You know the feeling. You pull into the Costco parking lot on a Saturday afternoon and immediately regret every decision that led you here. Cars circling like vultures. Shopping carts gridlocked in every aisle. A line at checkout that stretches past the TVs, past the toilet paper, all the way back to the freezer section. You came for a rotisserie chicken and a case of sparkling water and somehow lost 90 minutes of your life.
Here’s the thing — almost everyone shops at Costco the exact same way, at the exact same time. And it’s making the experience miserable for all of us. With more than 120 million members as of 2024, the warehouses are packed. But they’re not packed equally. The difference between a nightmare Costco run and a peaceful one comes down to when you walk through those doors.
Sunday Is the Absolute Worst Day — Not Saturday
Most people assume Saturday is the busiest day at Costco. It’s bad, sure. But according to a Costco employee who broke it all down on Reddit, Sunday actually takes the crown as the single busiest day of the week. Friday and Saturday tie for second place.
Think about why this makes sense. On Saturdays, people spread their errands across the whole day — some go early, some go late, some don’t go at all because they’re at a kid’s soccer game or sleeping in. But Sunday? That’s panic day. Everyone suddenly realizes the week starts tomorrow, the fridge is empty, and they need enough snacks to survive until Friday. The result is a mob. One Reddit user described showing up on a Sunday and finding checkout lines extending all the way to the back of the store. That’s not shopping. That’s standing in line at a theme park.
A 2024 survey by Drive Research actually found that Saturday has overtaken Sunday as the busiest grocery shopping day in general. But Costco seems to play by its own rules, probably because the warehouse shopping experience is more of an event — people dedicate time to it, and Sunday is when they have the most.
Tuesday Is the Winner and It’s Not Even Close
Ask Costco employees when the store is dead, and one day comes up over and over again: Tuesday. One employee put it bluntly — Tuesday nights are the least busy time at their warehouse. Period.
Shannon Fong, the Instagram influencer behind @costco.so.obsessed, says she prefers hitting Costco on Tuesday or Wednesday mornings right before the store opens because there’s none of the pre-weekend chaos. The team behind @CostcoDeals, another popular Costco-focused account, also named Tuesday as the best day of the week. One shopper reported going on a Tuesday at 3:30pm and called it the most pleasant Costco experience they’d had in a long time.
Why Tuesday? It’s the farthest point from both the previous weekend and the upcoming one. The Monday restockers and weekend warriors are gone. The Wednesday coupon hunters haven’t arrived yet. It’s a sweet spot in the weekly rhythm where most people simply aren’t thinking about bulk shopping.
Wednesday Has a Catch You Should Know About
Wednesday gets a lot of love as a quiet shopping day, and by the afternoon it usually is. One warehouse employee confirmed that Wednesday afternoon is when their warehouse is at its slowest because all the morning stocking is done by that point. Another shopper recommended Wednesdays between 2pm and 4pm as a sweet window.
But here’s the catch — Wednesday morning can be a zoo. That’s when Costco’s new weekly coupons kick in. The deal-hunters show up early, and the store can feel surprisingly crowded right at opening. If you’re going on a Wednesday, aim for the afternoon. Let the coupon crowd clear out first.
The Worst Time of Day Isn’t When You Think
Weekends are obviously rough, but there’s a time slot on weekdays that’s just as bad — and it catches a lot of people off guard. The weekday evening rush from 4pm to about 7pm is brutal. Every person who thought “I’ll just swing by Costco on my way home from work” had the same idea at the same time. The aisles are clogged with tired, hungry people grabbing whatever looks easiest for dinner.
Kristen Markel, founder of the Costco tips site Warehouse Wanderer, says those 4pm to 7pm weekday hours are actually the absolute worst time to shop — worse than some weekend windows. One shopper noted that 6pm is the peak of the peak, the single busiest moment on any given weekday.
