The average American family spends $890 on back-to-school shopping for K-12 students in 2026. For families with two or three school-age children, that figure climbs to $1,500 or more — making back-to-school one of the most significant annual discretionary spending events in the household calendar, second only to the holiday season. Costco carries more back-to-school supplies than most families realize, with prices that are often lower than Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other m

A trip to Costco is rarely just a trip to Costco. You walk in intending to buy paper towels and leave pushing a cart filled with Japanese barbecue sauce, fruit jerky, a 12-pack of ice cream sandwiches and, this month, an entire machine devoted to frozen drinks — you know who you are. This is the natural order of things at Costco in August — the month that combines end-of-summer clearance opportunities, back-to-school restocking, the very first Halloween arrivals, and a genuin

Every August, millions of families make the Costco run before college move-in. The cart fills with twin XL sheets, noise-canceling headphones, snack packs, laundry detergent, protein bars, and the complete institutional supply of toiletries that will sustain a semester of dormitory living. The parking lot fills with sedans and SUVs loaded to the roof with the physical evidence of a child leaving home. For the parents leading this expedition, Costco is the obvious choice. For

A year into the pandemic, Costco became an experience for the kids — a destination with books and toys to look at, samples to try, comfy couches to test, with a giant hot dog and soda at the end. The easy air fryer and ready-made foods became a lifeline for a family of seven. That description — from a real Costco member family in 2026 — captures something important about what the warehouse means for households with children: it is not just a place to save money. It has become