CRAFTY VS. COSTCO

Why Workplace Teams Rely on Crafty for End-to-End Pantry Management

Costco might be great for stocking up at home, but when it comes to managing a high-performing pantry across your workplace, bulk buys and receipt piles only get you so far. Crafty delivers more than just snacks. We're your all-in-one platform and service solution built for offices. That means less waste, less guesswork, fewer hours on your part, and a consistently great experience your team can count on.

Red Flags to Watch For with Bulk Retailers

đźš©
Product Inconsistencies

What’s in stock one week might be gone the next, leading to unreliable assortments, missed expectations, and a disjointed experience.

đźš©
No Onsite
Support

Deliveries show up at your door, but that’s where the service ends. Your team is left to unpack, organize, troubleshoot equipment, and clean up the mess.

đźš©
No Proactive
Optimization

Without data or strategic guidance, you’re stuck reacting to issues and missing important opportunities to improve, save money, or reduce waste.

đźš©
Uncontrolled
Spend

Limited product options and shifting availability make sticking to a plan difficult. Overages can add up when you're not keeping track of where your money is going.

Top Workplaces That Made the Switch to Crafty

National Pantry Programs-1

What Makes Crafty Different? 

Pantry Service That Saves You Time

Running your pantry takes more time than you think between receiving deliveries, unpacking boxes, rotating stock, tidying shelves, and troubleshooting issues as they come up. Crafty takes it all off your plate with expert onsite service to handle the day-to-day, so your team doesn’t have to. 

Learn About Operations Oversight >

Corporate-Food-Management-750x750-1

Product Visibility and Tracking

When every office is managing things on its own, it's easy to lose track of what’s being consumed and what's sitting on the shelf. The Crafty Platform brings all your data into one place, giving you real-time insight into consumption and product shifts across locations. With that visibility, you can make informed decisions, eliminate waste, and get more value out of every dollar you spend.

Crafty-Office-Pantry-Reporting-750x750

Inventory You Can Count On

Bulk retailers are unpredictable—frequent rotation of stock and poor substitutions make it impossible for you to maintain consistency. Crafty is purpose-built for the workplace. We build smart inventory strategies tailored to your team, ensure steady category coverage, and recommend smart swaps when needed.

Learn About Our Inventory Tools >

Product Consistency

Equipment & Upkeep Included

There’s more to a great pantry than snacks and drinks—it runs on the equipment behind the scenes. From coffee machines to water dispensers, Crafty provides the machines your team depends on as well as the expert upkeep and service to keep everything running smoothly. 

Explore Equipment > 

Coffee Machines

Strategic Spend Management

Crafty simplifies budget and invoice management by centralizing your pantry spend across all locations, giving you full visibility and control. Whether managing one office or a national program, you can make smarter decisions, avoid surprises, and maximize every dollar.

How Crafty maximizes budget for office snacks

A Partner That's One Step Ahead

You shouldn’t have to manage your pantry alone. Bulk retailers leave you chasing problems and making last-minute fixes—that’s not sustainable. Crafty is your proactive partner, tracking inventory performance, flagging issues early, and making smart adjustments based on your team’s actual needs. The result? Fewer surprises, fewer to-dos, and a pantry that just works.

Elevated-office-snack-delivery-for-employee-engagement-750x750

Why Choose Crafty?

âś…
Scale a Quality Experience

215+ clients trust Crafty to deliver a premier national pantry program.

âś…
Maximize Every Dollar

93% of Crafty pantries achieve maximum budget efficiency.

âś…
Minimize
Waste

53% of Crafty clients have compostable supplies.

âś…
Save Valuable
Time

25,881 hours have been saved annually across Crafty clients.

National Pantry:
Crafty vs. Bulk Retailers

Bulk retailers may seem cost-effective, but decentralized ordering and reactive management drive up hidden costs fast. At scale, that adds up to waste, inefficiency, and lost time. With Crafty, you get the expert service you need across every location, all managed through one centralized platform that helps you scale smarter and spend better. 


Build Your National Program >

Build a national pantry program with Crafty

Crafty vs. Costco FAQ

What are Crafty's offerings?

Crafty offers tailored pantry programs, including office snacks, coffee, drinks, supplies, and equipment, all backed by reliable onsite service and innovative technology.

  • Our expert team handles the heavy lifting—from restocking and inventory management to maintaining pantry organization—ensuring a seamless experience.
  • Powered by our proprietary technology, the Crafty Platform, Crafty provides real-time visibility into inventory, budget tracking, and consumption data, giving you complete control over your food service program. 

