The markup is real—and disclosed
Costco's Same-Day pricing page says item prices are higher than at your local Costco warehouse. That matters because shoppers naturally focus on the checkout fee, while a meaningful part of the delivery cost may already be built into each item's price.
Think of it like airport food in reverse: instead of one obvious convenience fee, you may be paying a little extra across a dozen grocery items. A single item may not look dramatically different. A full cart can.
A better way to compare a basket
Suppose your normal warehouse cart is about $120. If the delivered version of the same basket were 8% higher in aggregate, the markup alone would be $9.60 before tip or any other charge. At $250, that same hypothetical difference becomes $20.
The exact markup is not a fixed universal percentage, so do not use those numbers as a quote. Use them as the reason to compare the whole basket rather than one product.
What Instacart+ changes
Costco currently says Instacart+ members can receive savings on Same-Day orders compared with non-Instacart+ shoppers. That can narrow the gap, but it does not turn Same-Day into warehouse pricing.
In other words, Instacart+ is a discount on the convenience layer, not proof that the convenience layer disappeared.
Do Executive rewards erase the markup?
No. Costco says qualified Same-Day purchases can still earn the Executive 2% Reward based on the original warehouse price. That is useful, but 2% back is not large enough to assume it offsets a higher delivered item price.
The same logic applies to card rewards. Cashback is nice, but it should not distract from the starting price.
When Same-Day can still be worth it
- You are sick, caring for a child, or short on time.
- The trip would require a separate drive rather than being on your route.
- You tend to impulse-buy in the warehouse and a fixed online list actually reduces total spending.
- You are comparing a small, urgent basket rather than a large stock-up trip.
- Your time has a real opportunity cost that matters more than a modest markup.
That last point is easy to overlook. The cheapest transaction is not always the best household decision. A parent who avoids an hour-long errand before dinner may knowingly choose the more expensive option and still be making the sensible choice.
How Dealume would compare it
- Build the Same-Day cart before leaving home.
- Check a handful of high-value items against local warehouse pricing when possible.
- Estimate the basket-wide difference rather than obsessing over one item.
- Add tip and any service-related cost.
- Then ask whether the saved trip is worth that number to you today.
This is the kind of comparison that a simple “free delivery” badge cannot answer.
Bottom line
Costco Same-Day is not a loophole for getting warehouse prices delivered to your door. It is a convenience product layered on top of Costco shopping. Sometimes that convenience is worth paying for. The smart move is simply to recognize that you are paying for it.