Laura Lamb, CEO and founder of Costco Hot Finds, recommends Monday through Thursday between 1pm and 3pm if you want it as quiet as possible. Markel says around 11am midweek is her personal favorite — shelves are restocked by then, crowds are light, and the sample stations are up and running.
Monday Is Trickier Than It Sounds
Monday gets recommended a lot as a good day to go, and on paper it makes sense — people just shopped all weekend, so they shouldn’t need anything. Julie Ramhold, consumer analyst at DealNews.com, says Mondays tend to see less traffic because so many people stocked up over the weekend.
But there’s a wrinkle. Monday is restocking day at many Costco warehouses, which means popular Kirkland products and other high-demand items might not be on the shelves yet. You could show up on a Monday morning looking for your favorite Kirkland Signature olive oil and find an empty spot where it usually sits. If you’re flexible about what you’re buying, Monday is fine. If you have a specific list, Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon is a safer bet.
The Football Season Hack That Actually Works
This one sounds like a joke, but Costco regulars swear by it. During NFL season — early September through late January — Sunday afternoons while games are on can turn Costco into a ghost town. One member reported going when the Cowboys are on TV and the warehouse was nearly empty.
This works best in the 32 cities with NFL teams, where a huge chunk of the population is parked on their couches during game time. There’s usually a pre-game shopping surge as people grab chips and dip, but once kickoff hits, the store clears out. The Super Bowl in early February is one of the best shopping windows of the entire year — just keep in mind that most Costco locations close earlier on Sundays, and the game usually starts around 6:30pm Eastern.
The Days You Should Absolutely Never Go
Beyond regular weekends, there are certain days that are exponentially worse. The day before any holiday is chaos — people scrambling for last-minute party food and feast supplies. But the day after Costco has been closed is somehow even worse. Reddit users describe it as pure madness.
Costco doesn’t close very often, which makes these days even more intense when they hit. The main ones to watch out for: the day after New Year’s, Easter, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. July 5th, for instance, is one of the worst days of the entire year at Costco. Everyone who couldn’t shop on the holiday floods in at once. If you can push your trip by just one more day after these closures, your experience will be dramatically different.
Two Tricks That Give You an Unfair Advantage
First: show up 10 to 15 minutes before Costco officially opens. Many warehouses open their doors a little early, letting customers grab carts and start shopping before the official opening time. One Redditor reported arriving 5-10 minutes before opening, parking near the door, and completing their entire shopping trip — including a hot dog at the food court — in about 25 minutes. That’s elite-level efficiency.
Second: use Google Maps’ Popular Times feature before you leave the house. Just search for your local Costco on Google, scroll down, and you’ll see a bar graph showing how busy the location typically is at different hours throughout the week. It’s based on real visit data averaged over the past few months. You can also see live projections showing how crowded the store is right now. It takes 10 seconds to check and can save you from walking into a wall of shopping carts.
Executive Members Get a Secret Window
In 2025, Costco introduced early shopping hours for Executive members — the $130-per-year tier. These members can now get in and shop between 9am and 10am, before the store officially opens to everyone else. And according to reports, those early slots are exceptionally quiet. The ripple effect has actually been positive for regular members too, since early-bird shoppers are now clearing out before the 10am rush, reducing overall congestion during the first hour of normal business.
If you’re already spending enough at Costco to justify the Executive membership (which comes with 2% cash back on purchases), the early access alone might be worth the upgrade. An empty warehouse, freshly stocked shelves, and no one blocking the aisle while they debate between two sizes of peanut butter. That’s the dream.
The Rainy Day Rule
Here’s one more thing most people overlook: weather. Rainy days produce some of the smallest lines at Costco because most shoppers would rather stay dry than load a flatbed cart in a downpour. If you don’t mind getting a little wet, keep an eye on the forecast. A gray, drizzly Tuesday afternoon at Costco might be the most relaxing shopping trip of your life. No one’s fighting over parking spots. No one’s jamming up the sample stations. Just you, your oversized cart, and wide-open aisles. That’s the Costco everyone deserves but almost nobody gets — because they keep going on Saturday.
