Costco vs No Frills:
Is the Membership Actually Worth It?

Let's get something out of the way

Costco wins on per-unit price for most items. That part isn't really debatable. Where it gets interesting is everything else: the $65 membership fee, the fact that you're buying three loaves of bread when you only needed one, and how easy it is to leave that store having spent way more than you planned.

No Frills won't give you that problem. It's ugly, it's no-nonsense, and it lets you buy exactly what you need in normal human quantities.

So the real question isn't "which store is cheaper per gram?" It's "which store is cheaper for the way you actually shop?"

The per-unit price breakdown

Regular prices at Canadian locations, April 2026. Per-unit costs calculated from package sizes shown. Sale prices excluded.

Where Costco genuinely crushes it

Cheese.This one isn't even close. A kilo of Balderson extra old cheddar at Costco is $20.99 — that's $2.09 per 100g. At No Frills, you're paying $3.20 or more per 100g for comparable cheese. If your family eats a lot of cheese (and if you're Canadian, you probably do), Costco pays for the membership on cheese alone.

Yogurt and butter.The Kirkland Greek yogurt tub is two kilograms for about $10.49, versus $5.97 for 750g at No Frills. That's 34% cheaper per gram. Butter is similar. Buying the 4-pack at Costco saves you about a dollar per block.

Household stuff. Toilet paper, laundry detergent, paper towel, garbage bags. Kirkland toilet paper is about $0.67/roll versus $0.92 at No Frills. Detergent is $0.16/load versus $0.25. These savings add up, especially for a family.

Where No Frills wins (or at least ties)

Ground beef.No Frills regularly stocks lean ground beef at $8.88/kg. Costco's bulk trays are around $10.99/kg. And when No Frills runs a flyer deal, ground beef drops to $5.49/kg some weeks.

Milk.The 4L bag at No Frills is $6.97. Costco's 4L jug runs $9.19. Same amount of milk, over two bucks more. This one catches people off guard because they assume Costco is cheaper on everything.

Coffee.If you drink drip coffee from a can, No Frills has the edge. A 925g can for $11.97 beats Costco's $18.99 bag at 907g. K-cups are the opposite though. Costco is roughly half the per-pod price.

Bananas, olive oil, produce in general.Basically tied or slightly cheaper at No Frills, and you're not forced to buy 3 lbs at once.

The membership fee math

Costco Gold Star is $65/year. The Executive card is $130 but gives you 2% cashback, so you break even if you spend $3,000/year at Costco (about $250/month). Most families hit that easily.

But here's the thing people forget to calculate: the overspend.A 2024 Dalhousie University survey found that Costco shoppers spend an average of $168 per trip. No Frills shoppers averaged around $85. You're saving per unit, but buying more units. Some of that is smart stocking up. Some of it is impulse buys because you didn't know you needed a 2kg bag of pistachios until you saw them.

If you have the freezer space and the discipline to stick to your list, the membership pays for itself multiple times over. If you're the type who "just pops in for a few things," No Frills is probably saving you more by keeping your total bill lower.

Kirkland vs No Name: the store-brand battle

Costco has a rule: they won't put the Kirkland label on something unless it's at least 20% cheaper than the equivalent name brand. And some Kirkland products are made by the name brand. Their olive oil, laundry pods, and diapers are all produced by the big guys, just at a lower price.

No Name at No Frills plays a different game. It's about being the absolute cheapest option, not matching premium quality. No Name peanut butter isn't trying to be Kraft. It's trying to be $3.49.

Both strategies work. If you care about quality-to-price ratio, Kirkland is genuinely excellent. If you care about the lowest possible number on the receipt, No Name wins.

The waste factor

You bought 3 loaves of bread at Costco because the per-loaf price was great. You froze two. One got freezer burn. You threw it out. That "savings" is gone.

Produce, bread, dairy, anything perishable is a gamble at Costco quantities unless you have a big family or a real plan to use it. A single person or a couple will almost always waste less at No Frills, where you can buy one pepper instead of a six-pack.

So who should shop where?

The real play: use both

The smartest Canadian grocery shoppers we know do a Costco run once a month for cheese, butter, yogurt, meat (freeze it), toilet paper, and detergent. Then they hit No Frills weekly for produce, milk, bread, and whatever's on sale in the flyer.

That combo consistently beats doing all your shopping at either store. The monthly Costco trip covers the high-value bulk items where per-unit savings are massive. The weekly No Frills trip keeps your produce fresh and your spending controlled.

CartIQ tracks flyer deals across both stores (plus Superstore, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart, and 20+ more). Punch in your postal code and see what's actually on sale near you right now — not what was on sale when some blog post was written three months ago.