Prices and availability are subject to change.
Hand Towels
Costco: $2.75 per towel Dollar Tree: $1 per towel If you’re looking for hand towels and washcloths, Costco isn’t always the most cost-effective place to stock up. Even its generic hotel towels can’t meet that $1 mark.
Storage Containers
Costco: Starting at $2.08 per container Dollar Tree: $1 per container It frankly doesn’t matter what kind of storage container you’re looking for: When even Costco’s bare-bones garage storage option starts at more than $2, just about anything with a snap-on lid at Dollar Tree is going to go easier on the wallet.
Drinking Glasses
Costco: $4.62 per glass Dollar Tree: $1 per glass Costco often has less-expensive dishware in the warehouse, but this $36.99 set of double-walled glasses is the cheapest set of 12-ounce glasses they’re willing to advertise. That’s fine, but for that per-glass price, you can buy three extra Dollar Tree glasses just for breaking.
Notebooks
Costco: $1.33 per notebook Dollar Tree: $1 per notebook They’re both 8-by-10-inches, they both have 70 sheets of paper, and they both come in a variety of colors. One has “Mead” on the cover and the other doesn’t. Guess which.
Composition Books
Costco: $2.17 per book Dollar Tree: $1 per book No, switching over to the hard-bound, speckle-covered composition books won’t save you money at Costco either. A $12.99 six-pack gives you composition books that are more than double the price of Dollar Tree’s offerings.
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Reading Glasses
Costco: $6.33 per pair Dollar Tree: $1 per pair Sure, Costco will give you a three-pack of Foster Grants in any style for $18.99, but that isn’t incredibly helpful when Dollar Tree will give you any style and strength of reading glasses for just $1. Reading glasses are one of the dollar store’s key draws.
Pregnancy Tests
Costco: $4.25 per test Dollar Tree: $1 per test The tests have the same degree of accuracy, so this shouldn’t boil down to not trusting the “cheap” test. Even if you’re trying and need to stockpile pregnancy tests, you could buy 17 at the dollar store for the cost of a four-pack at Costco.
Tote Bags
Costco: $43 per tote Dollar Tree: $1 per tote We’ll grant there’s a big difference here: Costco’s is a crocheted everyday bag, while Dollar Tree bags are a woven-polyester or laminated step up from reusable grocery bags. If you prize function over form, Dollar Tree is the better deal.
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Coffee Mugs
Costco: $8.33 per mug Dollar Tree: $1 per mug Costco has housewares, but will typically give you coffee mugs only in a set of dishware. Its double-walled J.A. Henckels glass mugs — six for $49.99 — isn’t a helpful offer when Dollar Tree offers an array of stoneware, ceramic, and glass mugs for $1 apiece.
Plates and Bowls
Costco: $2.50 per piece Dollar Tree: $1 per piece At Costco, you have to buy the least-expensive dinnerware set — a Mikasa 16-piece of bowls, mugs, salad plates, and dinner plates — to get to a per-piece price more than double the many pieces and platters at Dollar Tree for $1.
Shampoo
Costco: 31 cents per fluid ounce Dollar Tree: 3 cents per fluid ounce Granted, you’re getting 38.2 fluid ounces of Pantene for the $11.99 you’ll spend at Costco, but it’s hard to beat paying $1 for 32 ounces of Silkience at Dollar Tree. Even if you upgrade to $1 bottles of Alberto VO5 (7 cents an ounce), Daily Defense (6 cents an ounce), or Salon Selectives (4 cents and ounce), you’re getting a better deal than Costco can offer even from its warehouse-only brands.
All-Purpose Cleaner
Costco: 12 cents per ounce Dollar Tree: 6 cents per ounce We compared an 11.6-pound, $21.99 box of OxiClean at Costco to a $1 pound of L.A.’s Totally Awesome Power Oxygen to keep this a fair fight. If consumers wanted to, they could buy a 2-pound tub of L.A.’s Totally Awesome Orange Oxygen for the same price and pay just a quarter of Costco’s per-ounce price.
