You can buy lots of stuff at Costco, a wholesale club retailer that sells household products and more, and it appears they’ve added residential building wire to the list.
A reader – thank you Dan!! – shared these photos with us, showing good pricing on 500-foot spools of Romex-style 12-gauge wiring.
Costco is selling the 500ft spools of yellow-jacketed 2-conductor (plus ground) 12/2 copper wire for $250 each.
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Looking online, I found the following home center pricing for Southwire-brand Romex:
- 250ft at Home Depot: $146 ($0.58 per foot)
- 250ft at Lowe’s: $146 ($0.58 per foot)
- 1000ft at Home Depot: $499 ($0.50 per foot)
- 1000ft at Lowe’s: $499 ($0.50 per foot)
Basically, you can get the same per-foot pricing at home centers if you buy larger 1000ft rolls. Both home centers also offer bulk savings (10%) if you buy 30 rolls of 250ft, and higher savings (15%) if you buy 60 rolls of the same.
Costco selling 12/2 NM wire at 50 cents a foot seems pretty good, and you don’t have to step up to huge quantities or 1000ft rolls at home centers to get such pricing.
My Costco membership lapsed and I haven’t gotten around to renewing it (a different wholesale club is a lot closer), and so I haven’t checked to see if my closest stores have the same.
It’s not uncommon for wholesale clubs to sell things like tools and other such things, but building wire seems very atypical.
The wire is produced by the Spectra Wire & Cable Group and is marked as being made in Korea.
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Thank you to Dan for the heads-up and for permission to use your photos!
Jim Felt
Pretty creative of a Costco buyer to take on the U.S. made brand’s near monopoly on commodity 12/2 NM “Romex”.
Kinda odd too. I know I wouldn’t buy such a non “Made in the U.S.” staple without further research. And boy is that word, “research”, totally debased in this era.
Daniel L
Eh. Honestly, I don’t particularly think “made in the US” is a particularly salient marker of quality anymore. But that’s my opinion. South Korea has a pretty advanced manufacturing economy.
The UL certification is a good sign.
Tonio
Actually, 12-3 would not have a ground. 12-3 w/g or 12-2 w/g would, (and that’s what Costco is selling).
Kevin
That’s not true Tonio. You can’t buy romex wire without a ground nowadays.
Analyst
Damn… I feel old! I remember putting this stuff out at my first job as a store clerk. We sold a lot when the 250-foot rolls of 14 AWG were $14.99 and the 12 AWG was $19.99.
Not everything was super cheap then. This was in the early days of code mandated GFCI’s and those sold in bunches on sale at $19.99 vs the $24.99 regular price.
Bill
It’s interesting how building electrical wiring, like this, is labeled as 12/2 and the ground is not counted as a conductor. Most other types of multi conductor wiring counts all of the conductors and would label this example as 12/3.
Just another example of industry specific conventions.
Mosh
It gets weirder..
12/2 mc 2 conducter plus ground
12/2 romex 2 conducter plus ground
But at SJ it would be called 12/3 2 conducter with a ground
Jimbali O
12/2/2 is two hots, two neutrals and a ground.
Used where multi wire circuits won’t work with AFCI breakers.
Shayne
The ground wire is not counted in the describing 12/2 of building wire but it is counted when talking about cord
Mosh
By me Home Depot is 702.38
al
Very odd. Most who seem likely to purchase 12/2 by the 500+ ft roll, seem equally unlikely to source their wire at Costco
WastedP
I saw this locally and was both surprised and not surprised. Several months back, plans for a new Costco location (the third in 20 years for this area) hit the local plans exchange, and an electrician I know told me about it. The current location was built about fifteen years ago, and it will be closed in favor of this new building less than a mile away. He said the size of the building was going to rival the downtown SLC location, which is the largest Costco in the world. Part of the rationale for the new larger warehouse was to accommodate building materials, which is not something I was aware of Costco offering. They already sell lighting and plumbing fixtures. Romex isn’t that big of a jump from there, but it may be the tip of the iceberg compared to what could be coming.
Nathan
I’m odd but I’m finding the 500 ft roll more interesting. Never seen it that way. I would buy Korean made Romex I think. Interesting.
Bob
The best part is not needing to hunt someone down to get it out of the cage and escort you to checkout.
Josh
This wire lacks the slick inner and slick outer coating that most of the popular brands have.
We purchased about 40 spools worth and it was a significant savings, but the installation was a nightmare. There is noticeable extra friction between wires through holes, and the outer sheathing does not come off well/at all when using NM style strippers.
Would not purchase again.
Jim Felt
Thanks for the input!
Scott K
I think this makes sense. This is something you would likely need to purchase in bulk, it fits nicely on a pallet, and it’s not something people necessarily need numerous versions of. The value shouldn’t be surprising since Costco is very selective in adding new SKUs (they have relatively few) and they are very serious about selling products that are priced fairly for their customers and suppliers.
Bonnie
Yep. Also not like construction materials and tools are new for them to carry.
Reflector
They’ve been selling 3 packs of 5 gal buckets at a reasonable (pre-pandemic inflation) price recently. They’re a little different from the average blue and orange big box store ones in that the bottom-sidewall intersection has a generous fillet instead of a more square profile. Wonder if they noticed that the sales of those kind of went well and decided to encroach into that space?
Seems a bit uncharacteristic for Costco and I didn’t see any Romex in mine (yet). Sometimes local Costcos have a bit of different inventory based on local demand which I can attest to given I have more than 3 in a 1 hour drive.
MtnRanch
Is a wire company having to market through a general retailer an indication of softness in the construction business? It wasn’t long ago that you couldn’t find 12/2 at a reasonable price.
paul gibbel
One Costco by me has 12/2 and another has 14/2.
Kevin
How much is the 14/2?
SteveP
I couldn’t possibly buy that unless I had to find an employee to unlock a cage and then perpwalk me to the checkout and watch while I paid for it. It just wouldn’t be right
I now buy my Romex on Amazon. Cheaper and less hassle, delivered to my door
Joe
I picked up 24 spools . I find 500 feet from Costco incredibly convenient. 250 is too short and 1000 too heavy . Also this spectra wire made in Korea is top quality . I find it’s high time other home centres had serious competition.