The Biggest Savings on Allergy Relief Medications for Spring 2024

After a cold and snowy winter in many parts of the country, temperatures are starting to warm up. The days are already longer with the extra hour of daylight from daylight savings. The arrival of spring also brings with it a familiar sight of cars and everything else covered in a layer of yellow pollen.

When everyone else is looking forward to spending more time outside enjoying the warmer days and blossoming flowers, for those of us with allergies spring means seemingly endless suffering from runny noses, congestion, sneezing, and itchy, watery eyes. It is during this time of the year that stores see their stocks of allergy medication go flying off the shelves.

Allergic reactions occur because your immune system thinks foreign organisms are invading your body’s defenses. The immune system reacts to allergens by producing antibodies that release histamines.

Common allergens include pollen, food, insect bites, pet dander, mold, and dust. Those who are lucky may never be allergic to anything their entire lives. For many others, springtime and pollen is a major cause of allergies and once the flowers stop blooming, their allergies go away until next year. Some people, however, are stuck with allergies year-round. Luckily for allergy sufferers, allergy symptoms can be easily treated with antihistamines.

Costco has long been popular for selling bulk quantities of everything from detergents to monster muffins at discount prices to their members that few stores can beat. Costco is also a great place to load up for allergy season. Not only do they have bulk quantities of popular name-brand allergy relief medicine such as Allegra, Claritin, and Zyrtec at low member prices, they have generic versions of these medications under the Costco Kirkland Signature store brand at even lower and more affordable prices for greater savings.

To determine the most savings, we are going to compare the name-brand allergy medicine from Costco to both Amazon and Walmart. Then we will compare their Kirkland Signature store brand to Walmart’s Equate brand along with generics found on Amazon to see which store has the best deal.

* Amazon prices may be from third-party sellers; shipping not included. Costco prices are from the warehouse. For the best prices on Amazon, you need to plan and order before the pollen season gets into full swing.

Prices as of April 22, 2024

Brand Name Antihistamines

Generic Antihistamines

Closing $ense

Looking at the price comparisons between Amazon, Costco, and Walmart; Costco comes out on top 5 out of 5 times for brand-name allergy medications. For the generic versions of the drugs, Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand of allergy medicine beats out both Walmart and Amazon except for the generic Allegra.

However, one thing to consider is if you need antihistamines immediately because your face has blown up to the size of a basketball in hives, you may not want to wait two days for Amazon Prime to deliver. This is where Costco and Walmart both come in handy with local stores available.

Compared to name-brand medications, the generic versions with the same active ingredients can be had for pennies per pill. This can be a big savings for your wallet if you need to take them year-round.

For even bigger savings at Costco, look in their monthly coupon book for additional discounts. Every spring, Costco has had both the brand-name and their Kirkland Signature antihistamines on sale. For example, in the ad to the right for 4/19/2018 to 5/13/2018, almost all their allergy medications are on sale this month – $17 and $10 off Flonase, $7 off Claritin and Zyrtec, $3 off Aller-Tec and AllerClear, and $6 off Aller-Fex and Aller-Flo. They also had a similar sale back in February for the generic verisons.

I used to never get seasonal allergies when I was younger. It may be a coincidence, but after skipping spring here in the South after being a ski bum in Colorado for a couple years, I started getting allergies after moving back home.

Relieving your allergy symptoms can be as easy as taking a single pill a day, but it does take some trial and error to find which allergy medication works best for you.

If you know spring and pollen will bring with it sneezing, runny noses, itchy eyes, and other ailments, I’ve found that you can avoid all the symptoms by pre-treating yourself with antihistamines before the pollen gets extremely bad. In years past, I would wait until symptoms started before I started taking medication and it would barely help. Now, I’ve got a bottle of generic Zyrtec from Costco and a reminder on my phone’s calendar to start taking a pill a day in mid-February. Since I’ve started doing this, I’ve gotten through pollen season without any more problems.

Do you have any allergies? What are your go-to allergy medications? Any tips on getting relief other than waiting till summer?