It’s 9.30 on a Friday morning at Costco and already the line is spilling out the door. Most of those in the queue are here for another delivery of Costco’s butter, which has risen to fame due to its price, at $9.99 a kilo.
It’s become so popular that on Thursday Costco put a limit on it – a maximum of 30 each of the salted and unsalted Kirkland’s butter, which comes pre-packed into slabs of 10 individual kilos.
Waiting at the door is Aucklander Lisa Blake, who owns a dessert business. She said the cheaper butter helps keep her costs down.
“I’ve saved $600 this morning,” Blake said. “So it cost me $600, but I’ve saved $600 ’cause it’s twice the price at the supermarket – and it’s New Zealand butter made in Hokitika.”
She had to make an hour-long drive from Papakura to buy it, she said, but it was still worth it as the butter at her local supermarket costed up to $26 per kilo.
“I don’t really want to put my prices up.”
Another customer, Mathew Watson, travelled up from Taranaki just to visit Costco.
He is relocating to the South Island soon and will freeze his butter stash to take with him.
“I’m bulk buying – moving to the South Island soon, so I’ll take it with me.”
Butter prices across the motu have risen significantly in the past year.
Stats NZ data showed butter prices were up 65.3% in the last 12 months to April 2025.
Another shopper told RNZ she buys from Costco once a week for herself and elderly members of her community in Waiuku.
She had previously even waited overnight in the car park so she could be first in line.
“I took a whole pile down to my family down the line, last week. They’re elderly – they can’t afford butter – and our kaumātua shouldn’t be going without butter,” she said. “They’ve retired, they shouldn’t be struggling to get butter.”
Courtney Manica had driven from Torbay on the North Shore to see how many blocks of butter she could buy before it sold out.
“For the 400 grams it’s like $8.99 [elsewhere], and I can’t justify spending that. But $10 for a kg is good.”
She was buying for friends and family who were working and could not make it today.
“A friend who runs a bakery, she is saving up to $800 a month on butter because she’s coming to Costco,” Manica said.
A man who helped run a cafe in West Auckland said he was at Costco to save on butter and eggs. He had bought the maximum amount of butter allowed, 30 blocks of each.
The cafe had to put its prices up recently to match grocery costs, he said.
“This is a massive saving. Butter is in everything – same as eggs – so a very precious commodity.”
Gavin Senior, another local from Auckland said he was now shopping at Costco for his butter because the prices at his local supermarket had skyrocketed.
Over the last couple of years his family has had to be careful with spending. His adult children had also moved home as it was too expensive for them to live elsewhere.
“We’ve just gone back to being more budget, eating more budget. Buying from this place helps ’cause they sell in bulk, so I’m breaking stuff down and separating it in the freezer.”
At the nearby Westgate Pak’nSave, 500g of butter blocks ranged from $8.99 to $10.99.
Woolworths in Westgate had similar prices, from $8.50 to $10.89 for 500g.
Checkpoint approached Costco asking why they had introduced a limit to their blocks of butter. They declined to comment. Butter supplier Westland Milk Products also did not respond to Checkpoint’s repeated requests for comment.
By Bella Craig of rnz.co.nz
