4 Tips For Buying The Best Costco Pumpkin Pie

Costco's Kirkland Signature Pumpkin Pie is an autumnal customer favorite. Its anticipated annual return actually arrives well before fall, making an August debut. Some six million are sold during the season, and about one-third of those fly out of stores right before Thanksgiving (per Food Tech Today). The dessert that finished at the top of our ranking of the best store-bought pumpkin pies is a hefty 12 inches across and over 3 ½ pounds. Its cost has remained steady at $5.99, just as the famous food court hot dog combo doesn't change from $1.50 and the rotisserie chicken hasn't budged from $4.99. Shoppers picking one up want to know they're getting the best pie possible. Some simple buying tips can help ensure that happens. 

Want to find out which pies were put out for sale most recently? Checking the sell-by date can be a good indicator. The back of the chilled display case, where it tends to be colder, is typically where the newest pies are placed. Skip any pies with a lot of moisture on top, filling that's separated from the crust or cracked, or a pale crust. Finally, buy your Thanksgiving pumpkin pie close to the holiday, even if you have to fight the crowds to do it.

All of Costco's pies have a sell-by date on the label. Shoppers can use this information to gauge a pumpkin pie's freshness. The newest pies will have a later sell-by date than those that have been out in the bakery longer. Look for the latest date you can find, and you just might snap up the freshest one.

Just how long is the timeframe between when a Costco bakery item was made and its sell-by date? One commenter on Reddit who said they worked in Costco's bakery department wrote, "The absolute longest time I've seen between the pack date and sell-by date is six days, but most items are in the two- to four-day range." Another self-identified Costco employee discussing the pumpkin pies in a different Reddit thread noted, "Don't forget the date is a sell-by, not a use-by. They are good for 3+ days past the date printed."

Since Costco's pumpkin pies aren't made with any preservatives and their filling is an egg-based custard, they are perishable and absolutely need to be refrigerated. This holds true not only when you get them home from the store, but also when they're in the bakery's chilled display cases. The back and bottom of open cases like the ones Costco uses tend to be colder, so items in those areas are more protected from the air temperature inside the warehouse. 

Also, when the cases are restocked with new, freshly baked pies, the workers place them underneath the older ones. When you select a pie, reach in back and/or underneath the ones right up front. Feel for those that are coldest to the touch, and look for that later sell-by date to get a sense of which pies were most recently put out for sale.

A couple of physical characteristics to keep an eye out for when buying a Costco pumpkin pie are liquid on the top and custard that's cracked or separated from the crust. Pooled moisture is condensation from sitting in the plastic shell – a possible indicator that it's been on the sales floor for a while, or a result of it still being warm when it entered the chilled display case. Although you can blot the liquid to remove it, you're looking for the best pie, so you want to avoid those. Meanwhile, cracks and separation can indicate it was a little overcooked.

Some customers have also found that the bottom can be doughy and underdone, which could arguably affect the taste even more. It's impossible to detect this in-store since you can't see the  bottom or sides of the pie, but take a good look at the top of the crust and choose another one if it seems pale.

So many people buy Costco's pumpkin pie the week of Thanksgiving. The holiday rush might motivate you to buy one further ahead of time and freeze it — just to be on the safe side. Although these pies freeze well, it's better to wait until Turkey Day is closer.

Bakers work around the clock making pumpkin pies to meet demand. In 2022, a Redditor who posted a photo of a customer holding one shared, "Our Costco bakery has been running 24 hour shifts for 10 days leading up to Thanksgiving, and 16K+ pumpkin pies later, she got the last one!" With that many being pumped out and snatched up, the final days are when you're likely to get the freshest pies.

If you're worried about missing out, you can employ a bit of strategy to make sure you get one right before Thanksgiving, when everyone's clamoring for them. Going to the store as soon as it opens is one way to improve your chances. If you're an Executive Member, you could take advantage of being allowed inside the warehouse one hour early.