Whether you need flexible delivery services or full-service management, Crafty tailors its offerings to meet your workplace needs and deliver consistent, high-quality service across every location.

What is Crafty's coverage area for services?

Crafty provides national service across 45+ markets, including major cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, and Seattle. Our powerful technology offers complete oversight of your pantry program, allowing you to manage multiple locations seamlessly from a single, centralized platform. Browse all locations >

Why should I choose Crafty over Costco?

Costco might seem like an easier option at first glance, but that changes quickly when you're managing multiple offices or trying to run a consistent, efficient program. Bulk retailers come with limited visibility, inconsistent inventory, lack of equipment and zero support after delivery. Crafty is built to solve all of that.

We’re not just a vendor; we’re your partner. With Crafty, you get centralized control, data-driven decisions, and hands-on service that helps your pantry program run smoother, scale smarter, and make the most of every dollar.

Here’s what Crafty offers that Costco doesn’t:

  • Onsite support to unpack, restock, and maintain your space

  • Equipment to purchase or lease

  • Preventative care for coffee machines and water equipment

  • Strategic product guidance and optimization recommendations

  • Automated, consumption-based ordering

  • Real-time spend tracking with budget alerts and custom reporting

  • Consolidated invoicing tailored for easier reconciliation

  • Consistent category coverage with smart substitutions when needed

As your footprint grows, so do the operational and financial risks of relying on bulk retailers. Crafty helps you scale with confidence. Our innovative platform brings standardization, consistency, and visibility across every location, while our team provides expert pantry support to keep your program running at its best. Whether you're managing five offices or fifty, we help you build a national pantry program that works smarter at every level.

Learn more about our national programs. 

Why is Costco cheaper?

Costco might seem cheaper at first glance, but product pricing is only one part of the equation. When evaluating the cost of your pantry program, there are two major factors to consider: leaky spend from disorganization and the hidden cost of operations.

Bulk retailers are built for volume, not workplace coordination. They don’t provide inventory tracking, budget controls, or centralized reporting. Plus, they definitely don’t help with stocking shelves, rotating product, or providing and troubleshooting equipment. As a result, small inefficiencies pile up quickly, costing your team far more than you might realize. You’re likely losing money every day through:

  • Overstocked items that expire before they’re used

  • Untracked purchases across teams and credit cards

  • Last-minute, off-cycle orders that increase costs

  • Internal hours spent placing orders and managing receipts

  • Merchandising without a strategy that drives up unnecessary consumption

  • Outsourcing equipment and maintenance to another provider 

Crafty helps you take control of spend at every level. We combine real-time data with onsite support to reduce waste, eliminate busy work, and drive smarter decisions. With Crafty, you get:

  • Automated ordering based on consumption

  • Centralized budget tracking across locations

  • Onsite experts to restock, merchandise, and maintain your space

  • Clear reporting that ties every dollar to impact

  • An expert in office kitchen and pantry equipment with managed support

Costco may look cheaper on the surface, but Crafty delivers the structure, visibility, and support you need to run a more efficient, cost-effective program in the long run.

How does Crafty’s approach to fulfillment compare to Costco?

This is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Costco was built for consumers buying in bulk—not for companies running multi-location pantry programs. You're limited to what’s on the shelf that day, stuck with one-size-fits-all pack sizes, and left to handle everything from ordering and pickup to unpacking and stocking. There’s no coordination, no visibility, and no support if something goes wrong. What looks simple at checkout often turns into hours of manual work and disjointed execution across locations.

Crafty was purpose-built for the workplace. Our fulfillment approach is designed for consistency, efficiency, and total visibility. We build inventory strategies based on your team's needs, ensure steady coverage across key categories, and use our platform to recommend smart substitutions when items are out of stock—so your shelves stay stocked with the right products, not just what’s available.

Here’s how it works:

  • We source from national distributors and local brands to bring you a curated mix of trusted and trending products.

  • We partner with vetted local operators to deliver those products on time to each of your locations.

  • Our onsite teams stock, organize, and merchandise every item to create a polished, retail-ready pantry.

Every step flows through the Crafty Platform. Orders are tracked, verified, and documented with delivery photos and shift updates, giving you real-time insight into what was delivered, when, and how it was executed.

Crafty is pantry fulfillment built for the workplace.

How do I know it’s time to upgrade from Costco to Crafty?

Costco can work when you’re running a single office and buying in bulk for basic needs, but once your team grows or your program expands across locations, the cracks start to show. Here’s how you know it’s time to level up and how Crafty solves the challenges that bulk retailers weren’t built for:

You’re stuck sourcing what’s available, not what your team actually needs.