Bandages
Costco: 9 cents per bandage Dollar Tree: 1.2 cents per bandage You’d spend $15.99 on 188 Curad assorted bandages just to pay nearly eight times the amount on Dollar Tree Assurance-brand sheer bandages.
Toothbrushes
Costco: $2.06 per brush Dollar Tree: 33 cents per brush In fairness to Dollar Tree, it offers four-packs of generic brushes that would reduce the cost per brush to 25 cents. But since the brushes are going up against an $16.49 eight-pack from Oral B, it seemed wiser to compare those Costco offerings with a $1 three-pack of Colgate brushes instead.
Glass Cleaner
Costco: 6 cents per fluid ounce Dollar Tree: 2 cents per fluid ounce Costco offers a 32-ounce spray bottle of Windex and a 176-ounce jug of refills for just $12.99. But buy two 32-ounce spray bottles of Dollar Tree’s Home Store glass cleaner and two 67.7-ounce refill jugs, and you’d get more spray and two sprayers for a third of the cost of Costco’s offering.
Related: 16 Filthy Things Even Clean Freaks MissLaundry Detergent
Costco: 5.2 cents per fluid ounce Dollar Tree: 1.6 cents per fluid ounce A $12.99, a 250-fluid-ounce jug of Arm & Hammer with OxiClean is one of the best deals Costco offers. But since it takes a long time for most families to go through that much detergent, spending $1 on 64 ounces of Dollar Tree’s L.A.’s Totally Awesome oxygen alternative can help limit upfront spending while ensuring detergent retains its stain-fighting power. Related: The Best Washing Machines for Your Budget
Dish Soap
Costco: 8.8 cents per fluid ounce Dollar Tree: 3.3 cents per fluid ounce Costco’s Palmolive-brand soap goes for $8.99 for 102 fluid ounces. Dollar Tree’s Home Store house brand charges $1 for 30 ounces, though even Dollar Tree’s name-brand Ajax would outperform Costco at 7.1 cents per fluid ounce.
Sponges
Costco: 71 cents per sponge Dollar Tree: 50 cents per sponge Selling 21 Scotch Brite heavy-duty sponges for $14.99 seems brilliant, but Dollar Tree’s Scrub Buddies heavy-duty brand sells at two for $1. Scrub Buddies’ everyday sponges sell in six-packs at just 16.6 cents apiece.
Cotton Swabs
Costco: 0.53 cents per swab Dollar Tree: 0.4 cents per swab Even at 1,875 swabs for $9.99, Costco’s Q-Tips couldn’t beat Dollar Tree’s $1 cost for 250 of its Assured brand swabs.
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Costco: $3.08 per tablet Dollar Tree: $1 per tablet Costco sells a six-pack of Clorox tablets for $18.49, which may work out just fine if you have only one toilet to bleach. If you have more, cutting the cost of a bleach or “bleach and blue” tablet by nearly a third may be tempting.
Toothpaste
Costco: 55 cents per ounce Dollar Tree: 20 cents per ounce There was a time Costco gave you five 8-ounce tubes of Colgate Total for less than $25. Today, it’s five 6.5-ounce tubes for $17.49. Though Dollar Tree offers only 5 ounces of Colgate baking soda and peroxide toothpaste for $1, that’s less than half the per-ounce price of the Costco version.
Dental Floss
Costco: 5.4 cents per yard Dollar Tree: 1.8 cents per yard A six pack of Oral-B glide floss goes for $15.49 and gives users 48.1 yards per pack. Though Dollar Tree offers a 115-yard generic version for $1, a 55-yard pack of Johnson & Johnson mint-waxed Reach goes for the same price.
