If you are a Costco regular and find yourself getting annoyed by the same issues on every trip, you’re not alone—many others have specific pet peeves about the shopping experience. These complaints are not solely directed towards Costco but to fellow members too, who consciously or unconsciously behave in ways that aggravate other shoppers. So what do customers wish could be changed about the warehouse experience? Here are seven Costco pet peeves customers are complaining about.
Moving Inventory Around
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Shoppers complain about the way Costco keeps moving inventory around. “Why do they keep rearranging the stores? Pet peeve,” one shopper complained. “Well, we all know why, it forces us to go down every aisle and we may buy more but seriously. It took forever to find the sliced Almonds because heaven forbid they keep it with the similar items. Yesterday they were in the back aisle where the chips normally are. I know, first world problem but I have given up more than once and gotten what I needed from a conventional store.”
Deli Food Complaints
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One Costco member said they were unhappy about how the deli salads, saying the lack of dressing was a pet peeve. “I’m finding out the hard way that the Costco deli Cesar salad does not come with enough dressing,” the shopper said.
Free Sample Mania
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The way people behave about free samples seems to annoy a LOT of shoppers, especially when they have no self awareness about the people around them. “Even more annoying than that are the people blocking the aisle waiting for the samples that aren’t even ready yet. Because we all know you’re going to die of starvation if you don’t get that microwaved 1/3 of a taquito,” one Redditor complained.
Popular Items Removed
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Costco shoppers get upset about their favorite items getting taken away. “Just when I find a product I love, it goes out of rotation,” one Redditor said. “I know they like to bring in new products, which is great, but I wish that Costco would make those out-rotated products available online or by special order to your warehouse. It’s like getting you hooked on something and then ripping the rug out.”
Pushy Solicitors
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Some members get aggravated by the pushy salespeople who approach customers in stores. “The cell phone people would get to the point where they’d stand in front of your cart,” one annoyed Redditor said. “This one guy asked if I wanted to buy solar panels and I responded back by telling him I’ll probably never be able to afford a house in my lifetime lol,” another shopper shared.
Large Parties of Shoppers
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Costco shoppers get impatient when large parties of people are blocking the aisles. “Families of 10, including great-grandma with her walker, going down aisles in flying-geese v-formation, blocking everybody, checking prices on every item on their phones, engaging in lengthy intra-family discussions regarding whether they should buy the big bag of chips, and then calling out to yet another family member for their views,” one shopper said.
Not Enough Variety
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Some shoppers think there isn’t enough variety in the variety packs for items like protein bars or yogurt. “There is way too much plain vanilla yogurt in the yogurt variety packs. It’s why I buy my yogurt at other stores instead,” one shopper said. “There are like two main fruity flavours I usually like in the pack like strawberry or raspberry or lime and the other flavours are blah and plain. Like vanilla. Or some other flavour that’s gross like coconut. Nah I’ll just buy my own mini packs at Walmart in the flavours I like instead of buying the Costco pack but wasting half the package because it’s bland flavours.”
