I bought my first piece of Costco furniture about three years ago. A sectional. It looked great on the warehouse floor, the price was right, and I figured, “It’s Costco. How wrong can you go?” Turns out I wasn’t wrong about the couch itself. But I was wrong about almost everything else in the process. The delivery situation, the price differences between online and in-store, the secret codes on the price tags I walked right past. If I’d known what I know now, the whole experience would have gone a lot smoother and probably saved me a couple hundred bucks.
So here’s everything I wish someone had told me before I handed over my card.
The Markup Is Absurdly Low Compared to Furniture Stores
This is the thing that should make you rethink every furniture purchase you’ve ever made at a traditional store. Costco’s markup on furniture is around 14%, with a hard ceiling of 15%. That’s it. Meanwhile, traditional furniture retailers are routinely marking things up by 100% to 200%. Read that again. That $2,000 sofa at a furniture chain probably cost the store somewhere between $700 and $1,000. At Costco, that same quality level sits much closer to what they actually paid for it.
Consumer advocate Clark Howard has been beating this drum for years. He’s bought plenty of Costco furniture for his own home and points out that traditional furniture stores make their money not just from the sticker price but from the financing and delivery fees baked into every sale. Costco strips all that out. There’s no “No money down, no interest, no payments for 18 months” game being played. You pay what you pay, and what you pay is shockingly close to wholesale.
Buy It in the Store and Getting It Home Is Entirely Your Problem
Here’s the one that caught me off guard. When you buy furniture at a Costco warehouse, there is no delivery option. Zero. You are on your own. That means if you’re buying a sectional, a bedroom set, or a dining table, you either need a friend with a truck, a rented U-Haul, or a very creative arrangement with a third-party delivery service. Nobody at the store is going to help you figure that out.
Now, online purchases are a different story. Costco.com offers both threshold delivery (they drop it at your door) and white glove service (they bring it in, set it up, and haul away the packaging), starting at around $50. But there’s a catch I’ll get to in a minute.
In-Store and Online Prices Are Not the Same
This tripped me up. The same piece of furniture can cost more on Costco.com than it does sitting on the warehouse floor. The online price often includes delivery fees and other added costs rolled in. So if you find something you like in the store, write down the price before you go home to “think about it” and then order it online. You might be paying a premium for the convenience of delivery.
On the flip side, the online selection is way bigger than what you’ll find in any single warehouse. If you’ve walked through your local Costco and thought, “Is this really all they have?” the answer is no. There are entire categories online that never show up in stores. The trade-off is obvious, though. You can’t sit on a couch through a screen. You can’t check how sturdy a desk feels from a product photo. Buying furniture online is always a bit of a gamble, and Costco is no exception.
The Price Tag Codes Tell You Everything
This is the insider trick I really wish I’d known. Costco price tags have hidden codes that tell you exactly what’s going on with an item, and most shoppers walk right past them without a second thought.
If the price ends in .97 or .79, the item has been marked down. That’s not the original price. It’s a clearance situation, and you’re already getting a better deal than the person who bought it last month.
But here’s the big one: if there’s an asterisk (*) on the price tag, that item is a one-time offer. It will not be restocked once it sells out. Gone means gone. This is absolutely critical for furniture buyers. If you see a dining set or a sectional you love and there’s an asterisk on that tag, do not go home to “sleep on it.” Buy it or accept that you may never see it again. Costco’s furniture buyers travel the world sourcing products, and many of those finds are limited runs.
The Semi-Annual Sales Are Real, and They’re Quiet
Costco runs furniture sales twice a year, typically in July and December. These aren’t the kind of blowout events you’ll see advertised on TV. They’re often unadvertised and available only for a limited window. Costco doesn’t do big promotional pushes the way Ashley or Rooms To Go might. You either know about them or you don’t.
During these events, sofas, dining sets, bedroom suites, and home office furniture all get deep discounts on top of Costco’s already low markup. The way to stay in the loop is to watch Costco’s mailers, check the website regularly, or keep the Costco app notifications turned on. If you’re already planning a furniture purchase, timing it around July or December can save you hundreds.