Sticky Notes
Costco: 0.86 cents per note Dollar Tree: 0.67 cents per noteCostco has a blinding array of Post-It products that Dollar Tree can’t compete with. But the best deal at Costco is for 1,620 Post-its in 18 pads of 90 notes, while Dollar Tree offers 150 notes per $1 pad, trying to offset in quantity whatever it may lack in quality.
Soft White Led Light Bulbs
Costco: $2.50 per bulb Dollar Tree: $1 per bulb To get everyone off incandescent bulbs and on to LED technology, the bulbs are going to have to be inoffensive and incredibly inexpensive. Selling 24 for $60 as Costco does is a step in the right direction. Selling them for $1 apiece doesn’t hurt, either.
Flashlights
Costco: $8.33 per flashlight Dollar Tree: $1 per flashlight Granted, the Dollar Store lights aren’t probably going to be as durable as the Costco version. But for less than Costco’s price, the Dollar Store will give you LED flashlights, a head lamp, a camping light, and batteries for all of them.
Tampons
Costco: 17 cents per tampon Dollar Tree: 12.5 cents per tampon By brand, Dollar Tree loses: Tampax go three for $1, nearly twice as costly as Costco’s price. But Costco gets there by offering 96 tampons for $17.99. Dollar Tree pulls ahead by offering eight-packs of Femtex and Safe and Soft brands for just $1 apiece.
Paper Clips
Costco: 0.75 cents per clip Dollar Tree: 0.4 cents per clip Costco’s paper clip selection is fairly limited, but 1,000 for $7.49 isn’t too shabby. Unfortunately, that same 1,000 clips will cost you only $4 at Dollar Tree, which has far more colorful options.
Teasing Brushes
Costco: $12.50 per brush Dollar Tree: 50 cents per brush Unless your hair is so fragile it needs boar bristles to part and add volume, you don’t need to buy a two-pack of brushes for $25. Some durable, nonbiodegradable plastic will get you there.
DentaStix Dog Treats
Costco: 33.8 cents per stick Dollar Tree: 20 cents per stick Folks may question the quality of pet food at dollar stores, but this is a brand sold at Costco and Dollar Tree. What does Costco have that Dollar Tree doesn’t? A few more flavors and claims of additional tooth-whitening power.
AA Batteries
Costco: 31 cents per battery Dollar Tree: 25 cents per battery Generic batteries from just about anywhere don’t hold their power for very long, which makes Dollar Tree’s brand-name Panasonic batteries vis a vis Costco’s Kirkland brand an even sweeter deal.
Napkins
Costco: 0.96 cents per napkin Dollar Tree: 0.66 cents per napkin When you’re seeking the most savings, every fraction of a cent counts. Costco’s $9.99 four-packs of 1,040 napkins are a bargain, but they aren’t the best deal in town as long as Dollar Tree sells packs of 150 napkins for $1.
Water Balloons
Costco: 4.7 cents per balloon Dollar Tree: 4 cents per balloon Water balloons are just latex balloons with water in them, but Costco sells 420 of them for $19.99 with the promise that they can be filled in 35-balloon bunches and seal on their own. Any kid who’s been hard up for cash knows how to fill and tie budget water balloons quickly, making the savings all the more sweet as you pelt neighborhood kids and laugh at their parents’ Costco membership.
Socks
Costco: $1 per pair Dollar Tree: $1 per pair and less Out of fairness to Costco, this is one type of sock — K. Bell no-show women’s socks — offered at a compelling price. Dollar Tree not only has multiple types of socks at that price, but similar socks sold in two-packs that reduce their price to 50 cents a pair.
Highlighters
Costco: 62 cents per highlighterDollar Tree: 33 cents per highlighterNot only are Dollar Tree’s highlighters nearly half the price of Costco’s, but you get them in three colors instead of having to choose a 24-count of the same color.
Air Fresheners
Costco: $4.25 per bottle Dollar Tree: $1 per bottle Sure, you get more variety in Costco’s air fresheners with four different scents, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the Dollar Tree’s Air Wick brand gets nothing but five-star reviews from buyers.
