10 Common Customer Complaints About Costco

There is a lot to love about Costco: bulk groceries for unbeatable prices, Kirkland Signature products that have earned their own cult following, and a food court that is unmatched for value. Members can’t get enough of the Costco food bargains, amazing food court hot dogs, and fan-favorite rotisserie chicken, so it’s no surprise that Costco has built one of the most loyal customer bases in retail. But even the most devoted Costco shoppers have their gripes with the company. To find out what customers really think, we took a deep dive into social media, community forums, and customer reviews and comments.

From pushy third-party salespeople to chaotic parking lots and confusing store layouts, Costco members have plenty to say about what drives them crazy. These are the ten most common complaints customers have about shopping at Costco — and the issues they hope the warehouse giant will eventually fix to make their shopping experience more enjoyable.

If you’ve ever stepped foot in a Costco, you’ve likely noticed the salespeople throughout the store that represent television brands, cell phone providers, and solar companies. Costco invites these representatives to sell third-party products, but customers tend to dread the relentless sales tactics, especially when they are trying to get their grocery shopping done quickly and efficiently. In a Reddit thread asking what customers would change about Costco, the number one comment asks the store to get rid of the salespeople, to which another Redditor responds, “Very annoying. They stand at the main entrance aisle like creepy vultures.”

Another customer in agreement on Facebook claims, “I swear it’s like trying to exit the airport in Cabo, without buying a timeshare.” Customers find the sales tactics to be an invasion of their time, and sometimes even their personal space. One customer shares a polite way to let the cell phone providers down easy. In a YouTube video, he explains that all you have to say is that your work pays for your phone and internet service, and to put it simply, “you can’t beat free.”

Outside of the chaos that often accompanies a Costco shopping trip, between the enormous grocery carts, large crowds, and confusing aisles, customers also take issue with the app and website experience. For such a large company, customers cannot understand why Costco doesn’t add certain simple integrations to improve the app. For instance, Costco members have begged the store to add Apple Wallet integration and e-membership capabilities, so that they can scan their card in the app, in case they forget their membership card at home.

Other shoppers lament that the app is simply out of date and difficult to use. One shopper on Reddit describes the site and app as “hot garbage”. Others on Facebook wish Costco would keep up with other grocery store apps, which are better equipped to help you search for products that are in stock and identify where in the store you can find them. In some cases, customers have seen products in the warehouse, but can’t find them when they go to search in the app.

Unsurprisingly, one of the most common complaints about Costco, or any grocery store for that matter, is the crowds. But customers take particular issue with Costco’s overcrowded and chaotic parking lots, which make the grocery shopping experience exhausting before you’ve even set foot in the warehouse. According to customers on Reddit, some shoppers have circled around and failed to find a spot, admitted defeat, and turned right back around to go home, especially on weekends or around the holidays.

The parking lots require an element of strategy to navigate. You can circle around the lot, waiting for a spot towards the front of the store to open up, or use the stalker method, in which you follow someone leaving the store with their cart to their parking spot. Some shoppers recommend you simply bite the bullet and park as far from the entrance as possible. You might have to walk a little longer, but at least you’ll be out of the chaos and might avoid potential door dings from surrounding cars. Costco isn’t the only store that gets heat for its parking lots. Customers also complain that the Trader Joe’s parking lots are annoyingly small, although there is actually a reason for their size.

Most grocery stores have signs that hang above each aisle indicating which products can be found there. However, Costco’s aisle signs are notably absent, making it more difficult for customers to find what they’re looking for. As it turns out, this is no accident, but a strategy employed by the company to make customers spend more money. Robert Price, a key individual in the foundation of Costco as the warehouse chain it is, explains in an interview with NPR, “I was adamant that we would not have signs telling people where things were because that would make it likely that they would wander through all the aisles and find other things to buy.”

While many customers understand that there is a strategy at play, they still find the tactic frustrating. One shopper on Facebook writes, “I can deal with their ‘we want you to buy more ploys.’ But the lack of aisle markers wastes my time. Deliberately. I resent that.” Other shoppers on Reddit claim the situation is made even more frustrating by the fact that employees are not always informed on where to find products, either.

Before the COVID pandemic, there were onion dispensers among the other condiments at the Costco food court. They would dispense fresh diced onions to be enjoyed on your hot dog, and customers were thrilled. Many shoppers enjoyed mixing the onions with ketchup, mustard, relish, and crushed red pepper to make a viral concoction that became known as the “Costco Kimchi”. However, after the pandemic, customers started to notice the dispensers being removed from warehouses until they completely disappeared.

