How To Shop a Costco Furniture Sale and Save 50%+

If you’ve never browsed Costco’s collection of furniture before, consider yourself in for a treat. Their quality often beats the engineered wood pieces you’ll find at other stores like Ashley Furniture and Wayfair, and Costco has way more options than just what you see at your local warehouse.

But since your local Costco warehouse doesn’t display every single furniture piece available for you to sit on or try out, making a furniture purchase from Costco can feel like a bit of a gamble. But thanks to the Costco return policy, your purchases are 100% covered if you don’t like them — unlike those Wayfair Open Box deals you’ve been eyeing.

Here, I answered every burning question you might have about how it works to buy furniture from Costco — including how to make returns, what they’ll deliver, and more.

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1. Expect a Costco furniture sale every 4 – 8 weeks, with the biggest ones in January and July.

Every few months, Costco promotes online furniture sales featuring deals up to 50% off.

For example, in 2023, Costco had a variety of furniture on sale for up to 50% off, including the highly-rated Gemma Fabric Sectional, which went from $1,999 down to $999, and this Quinn Corner Desk with a Lift, marked down 50% from $599 to its current price of $299.97.

As for the Costco furniture clearance sales, look for the biggest in-store markdowns to pop up in late December or January and July, when they clear out remaining inventory to make room for new stuff. These semi-annual sales happen so regularly that we like to call January and July “Costco Furniture Month.”

When it comes to outdoor furniture, you’ll see patio sets go on sale in the months leading up to summer or during Memorial Day weekend, when Costco’s outdoor furniture goes on sale for up to 50% off.

Just sign up for text alerts when you download the Krazy Coupon Lady app so you never miss an upcoming Costco furniture sale.

TIP: While Costco furniture deals mainly pop up in late December and late July, we see the best deals on Sam’s Club furniture clearance in June.

2. Browse Costco.com for a bigger selection of furniture than what you see in the warehouse.

Costco warehouses tend to feature just a small collection of in-store furniture you can browse, like a certain sofa set, or patio dining options when warm weather approaches.

But when you visit Costco.com, you’ll find every kind of furniture category you may need. And even if you don’t have a Costco membership, you can still shop the online deals with a 5% nonmember surcharge. So if that 5% fee comes out to more than the $60 membership fee, go ahead and spring for a basic Costco membership before you shop.

3. Most items include delivery, setup, and removal of packaging, but always check the fine print.

To make sure you know exactly what type of delivery or setup gets included with the Costco price, look for the details in the fine print. Under the “Your Price” line, you should see a little blue question mark and the fine print listed in light grey.

The Shipping & Delivery section on the product description often won’t put the delivery type in plain terms, but you’ll see these three types of furniture delivery options from Costco:

• Curbside: Delivery to your doorstep.

• Threshold: The item will get placed inside your front door or garage, but they won’t assemble it or remove it from the packaging.

• White Glove: Includes delivery, setup, and packaging removal.

Certain products, like many of Costco’s sofa sets, include White Glove service as the standard. But other items like baby cribs may only include Threshold Delivery, which means the item will get placed inside your front door or garage but they won’t assemble it.

TIP: Delivery includes addresses within 50 miles of a Costco warehouse. So don’t expect to get free delivery to a remote cabin 50 miles or more outside the city.

4. You can return Costco furniture the same way it gets delivered.

For Costco returns other than furniture, you just bring your item back to the warehouse. No questions asked, thanks to the generous Costco return policy.

But since they consider furniture a freight return, the process works a bit differently.

Basically, when you initiate a return, the carrier who delivered your item will call you within 5 – 7 business days to set up a pick-up time that works with your schedule.

Then they’ll pick up your item in the same way it got delivered — Curbside, Threshold, or White Glove.

Once the item gets picked up, they’ll initiate a full refund. You’ll receive a confirmation email once the refund has been processed on Costco’s end, and then it’s up to your bank to process the refund in a timely manner.

5. Don’t expect traditional financing options through Costco.

We’ve all heard popular furniture finance deals like “No money down, no interest, and no payments until next year,” right? Don’t expect those types of financing options when you buy furniture at Costco.

Your only financing option is to use a credit card and pay it off before the end of the month in order to avoid hefty credit card interest rates and fees.

Related: Bookmark our furniture deals page so you can stay on budget during your next home makeover.

6. Expect the quality of Costco furniture to beat similar items from stores like Ashley.

Costco’s furniture tends to be extremely high quality, and the reviews speak for themselves.

You can find furniture that matches the look of Costco’s pieces — like this 7-piece Caitbrook dining set from Ashley priced at $699.99 — that looks just like this 7-piece Blakely dining set priced at $799.97 from Costco. So why does Costco charge 12% more?

Let’s consider a few key differences. Costco’s set features leather upholstery, solid wood pieces, a self-storing table extension, a hand-applied finish, and floor protection. The Ashley set has engineered wood, polyester upholstery, no table extension, and no floor protection. So while they look the same, they’ll perform very differently once you get them home.

TIP: If you’re not satisfied with Costco’s furniture for any reason, it can always go back for a full refund.

7. Look for manufacturer warranty information in the Shipping & Returns section of the product info.

To find out if your Costco furniture piece has a manufacturer warranty in addition to Costco’s generous return policy, look at the line in the Shipping & Returns section of the product info that reads, “For manufacturer warranty information, please contact us.”

8. Earn 2% cash back on your furniture purchase with an Executive Costco membership.

If you plan to purchase a few big-ticket items from Costco, like furniture, it may make financial sense to sign up for Costco’s Executive membership, at least for that year.

An Executive Membership costs $60 more than a regular membership, but you get 2% cash back on all your purchases for the year. Basically, if you spend $3,000 in one year at Costco, it makes upgrading to the Executive Membership worth it (because you’ll get $60 in rewards at the end of the year).

If you purchase a $3,500 sofa set with the Executive membership, you’ll get $70 back. That’s already $10 more back in your pocket than what you paid to upgrade your membership.

And if you don’t get at least $60 cash back at the end of the year to make your membership upgrade worth it, Costco will refund you the cost of the Executive Membership. Think of it as Costco’s way of giving you satisfaction guaranteed on your upgraded membership!