The Smartest Costco Shoppers Never Overlook This Price Tag Detail

Most Costco shoppers focus on the price on the tag in-store, but experienced bargain hunters look at everything on the tag. Each symbol or small piece of information offers clues as to whether it's the best time to buy an item or to wait. You'll see the price, sometimes with an asterisk, and in the corner, a date. It's typically in a smaller font than the rest of the tag information, so you have to look closely. The date usually indicates when the item's price was last changed, making it a useful piece of data.

While this Costco shopping hack doesn't guarantee a future discount, it can help you understand how long a product has been sitting at its current price. This info is super helpful for seasonal and clearance items that could be approaching another markdown. If the date is recent (within a couple of days) and there's still a lot of product, you might want to wait for a better deal. On the other hand, if the date on the price tag is a couple of weeks old, a new markdown could be in the works. You just have to wait a couple of days for a new price tag to be printed and hung up.

While you can use the date on the price tag for this information, there's no guarantee of a future markdown in the price. Plus, the item could sell out before that happens. Costco could even take the item off the shelves to replace it with something entirely new. Just remember you're taking a risk whether you buy it now or wait for a possible future price markdown.

Costco employees and longtime shoppers have discussed the date code on Reddit for years. One Reddit user explained that the date reflects when the tag was created and put on the sales floor, which often coincides with a pricing update, saying, "Costco does this so they are able to make sure that the price shown is relevant and frequently employees will preform sign audits and update them." Many shoppers see this as a helpful piece of information to determine when the price tag was printed to determine possible future sales. However, this works best when you factor in other information.

Many Costco shoppers monitor items with older price tag dates. If the items aren't sold quickly enough, a new, lower price could be in the works. This strategy works best when combined with other Costco pricing clues. For example, an item price that ends in .97 is often on clearance, while an asterisk usually means the product will not restock once the current inventory is sold out. If you see one of these clues with an older date, you might be looking at a product nearing the end of its run.

Other clues are in the price itself. For example, if a price ends in .88 or .00, that means an item has likely been returned or damaged, and a manager marked it down to sell at a discounted price. A price that ends in 9 (other than .99) means it's a manufacturer's lower price, and it is a short-lived deal that will end soon. It might be worth purchasing at the discounted price before it goes up again.