11 Biggest Complaints From Costco Shoppers

Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Despite providing gigantic bulk-sized purchases at famously reasonable prices, Costco makes it easy for customers to complain about a whole host of irritating situations. Sometimes, it feels like the warehouse chain is stuck in the '90s, resisting modern enhancements that could make shopping much smoother. It only takes a few trips to realize just how wonky the experience can be, starting when you enter the parking lot and continuing until you exit the store.

What really gets under the skin of the average Costco shopper? In one way or another, I've frequented the bulk warehouse since I was a kid, and there are elements that I have wondered about for decades. After becoming a member and handling the shopping there myself, the wondering turned into complaining. A little digging on the trusty Internet let me know I'm not alone in my grousing.

From having to scan your membership card at the front door to watching your favorite products disappear from shelves to taking your life into your own hands in the parking lot, these common complaints by Costco shoppers are some of customers' biggest warehouse pet peeves.

ZikG/Shutterstock

Proving your membership by showing your card at the door used to make sense, back when just anyone could sneak in and sniff around. But it didn't take long to realize that you can't make purchases unless you are the owner of that card, so scanning for entrance is somewhat redundant. It's yet another obstacle that slows down your shopping experience and keeps you from grabbing Costco foods that taste better than your homemade version.

Costco has a real issue with members lending cards to friends and family. Since your photograph appears on the back of your card, it's easy enough to turn away these interlopers at the register. Obviously, that's a loss of membership fees and sales revenue for Costco. But I've yet to see anyone be turned away for not being a member, which makes me wonder how big of an issue it actually is. 

Recently, the company started using so-called biometric scanners that let attendants match your face to the face on the card and in the computer to make sure you're really a member. The fact that there are dual scanners at the entrance to my Costco makes the process a little quicker than it used to. But even Sam's Club has dropped the charade of exclusivity by letting everyone enter and enforcing their membership policy at the register. It's well past time for Costco to do the same.

leungchopan/Shutterstock

One of the comforts of shopping at your favorite grocery store is memorizing the layout so you can sweep through the sections you need without delay. Try doing that at a Costco and you quickly discover that even though the food is always on one side and the general merchandise on the other, you often won't find familiar products in the same place on subsequent visits. It's a real shell game being played by the stockers, with shifting product placement  making it hard to swoop in and get what you need.

Shopping at a different location doesn't help matters much, even though the general layout remains the same. You can count on snacks being near the registers, bakery and meat being in the back near the refrigerated and frozen food, and cold produce in a dedicated cold room; those sections are standard. But whether you'll find the floorplan flipped or configured into a different arrangement based on the size and footprint of the building is always up for grabs. It's best to allow yourself extra time no matter how quick a trip you intend on making.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

It's happened to all of us who shop at Costco on a regular basis: Just when you get used to an item based on it price or quality or quantity, it vanishes from the catalog. Sometimes it shows up again unexpectedly, but often, beloved purchases disappear for good. This can depend on location, which adds extra frustration for shoppers who hear tell of their favorite Kirkland Signature chocolate chips still lining shelves at a Costco on the other side of the state, but not the store up the street. 

Part of the issue is that the chain signs short-term contracts with vendors, which can mean quick turn-around even for popular items. There's also the potential for a product to fail the long-term sales test, which makes Costco selective about the name brands it works with, as well as being particular about the details of the agreements. That all might make good business sense, but it doesn't ease the pain of these switch-outs happening so frequently.

The one advantage Costco offers for items that disappear is that they may go on clearance just before they close out, giving fans a chance to stock up. Look for an asterisk on the price to determine if your treasured picks are on the chopping block and keep an eye out for the price drop. It's one of the ways you can save more money at Costco to offset the irritation of losing your beloved buys.

Paul Kane/Getty Images

It used to be kind of thrilling to step through the rolling garage door and see the cavernous wonderland of treasures and treats. But now, it feels like the walls have closed in and the shelves have expanded, leaving precious little room for customers to navigate their ship-size trolleys without crashing into displays and end caps — or other shoppers. 