One more thing on savings: the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi earns 2% cash back on all Costco purchases. On a $1,500 sectional, that’s $30 back. Not life-changing, but free money is free money.
Some of Their Furniture Is Genuinely Bad
Here’s where people get burned. Not everything Costco sells is a winner, and the “it’s Costco, so it must be good” mentality can cost you. The Lumina Murphy Bed is a prime example. It sits at a 3.2-star rating, with nearly 30% of reviewers giving it a single star. Customers have reported terrible wood quality, cheap hardware (which is kind of alarming for a bed that folds into a wall), and an overall feeling that it’s not worth anywhere near its almost $1,800 price tag. Multiple reviewers explicitly say to avoid it.
The Viva L-Shape Height Sit and Stand Adjustable Workstation is another one struggling to crack 3.6 stars, with patterns of quality and assembly complaints. The lesson here is simple: always, always read the reviews before buying Costco furniture. The reviews on Costco’s own website are surprisingly honest and detailed. Look for patterns. If multiple people report the same assembly nightmare or the same part breaking, believe them.
But Some of Their Brands Are Incredible
On the other end of the spectrum, a handful of brands at Costco consistently knock it out of the park. Universal Broadmoore is probably the standout. All 29 of their products on Costco’s site have at least a four-star rating. Their bedroom sets are especially popular, built with solid wood instead of the particleboard you’ll find at most stores in this price range. The dresser drawers use English or French dovetail construction, which is genuinely a sign of quality you’d normally expect at a much higher price point. They even use rubberwood, a sustainable material from retired rubber trees.
Thomasville is another strong pick. Only 3 out of 48 products rated below four stars. Their modular sectionals are popular for good reason. Each seat holds up to 250 pounds, they come in soft fabrics, and the configurations are flexible enough to fit odd-shaped rooms. The Thomasville Langdon Fabric Sectional gets consistently great reviews, with buyers saying it holds up even with pets.
Then there’s Gilman Creek, which does leather and leather-like seating with built-in power outlets. No more positioning your recliner next to the one wall outlet in the living room.
The Return Policy Is Amazing, But It’s Tightening Up
Costco’s return policy on furniture falls under their unlimited satisfaction guarantee. Technically, you can return a couch you bought two years ago if you’re genuinely dissatisfied. No receipt needed. Every purchase is tied to your membership card, so they can look it up. For large items, they’ll even arrange a pickup.
But here’s the thing people aren’t talking about enough: Costco has quietly started tightening enforcement. Employees are now regularly checking purchase history and flagging accounts with unusual return patterns. Fraudulent and abusive returns cost U.S. retailers $103 billion in 2024, and Costco is one of the last major chains to really crack down. If you’re someone who has been treating the return policy like a furniture rental program, those days may be numbered. For normal buyers who occasionally return something that doesn’t work out? You’re still fine. Just don’t be the person returning a couch with three years of wear and expecting a full refund with a smile.
The Demo People Can’t Help You
This is a small one, but it’s worth knowing. Those employees standing near furniture displays inside Costco? Most of them don’t actually work for Costco. They work for the brands they’re promoting. So if you ask them about store policies, return procedures, or whether something is available in the back, they won’t be able to help you. Save those questions for actual Costco staff.
Bring a Tape Measure. Seriously.
Costco warehouses are enormous, and furniture can look deceptively small sitting in the middle of a 150,000-square-foot building. That sectional that seemed perfectly reasonable on the showroom floor might absolutely swallow your living room. Measure your space before you go, and bring a tape measure to double-check dimensions in the store. This sounds obvious, but the number of people who end up returning Costco furniture because it doesn’t fit suggests it’s not obvious enough.
You can also check Costco’s website for exact dimensions before heading in. If you’re buying online, this step is non-negotiable since you can’t eyeball it in person.
Look, Costco furniture is genuinely a great deal for most people. The markup alone makes it worth considering over any traditional furniture store. But going in blind is how you end up with a Murphy bed that wobbles, a couch that cost more online than it did in the warehouse, and no way to get any of it home. Do a little homework first, and you’ll walk out with something you actually love at a price that doesn’t make you feel like you got played.