Customers speculate that the onion dispensers were removed because customers overused the condiment, resulting in a loss for the store. While you can usually ask for onions from behind the counter, these come in small plastic cups, are not available at every location, and Costco shoppers still long for the return of the crank onion dispenser. After all, according to one Facebook customer, “a dawg without onions?? Like a day without sunshine.”

In addition to not having aisle signs that point to where products live in the store, Costco moves its inventory around constantly, as another tactic to keep customers shopping. The idea is simple: If you don’t know where to find the products on your list, you’ll be forced to spend more time in the store roaming the aisles, and inevitably spend more money when you find products you hadn’t originally planned to purchase. But this tactic is undeniably annoying for shoppers who are trying to get their grocery shopping done as quickly as possible.

This treasure hunt method is highly successful, but leaves some customers feeling frustrated, especially because the inventory is moved around so often that even the employees don’t know where products are a lot of the time. One Redditor writes, “You want a specific item found, you’re gonna need to go on a field trip while the Employee also discovers where what you’re looking for is located.” Despite understanding the sales-driven purpose of creating a maze-like layout, customers on Reddit still claim that not being able to find the products they’re looking for is “the most annoying thing about shopping at Costco.”

You may want to skip fresh produce at Costco, according to members online. Shoppers find that many produce items from the warehouse spoil rapidly, sometimes within a day or two of being brought home. In fact, fresh produce is one of the Costco items that customers return the most. One customer on Reddit shares that they brought home potatoes, broccoli, raspberries, and zucchini, only to find all of the products spoiled within two days of purchase. Customers also tend to have issues with bananas, which go straight from green to brown, without properly ripening to yellow.

A Costco employee explains that the produce quality has everything to do with how well the department rotates its product. They explain in a Reddit thread, “Typically I would avoid citrus unless the ‘harvested on’ date (side of the box) is no more than 10 days from purchase date … I would also avoid kiwi, plums, peaches, and the ataulfa mangoes if they aren’t within 15 days of harvest date.”

The general rise in grocery prices and prevalence of shrinkflation, the phenomenon where products get smaller by volume but increase in price, is a problem across most grocery stores. But Costco shoppers have noticed a significant increase in shrinkflation on some of their favorite Costco products in the past few years. Shoppers were frustrated when Costco’s cookies suddenly came with 21 cookies instead of the 24-count previously offered in April 2025.

Another shopper pointed out the stark increase in Dunkin’ coffee, which used to cost just under $17 for 150 cups, and now costs $22 for 130 cups. Even Costco employees on Reddit have confirmed some instances of shrinkflation, claiming that the bakery croissants are nearly half the size they used to be. One Costco member on YouTube really put the store to the test and compared his grocery haul in 2015 to 2023. He bought all of the same products and went to the same warehouse in order to see just how far grocery prices had climbed in eight years. He found that the same cart of food that cost $139.76 in 2015 cost a whopping $171.26 in 2023, a 23% cost increase.

Some people are loyal to their favorite credit card providers, but unfortunately, American Express cardholders will be sorely disappointed if they try to use their Amex to pay at Costco. Some customers who prefer to use their Amex credit card for grocery purchases find it inconvenient that the store doesn’t accept this card, and hasn’t since 2015. Interestingly, before Costco switched to an exclusive partnership with Visa in 2016, the store had a 16-year-long deal with Amex. Today, Costco warehouses only accept Visa credit cards. MasterCard (but not Amex) can be used on Costco.com.

However, despite some customer resistance, the Visa deal actually works out in the consumer’s favor. Amex charges higher merchant fees than almost any other credit card company, which typically means the merchant has to pass those additional costs onto the consumer by hiking product prices. However, with Visa’s lower merchant fees, Costco can keep the costs lower for its members. That being said, Sam’s Club does accept more forms of payment, including American Express, which is one of the key differences between Sam’s Club and Costco.

Costco shoppers frequently complain about some of their favorite items suddenly disappearing from shelves without warning or any indication of if/when the items will return. One customer on Reddit explains, “Our Costco has recently canceled 3-4 of our weekly shop items … These were items that are always frequently bought, we learn to love, then one day the next they’re just gone … So you never know if it’s just temporarily or permanently out of stock.”

There are a couple of reasons Costco operates on this “treasure hunt” business model. Namely, the store keeps only 4,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) compared to the 30,000 SKUs that traditional grocery stores stock. Fewer items give the store more negotiating room with suppliers, which results in lower prices for consumers. Additionally, in order to introduce new products to the shelves, some products may be forced out. As one Redditor comments, “This is Costco. You NEVER get attached to what they offer.” 

However, one way to know if a product will no longer be available is to look for an asterisk on the price tag. The asterisk indicates that the product will be leaving soon, whether it’s been discontinued by the manufacturer, will no longer be carried by Costco, or is a limited/seasonal item, so you might want to stock up.