If you're going to encourage a wide swath of the population to come shop at your store, you should at least provide enough real estate inside for everyone to be able to move freely. The severe angles and maze-like structures have never really been updated to accommodate the size crowd the warehouse sees, especially during peak hours and holiday shopping seasons. Certain days and times provide more breathing room, but they're usually during work hours — not convenient for most working folks.

Would it hurt terribly to stock fewer products and open up aisles so customers could have some elbow room? Or maybe the floor plan for future locations could be altered and adapted to be more spacious? Temporary changes to the Costco membership policy that aimed to thin out the crowds by limiting members to one guest per visit instead of two didn't last. It isn't like the company is aching for sales, so a little investment in an updated footprint would go miles with otherwise crammed-in customers.

Habanero Pixel/Shutterstock

One of the most poorly considered design flaws in the Costco layout is the return lane at the customer service counter. The space between the counter and the service entrance is so tight that many customers end up waiting outside for their turn. There isn't even a snaky velvet rope situation like Disneyland rides, where at least you have the illusion of being closer to the start of the line than you actually are. At Costco, you just stand in the heat or the cold or the rain or whatever weather happens to be in play when you make your return.

Maybe the company never expected to receive so many returns, which seems unlikely considering Costco's generous return policy which doesn't require customers to have a receipt. Recent updates that make returning an item more restrictive might affect the lines. It could shorten the duration of the process and allow patrons to wait indoors instead of outdoors, since there may be fewer of them. At least it might limit the kinds of crazy things people have returned at Costco so clerks can get customers through more quickly. Bring an umbrella, just in case.

Tada Images/Shutterstock

For a brief, shining moment, those of us who just needed one or two things at Costco could ring ourselves up at our self-service checkout lane and get on with our lives. It wasn't the most workable design; there were several registers with scanners that required customers to remove the items from their carts, which slowed the process immensely and created a backup of customers that flowed into the shopping lanes. If you could maneuver through all of those obstacles, you could quicken your pace by side stepping the major shoppers who require assistance with their checkouts.

Now, the self-checkout lanes are quickly being phased out at some locations, and it's back to waiting behind the two cart family just to pay for your single box of granola. Costco was on the verge of modernizing in a way that put the company on par with national grocery chains. It was a convenience that was maybe too good to last.

Or was it? News out of Seattle is that Costco is actually testing a more workable self-check solution, with scanner guns that let you ring up your items while they're still in the cart. It's one step closer to Sam's Club and the futuristic Jetsons-like Scan and Go, a utopian marvel that lets you use your phone as the cash register and bypass the checkout lanes entirely. Here's hoping the company finally catches up.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

And speaking of long checkout lines, it's no secret that the checkout section gets incredibly packed pretty much any time of day. With customers loading up on mass quantities of necessities and novelties, overloaded carts that take a while to scan piece by piece are standard issue at Costco. It can take upward of 15 to 20 minutes to make it through the line, a huge setback when you only have one or two items to ring up. You can forget the express lane concept, too. Costco sure has.

Aside from the inconvenient wait time, there's also the issue of lined-up customers blocking shopping lanes, leading to cramped quarters between the merchandise and the cash registers. I've been in a few locations where the blueprint allowed more generous spacing. But that doesn't help the older Costco's where you're left weaving in and out of loaded carts just to get from one side of the store to the other. 

To be fair, the checkers are doing everything they can to ensure a speedy and accurate experience. The real problem lies with many Costco locations just not being built to accommodate the number of customers passing through. Surely, a company this large would have figured out how to fix the problem by now. The best we can do is adhere to some much-needed Costco checkout line tips to make the experience as pain-free as possible.

Thomas De Wever/Getty Images

The terrible parking lots at Costco are something of a running joke among members. It seems that no matter where your Costco is located, the company has done a lackluster job helping you access parking spaces safely and efficiently. My location in particular features one long lane running down the center of the parking lot. On one side, the parking spaces are geometrically sound and logically laid out. On the other side, they either run into the fuel station or veer off at strange angles that make crossing over to the exit a potential demolition derby.

