big tubs lasts so long, you’ll probably have plenty left over for more than cooking. Virgin coconut oil is the base for a lot of homemade remedies, so you can try a few at home, both now and when SHTF.
I found several good ones in The Lost Skills of Independence, and all of them work with the coconut oil you already have:
09. Raw Honey
Costco sells raw honey in big squeeze bottles, and since that size usually costs less per ounce than the small supermarket jars, it’s an easy way to stock up.
Over time it may crystallize, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone bad. Just set the bottle in a pan of warm water, and it’ll turn smooth and runny again.
08. Allergy Tablets
Kirkland’s Aller-Tec contains cetirizine, the same active ingredient found in Zyrtec, and it comes in bottles holding hundreds of tablets, which brings the cost per tablet far below the name brand.
An antihistamine is worth keeping on hand even in a household where nobody suffers from seasonal allergies. It can ease the itch of bug bites and poison ivy, which get harder to avoid when more time goes into gardening and clearing brush.
07. Whole Bean Coffee
Costco sells several Kirkland coffees roasted by Starbucks, which gives members a name-brand roast at a warehouse price. Whole beans hold their flavor longer than ground coffee, and a sealed bag stays safe to drink past its best-by date even if some of the aroma fades. Brewing them without electricity does take a hand-crank grinder.
Coffee would also make a valuable trade good if store shelves ever sat empty for long, since very few people want to give it up.
06. Wool Trail Socks
Wet, cold feet can end a long day of outdoor work faster than almost anything else, and Costco sells multi-packs of wool-blend trail socks at prices that compare well with outdoor stores. Wool keeps feet warmer than cotton even when it gets damp, and a good pair holds up through many washings. Socks never spoil either, so a spare pack can sit in a drawer or a bug-out bag for as long as it’s needed.
05. Pure Vanilla Extract
Vanilla extract has grown surprisingly expensive in regular stores, and Costco’s big bottle is one of the items home bakers make a special trip for. Because it’s made with alcohol, real vanilla keeps for a very long time as long as the cap stays tight.
A few drops can turn bread, survival cake in a jar, oatmeal, or rice pudding into a real treat. That small comfort matters more than people expect during a long, hard stretch at home.
04. Gold Bars
Costco started selling one-ounce gold bars to members in October 2023, and since then the program has only kept growing. The bars come from big-name refiners like PAMP Suisse and Rand Refinery, but you won’t find them in the warehouse, since they’re sold only online to members with an active account. And once you buy, that’s it, because precious metals can’t be returned for a refund.
So why do people bother? Turns out the pricing is hard to beat. It reportedly runs only a few percent above the spot price of gold, while plenty of traditional dealers charge a lot more. On top of that, Executive members still earn their 2% annual reward on these purchases, which narrows the gap even further. And unlike the food in that cart, gold doesn’t spoil, so it’s the one thing you can buy at Costco that’ll outlast everything else in your pantry.
Still, there are a few catches. Purchase limits change often, and every delivery needs an adult signature with ID. Costco also won’t ship precious metals to Nevada or Puerto Rico. Then again, the bigger catch comes later. Selling the gold back means going through a dealer who sets their own buyback price, so the round trip ends up costing more than the purchase price alone suggests.
03. Pain Relievers
Costco’s Signature ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and low-dose aspirin come in much bigger bottles than the drugstore sizes, and they have the same active ingredients as the name brands for a lot less per pill. And if you take prescription medicine, ask your pharmacist before stocking up, as some pain relievers don’t mix well with blood thinners.
Still, every bottle has an expiration date. Aspirin is the one to watch, because it breaks down faster than the others, and once a bottle starts smelling like vinegar, it’s time to replace it. Then again, not every pill stops working the day the date passes. Military testing found that many medicines keep most of their strength for years when they’re stored well. I went through my own kit with this first-aid prepping book and found out which are the 5 medicines that outlast their expiration date, so now I only rotate out the ones that actually need it.
02. Alkaline Batteries
A flashlight with dead batteries is about as useful as a rock during a blackout, and a weather radio without power isn’t much better. Costco sells AA and AAA alkaline batteries in large packs, which brings the price per battery well below the small blister packs at a hardware store. Alkaline batteries hold their charge for years in storage, especially at room temperature in their original packaging.
But before you start hoarding new packs, take a look at the dead batteries you’ve already got lying around. Turns out most of them aren’t really dead, because a battery that’s too weak for your flashlight often still has plenty of life left in it. I used to toss mine in a junk drawer without a second thought. Then I learned how to bring old batteries back to life with a unique method, and now I spend a lot less money replacing them.
01. American Silver Eagle Tubes
Silver has long appealed to preppers who worry about paper money losing its value, partly because a one-ounce coin would be easier to trade than a bar of gold. Costco sells American Silver Eagles in sealed tubes of 20 coins, and it sometimes carries Canadian Maple Leafs in tubes of 25. Like the gold, silver is sold online to members only, and no sale can be returned once it’s placed.
A full tube costs well over a thousand dollars at recent silver prices, which puts it out of reach for some households. Silver Eagles are struck by the U.S. Mint, so dealers and collectors across the country recognize them on sight.
Shopping Costco a Little at a Time
A Costco stockpile comes together best over many trips, with a pack of roast beef one week and a bottle of pain relievers the next. Warehouse items come and go without much warning, so grabbing a favorite whenever it shows up tends to work better than waiting for a sale. Writing the purchase date on each item with a marker also makes rotation easier, since the oldest supplies get used first and nothing goes to waste at the back of a closet.
Then again, building a stockpile one trip at a time can take years, and there’s a much faster route that’s got people in prepping circles talking. It’s a plan that shows you how to set up a forever stockpile in just one afternoon, so your home is ready for you to bug in and stay put no matter how long the crisis lasts.
Once I saw how the forever stockpile works, I wished I’d found it before I filled my cellar the long way. So if you’re just getting started, this unconventional prepping method could turn years of supermarket runs into a single afternoon of work.
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