Walk into any Costco this week and you'll see the same scene: flatbed carts stacked with paper towels, a crowd circling the rotisserie chicken, and a $1.50 hot dog line that hasn't budged in price since 1985.
But the real savings aren't on the endcaps everyone's already grabbing.
They're tucked into the price tags themselves, and most shoppers never learn to read them.
Here's the trick that's been circulating among warehouse-club regulars for years.
Costco price tags ending in .99 are the standard markup.
Tags ending in .97 signal a markdown set by the local store manager, which usually means the item is on its way out.
Tags ending in .00 or .88 are the ones worth slowing down for, because they often mean a manager is clearing space fast.
A penny-ending price, like $4.01, is the rarest of all.
That's the final markdown before an item vanishes from the floor.
A little star in the upper-right corner of the tag means the item isn't being reordered.
If you love it, buy it now, because that specific product may not come back.
Combine an asterisk with a .97 or a penny price and you're looking at the closest thing to a clearance event Costco runs.
Markdowns tend to cluster at the end of a fiscal period, when managers need to move inventory.
Weekday mornings are quieter, and employees restocking shelves often have a better sense of what's about to get slashed.
If you see a worker with a pricing gun, it doesn't hurt to ask what's being reduced that day.
Costco's return policy is generous, but it isn't unlimited.
Electronics typically come with a 90-day window, and some big-ticket items carry their own rules.
Also, a .97 tag doesn't guarantee the lowest price ever seen on that item.
A quick phone check against other retailers can confirm whether you're actually winning.
Membership math is the other half of the equation.
The basic Gold Star card runs $65 a year, while the Executive tier costs $130 and pays back 2% on most purchases, up to $1,250 annually.
If your household spends more than about $3,250 a year at Costco, the Executive card's rewards can cover the upgrade.
The bigger picture is that grocery inflation has made warehouse clubs more attractive to households that once shopped only at traditional supermarkets.
Bulk buying cuts the per-unit cost on staples like coffee, oats, and cleaning supplies, but it backfires when perishables spoil before you finish them.
The smart play is to bulk-buy what you'll actually consume and skip the rest, no matter how good the tag looks.
None of this requires a secret handshake or a special app.
It just requires slowing down for two seconds and reading the numbers before you toss something in the cart.
My take: the price-tag code is one of the few "insider" tricks that genuinely holds up, because it's baked into how Costco actually runs its stores.
Learn it once and you'll spot the real deals instead of guessing.
Final Thoughts
Just don't let a shiny .97 tag talk you into a five-gallon tub of something your family will never finish.