This Is America's Best Costco Location, Shoppers Say
Shoppers seem to uniformly love Costco, and chances are, you probably think your Costco is much like the rest of them. After all, any warehouse offering $1.50 hotdog-soda meals, cheap gas, and the best roast chicken deal in town is a win for us.
But a new survey by FinanceBuzz, which polled more than 6,000 shoppers across America, reveals that not all Costcos are created the same—in fact, there's quite a range. And some states have significantly better Costco locations than others.
According to shopper ratings, South Carolina provides the absolute best Costco experience, with the highest average rating across six categories: cleanliness, friendliness, stock, quality of samples, quantity of samples, and parking availability. Ohio was a close second, followed by Tennessee, Missouri, and Connecticut.
Interestingly, the highest rated individual Costco location, AKA the top-rated Costco in America, isn't located in any of those states, but in Georgia. The suburban warehouse in Cumming, which is one of 10 warehouses in the greater Atlanta area, earned the highest score of any store in the country. It was lauded for its stock, staff friendliness, and quantity of food samples.
And even though customers overall seem to love their Costcos (honestly, what's not to love about jars of Nutella larger than your head?), shoppers noted that even the best Costcos in the country could improve the shopper experience, echoing two common requests: more samples and better parking.
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"Just about everyone, everywhere loves their local Costco," says Josh Koebert, the study author and survey analyst. "Even the worst ranked stores by state or specific locations received pretty high scores. It's incredible because it's a testament to the standards Costco holds their stores to across the country, which helps explain why the warehouse club is so beloved."
Rounding out the bottom of the list were New York and Hawaii Costcos. But even New York, which had the worst scores, managed to pull off a decent 45.1 out of 60, which is about 75%.
