A Costco membership comes with many benefits, including snacking on free samples as you shop and impressive savings on bulk items. Every silver lining has a cloud, however, and Costco customers have plenty of gripes about shopping at the store. Because we here at Mashed love a good consumer venting sesh as much as the next person, we’ve compiled a few of the most common grievances Costco shoppers air online when it comes to the hallowed warehouse retail giant.
Customers at the chain aren’t big fans of the constantly evolving layout, huge crowds, policies for checking membership cards and receipts, lack of curbside pickup, and not-so-convenient self-checkout. These issues certainly don’t deter people from patronizing the chain, however, as Costco anticipates earning approximately $254 billion in revenue in 2024 alone, and it’s estimated that shoppers spend roughly $100 every time they visit the store. Fortunately, it’s possible to sidestep many of the annoyances associated with a trip to Costco with a little knowledge and planning.
Read more: 12 Rules Shoppers Must Follow At Costco
The Ever-Changing Store Layout
costco customer walking down aisle – Steve Proehl/Getty Images
If you feel like the layout of Costco changes regularly, like some kind of complex labyrinth puzzle leading to a pot of gold (or frightening monster), you’re not alone. As humorously stated by a Costco member on Facebook, “How dare my Costco change the entire store layout without consulting me.” Plenty of commenters share in this frustration, and one even claims that the evolving layout is intentional, stating, “You know they do that [on] purpose.”
Now, why would a store choose to deliberately confuse and annoy its customers? It turns out there’s a very good reason why Costco randomly moves products around the store like a treasure hunt, and that reason is profits. When shoppers can’t find what they need right away, they’re inclined to walk around the store, which leads to impulse purchases. The good news is that there’s a method to Costco’s layout madness and knowing where the chain typically stocks its items can help you maintain your budget. Avoid the front of the store where the most expensive, big-ticket items typically live, and head for the back, which is usually where you’ll find grocery staples. You can also find some great discounts among the center aisles in Costco, which is sometimes referred to as the store’s center court.
Navigating Around Massive Crowds
crowd of people at the Costco checkout lanes – anystock/Shutterstock
According to a Reddit thread aptly titled “Crowds are becoming a real problem,” Costco members don’t enjoy fighting their way through the packed warehouse just to get their groceries and home staples. From “the free sample folks creating artificial traffic jams” to the lack of parking spaces, some shoppers feel that a trip to Costco is an exercise in stress management. While one commenter claimed, “This is a staple of Costco life,” another mused that “the problem seems to worsen each year.” Some even pondered whether the store is still suffering from the after-effects of the pandemic, with one person claiming that “the same energy people had when panic buying during COVID” persists today.
Despite the underlying cause of crowd behavior, and regardless of whether it’s a new or existing problem, packed Costco warehouses aren’t likely to be going away anytime soon. There were 128 million Costco members in 2023, and the chain’s membership rolls have increased each year since 2014. While you can’t deter other shoppers from visiting the store, you can be more selective when timing your visits. When it comes to the absolute best days to avoid crowds at Costco, afternoons from Tuesday to Thursday will usually be the least packed.
Checks Of Membership Cards And Receipts At The Door
close up of Costco membership card – Andy.LIU/Shutterstock
Costco is currently revamping its process for checking memberships, as locations are being outfitted with scanners that check the legitimacy of membership cards when entering the store. This is a slight deviation from past procedures, which entailed showing your card as you entered the store and again at the register as you were checking out. Additionally, members are often asked to present their receipts upon leaving, which serves as a loss prevention measure and a method of ensuring the receipt accurately reflects what was purchased.
As you might imagine, customers are not overly enthused by either process. On Reddit, a Costco member who revealed they find shopping at the retail warehouse stressful stated, “You must show your card when entering lest you hear ‘Sir! Sir, you must show your card’.” As for the receipt checks, the arbitrary nature of the process can be frustrating. As explained by another Redditor, “I’ve seen dozens to probably hundreds of instances where a shopper has a full cart and the receipt checker pretty much waves the customer through.” As frustrating as these situations may be, Costco members agree to certain rules when they sign up for a membership. While they may not make a ton of sense to everyone, they are a requirement for shopping at the chain.
No Curbside Pickup Option
costco storefront and parking lot daytime – Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Another bone of contention among Costco shoppers is the lack of a curbside pickup option, which allows customers to shop for goods online and then pick up their items in person at the store. A poster on Reddit pondered why the chain doesn’t offer the option like other retailers, stating, “I always hated going into Costco and wading through all the people to find everything I want and then having to wait in the longest of lines imaginable.”
Similar to the changing store layout, the missing curbside pickup option has everything to do with boosting revenue at the chain. Costco is invested in increasing dwell time in its stores, as more time spent scouring the aisles usually translates to a bigger bill at the end of the shopping excursion. With curbside pickup, the chain would miss out on those unplanned purchases and lose revenue as a result.
While consumers are always appreciative of convenience and may express their appreciation through loyalty, Costco is unlikely to make decisions that would negatively impact its bottom line. The store does offer same-day delivery through its website, which somewhat makes up for the lack of a curbside option.
Inconvenient Self-Checkouts
costco self check out – Mds08011/Wiki Commons
Consumers might be hard-pressed to find self-checkouts at most Costco locations, as they typically carry a heightened risk of inventory loss. As for the Costco locations that do offer self-service checkouts to shoppers, the experience can be quite aggravating. A Costco member on Reddit provided a laundry list of self-checkout grievances that included a lack of handheld scanners, puny weight tables that can’t easily accommodate bulk items, and being pestered by workers for identification.
Other commenters noted that some self-checkouts have employees supervising them, which seems to defeat the entire purpose. The cleanliness of the equipment was even called into question by one Costco shopper, who stated, “Then we hoist the soil bags onto the scanner glass, still wet with salmonella juice from the last guy’s raw chicken wings, adding a little dirt seasoning for the next guy’s avocados.”
While self-checkouts are supposed to speed up shopping trips, they can actually make the process more time-consuming at Costco. As a result, time-crunched customers are encouraged to take other steps to shorten the length of their shopping trips, such as visiting the store when it’s less busy. While Costco members have plenty to complain about when it comes to the more inscrutable aspects of the store, the success of the chain means customer complaints will likely fall on deaf ears.
Read the original article on Mashed.