It seems a feature and not a bug of the Costco architecture, with shoppers from different regions reporting similar maze-like lots at their locations. The strange arrangement makes it look like no one knows how to drive, an unfortunate scenario that gets shoppers all riled up before they even head inside. These questionable lots are second only to Trader Joe's in their capricious design.

Braving the perils of parking is something most members are game for if it means getting their goods at lower prices; they have no choice, really. But configuring a parking lot for ease and safety can't be such a mystery to the Costco higher-ups. Such a move is bound to improve how customers feel about their experiences with the company. Maybe someday there'll be a movement toward straighter lines and wider lanes. For now, it's best to look both ways, hit the NOS, and hope for the best.

Paulmckinnon/Getty Images

Despite having great gas prices, my Costco has such unreasonably long lines at each pump that I purposely avoid buying gas there. In fact, the lines sometimes breach the entrance, blocking cars that are simply trying to reach the parking lot. Some of the blockage comes from slow response of patrons who take their sweet time using the pumps. But that doesn't explain why members at many Costco fuel stations seem to experience the same lag.

There have been very few Costco visits in which I don't see at least seven to 10 cars in each line waiting to use the three or so pumps available at every lane. And when oversized vehicles with huge tanks make up most of the line, the wait time becomes unmanageable. I'd rather pay extra for a gas station that knows how to handle its business.

Would it be too much to have a few more pumps in operation? It is a money-making enterprise, and the more the company can supply, the more cash it can rake in. It would add to the bottom line while minimizing the wait in line — two of Costco's most crucial lines. Expanding the hours of operation for the fuel stations like the chain did in 2025 was meant to make the process more convenient. So far, the long lines remain.

Cheng Xin/Getty Images

If you've ever tried to use the Costco website to browse or check on stock at your location, you know what a waste of time that turns out to be. Sometimes you find an item but get redirected to Costco Sameday, an Instacart-style delivery system with different stock and prices listed. Other times, you know darn well your Costco has oatmeal and almonds as part of the regular selections, yet there's no listing shown. It's not just the website either; app users also call out the company's poor digital shopping experience, a tech trip-up that should have been ironed out long ago.

It shouldn't be such a crapshoot when you're browsing, and shopping online certainly should be a more confident experience than it is. The process is a standard feature that seems to run much smoother for national grocery chains. Customers who run into delivery snafus and availability obstacles when trying to make a simple order aren't likely to give Costco online shopping a second try. 

If the idea is to prompt people to come to the warehouse for an in-person shopping moment, Costco risks losing customers to more convenient outlets. And if it's simply an oversight on the company's part, dedicating more resources to online browsing and shopping would go a long way to instilling greater confidence in members who pay for seamless digital shopping yet get nothing but snags and snarls along the way.

Krblokhin/Getty Images

It's been described as a final check to make sure you leave the store with everything you intended to buy, but it sure feels like you're being scanned for stolen items. The truth is, Costco's receipt-scanning policy helps prevent both forgotten items and outright theft. Yes, getting your receipt cross-referenced against the items in your cart has always been a part of the Costco experience, one that makes leaving quickly just as impossible as a speedy check-out. But even when there are two attendants working the exit, it takes longer than it should to make an escape.

The big question is if Sam's Club can scan an entire cart of items with a magic portal and send you on your way, why can't Costco do something similar? It would be quicker, more accurate, and eliminate the logjam at the exit. It would be even better if the warehouse could adopt an entirely digital platform that does away with paper receipts entirely. It could cover all the checkpoints Costco has in mind without dragging out your getaway.

In an increasingly cashless and paperless society, having a huge slowdown on the way out so someone can tick off the wares on a piece of paper you're just going to throw out anyway seems like an antiquated process just waiting to be replaced by something sleek and efficient. Hopefully, Costco's executives are mapping out a new strategy that will emphasize convenience.