  • Why it’s a problem: Product availability changes constantly, pack sizes are inflexible, and you’re forced to make compromises that lead to waste and frustration.

  • The Crafty way: We build inventory strategies around your needs, ensure consistent category coverage, and recommend smart substitutions when items are unavailable.

You’re handling delivery, stocking, and setup on your own.

  • Why it’s a problem: It eats up your team’s time and leads to inconsistent pantry experiences across offices.

  • The Crafty way: Our onsite teams receive deliveries, stock and organize shelves, and keep your space looking polished and professional.

You have no central view of spend across locations.

  • Why it’s a problem: You can’t track budgets, spot trends, or prevent overspending. Plus, reconciling receipts is a financial nightmare.

  • The Crafty way: All your budgets and spend data live in one place, with real-time reporting, alerts, and tools to stay on track.

Inventory is a guessing game.

  • Why it’s a problem: You’re buying in bulk without knowing what’s actually being used, leading to overstocked items, missed favorites, and wasted product.

  • The Crafty way: Our platform tracks consumption and our onsite teams report on inventory so you only reorder what your team actually wants.

You’re managing the program alone, without support.

  • Why it’s a problem: When something breaks or runs out, it’s on you. And at scale, that’s not sustainable.

  • The Crafty way: We manage the day-to-day, from equipment upkeep to restock prioritization, so your pantry just works.

 

Bottom line: If your pantry program feels like a second full-time job, it’s time for a partner that’s built for the workplace. Crafty helps you scale with consistency, visibility, and support—so you can stop managing and start optimizing.

Why is having operational support in the pantry so important?

When you’re ordering through Costco, the service ends long before the pantry is ready. You’re responsible for everything including sourcing the right products, managing pickup or delivery, unpacking, stocking, cleaning, and tracking what’s running low. That might be manageable for one office, but it quickly becomes unsustainable at scale.

Crafty takes a completely different approach. We provide dedicated onsite support that acts as an extension of your team. Our people don’t just drop off products and ghost you. They manage the day-to-day operations of your pantry to keep it clean, organized, and running smoothly across every location.

Here’s what our onsite teams handle that Costco never will:

  • Stocking and organizing shelves so your space always looks full, polished, and inviting

  • Rotating products using FEFO (First Expire, First Out) to minimize waste

  • Restocking and reordering essentials before they run out

  • Flagging slow-moving items and recommending better alternatives

  • Performing light maintenance and cleaning on pantry equipment

  • Documenting every shift with photos and updates through the Crafty Platform

It’s not just about dropping snacks off at your door, it’s about maintaining a consistent, reliable experience that your team can count on every single day.

How Does Crafty’s Approach to Sustainability Compare to Costco's?

Good luck finding sustainable products buried in the metaphorically towering aisles of Costco's online marketplace. Even if they’re there, it’s on you to dig through product information, research and check the product information, and figure out what aligns with your company’s values. And once you’ve bought it? There’s no tracking, no reporting, and no support to help you scale your impact.

Crafty takes a more hands-on, integrated approach. Sustainability is built into how we run your pantry every day. From cutting down on packaging to preventing overordering, our team and technology help you build a smarter, greener program that reflects your company’s goals.

How Crafty Builds Sustainability Into Every Program:

  • Cut Down on Single-Use Packaging with Smart Equipment: We implement solutions like Bevi machines, cold brew and kombucha kegs, and bulk snack dispensers to reduce packaging waste at the source.
  • Prevent Waste Before It Happens: Our platform uses real-time consumption data to automate orders and reduce excess inventory—so you only get what you need, when you need it.
  • Filter and Report on Sustainable Products: Use our platform to find products that meet standards like B-Corp, Fair Trade, and vegan. We help you make values-aligned choices and track your impact.
  • Support Circular Economy Practices: We can integrate TerraCycle programs to recycle coffee pods, snack wrappers, and other hard-to-recycle materials—diverting waste from landfills.
Sustainability with Crafty isn’t just about what you buy. It’s about how your entire program is designed to reduce waste and maximize impact.
How does Crafty’s approach to diversity compare to Costco's?

Bulk retailers may carry products from minority-owned founders, but you won’t find tools to search for them, prioritize them, or track your impact. It’s up to you to dig through listings, research supplier backgrounds, and choose what aligns with your company’s DEI goals. And once you order? There’s no visibility into how those decisions drive impact across your company.

CRAFT
A BETTER
WORKPLACE

Elevate your office food and beverage program with enhanced services managed in one innovative, centralized platform.