A Costco shopper has shared a simple money-saving trick that has gotten a lot of attention online. Danny Hoang, who posts on TikTok as @the.hoang.family, showed how his family avoids buying too much at the warehouse store by following one easy rule: don’t use a shopping cart.
Hoang’s idea is pretty straightforward. When you don’t use a cart, you can only buy what you can carry in your arms. This makes it a lot harder to spend money on things you didn’t plan to buy. The trick has caught on with many Costco shoppers who have trouble keeping their bills low at the store.
In a TikTok video, Hoang showed how he walks through the store using one of Costco’s cardboard boxes instead of a cart. The video showed him carrying more and more items in his arms, including pancake mix, eighteen eggs, pomegranates, and twenty-four roses. “Helps keep the bill under $100,” according to a Reddit user who shops the same way. Hoang later said in a comment that he was shopping for his anniversary, writing, “Can’t forget our anniversary, hence her favorite fruit and flowers.”
The no-cart trick might sound weird, but plenty of people actually do it
This shopping trick isn’t just Hoang’s idea. Lots of Costco shoppers on Reddit have talked about doing the same thing. One person posted on the r/Costco subreddit asking, “Anyone else shop at Costco without a cart? I do this so I can only buy what I can carry.” Many people replied saying they use this trick to keep their spending in check.
The idea helps fix a real problem at Costco. The store has really big carts and wide aisles that make it easy to shop for bulk items. But these big carts can also make you want to fill them up with way more stuff than you planned to buy. An Instagram account called Getting Grocery Girl, run by Alli Powell, also talks about what she calls the “No Cart Costco Haul” as a way to stop buying things you don’t need. Much like the “bird theory” that reveals whether partners actually care about small details, this shopping trick tests if you can really stick to your budget.
Some Reddit users shared more tips to make this easier. One person said to grab an empty box while you walk through the store to help carry your stuff. Another person said to go straight to self-checkout so you don’t get tempted to buy more things while waiting in line. “The longer you wait in line, the more your brain starts thinking (what else should I buy while I’m still here),” one user wrote.
This trick does need some planning ahead of time. You need to know what you want to buy before you walk into the store. It works better for smaller trips instead of big shopping runs where you need to stock up on everything. Just as one driver talked his way out of a speeding ticket with quick thinking, Costco shoppers using this trick need to think smart about what they buy. But for people who always spend too much at Costco, only being able to carry what fits in your arms can really help you stay within your budget.
