Costco Is Under Fire From Shoppers for Getting Rid of This Popular Product (2024)
From unbeatable bulk deals to food court favorites, Costco has managed to build itself a cult following over the years. But even the most devoted fans of the wholesale chain have had their qualms with the retailer, whether that's about a rise in prices or new store policies. After all, Costco shoppers are members, which reflects a personal stake in the company, and they're not afraid to make their complaints known. Now, the popular retailer is facing backlash from shoppers again—this time in regards to an item it seems to have gotten rid of completely. Read on to find out why Costco is under fire.
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Costco has gotten rid of a number of things recently.
Costco is no stranger to change—especially in the face of the retail uncertainty of the past few years. In March 2020, the wholesale chain started offering special COVID senior hours to help at-risk shoppers and frontline workers shop without crowds in order to potentially lower their COVID exposure. But while Costco did hold on to this special shopping time for much longer than other retailers, the retailer got rid of the hours in April of this year.
And just last month, Costco ended another service it launched during the pandemic. The wholesale retailer shut down its mortgage program for members, which had started in 2020. There didn't seem to be tremendous pushback at that time, but another loss is striking a nerve with customers.
Shoppers are now complaining about a different Costco removal.
A new viral social media post is showcasing just how upset many Costco shoppers are about another discontinued item—this time in regards to the chain's iconic food courts. On June 15, one Twitter user wrote, "who … at Costco was like yeah let's get rid of the combo pizza." In just five days, the tweet has already garnered more than 13,500 likes and has been retweeted nearly 3,000 times.
Other shoppers sounded off in replies to the viral post, with some just finding out about the removal themselves from the tweet and others claiming that "COVID supply chain issues" were to blame for discontinuation. "If there's one thing that I would bring back from any food place, it'd be Costco's combination pizza," one user admitted.
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The retailer reportedly discontinued this item a while ago.
Despite the recent uproar, this is apparently not a new decision from Costco. News of the disappearance of the wholesale chain's combination pizza dates all the way back to March 2020, when one shopper posted on Reddit that several Costco stores in their area were no longer selling the food court item. Since then, there have been at least a dozen Reddit threads asking about the discontinuation of the combination pizza. Eat This, Not That! reached out to Costco in Sept. 2021 to confirm that the combo pizza had been permanently discontinued, but the company declined to comment.
But on June 20, a shopper in one of the Reddit threads said they received this email reply from Costco after offering feedback on the apparent discontinuation: "We understand your dissatisfaction about not having the Combo Pizza as part of our menu offering at this time. A difficult decision was made to simplify our business and unfortunately, the Combo Pizza was removed from our menu line up. We are sorry for this inconvenience, however, these are not always easy decisions that we make."
Shoppers are still petitioning Costco to bring it back.
No matter when the item was officially taken out of Costco's food courts, it's clear that the decision has not gone over well with thousands of shoppers. In a reply to the viral June 15 tweet, one user suggested: "We should petition to bring it back." As it turns out, that's already under way. On Change.org, there is currently a petition open to "Bring back the Combo Pizza to Costco Food Courts" that has been signed by more than 11,300 people so far—with signatures still being added as of June 20.
"Costco's Combination Pizza is the most popular pizza variant and overall item at the Costco Food Court," wroteTobi O., a Riverside, California, resident who started the petition. "Costco corporate cites profit and cost concerns, but they could've dealt with the issue easily via a price increase. Fans of the combo pizza would have gladly paid the price to continue to enjoy it.Countless Costco members and membership families have sworn to not renew their membership with Costco due to this travesty."
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The company phased out the churros at the beginning of 2024 and allowed the stock to deplete. Instead, they began rolling out a new sweet snack for their customers to try — cookies. This wasn't a complete surprise for diehard Costco fans.
Yes, that's right! Costco's best-selling item is its Kirkland Signature Bath Tissue. It sells more than a billion rolls every year, bringing in over $400 million dollars in revenue. Costco's toilet paper is thicker and more absorbent than most other brands.
An asterisk on a price tag means that item's time is limited. Fun fact: Costco employees and those who shop regularly at the store often refer to the asterisk as the “death star,” because it signifies that an item won't be restocked.
Costco Wholesale topped earnings expectations, but the stock fell following the company's rare revenue miss. The company's fiscal second-quarter revenue of $58.4 billion missed analyst projections for $59.1 billion.
Pre-pandemic, this was a beloved food option for many, but shoppers were beyond disappointed when the company discontinued it. While you can still grab cheese pizza at the food court, many miss the various toppings of sausage, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers that the combo pizza once offered.
Costco's original turkey sandwich was made with turkey, provolone cheese, and garlic-basil mayo, served hot. It was later discontinued during the pandemic and sadly never made a comeback.
During the pandemic, however, the warehouse club stopped selling a true fan favorite its combo pizza. Essentially an "everything" pizza, the once-popular pie had a variety of meat and vegetable toppings. The removal of the Combo Pizza even led to a Change.org petition.
Costco Wholesale's plans to drop the beloved churro from its food court menu threw fans into a deep-fried depression last month. Now, reviews for the apparent replacement snack are in, leaving the internet once again struggling to cope.
These comfortable jeans were a wardrobe staple for many until they were temporarily pulled from the market and modified in 2016. While Costco did release an alternative version of the pants, many reviewers on the site lamented the loss of the original product.
Costco is retiring its cinnamony-sweet food court staple, the Twisted Churro. The good news, though, is that Costco has replaced the fan-favorite churro with a decadent Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie as big as your face and as thick as your thumb is wide.
Walmart is significantly bigger in revenue (almost three times) and puts a higher operating margin on the products it sells (24,8% vs 12,9%). Despite the more lucrative financials, Costco operates a very efficient model getting the best productivity out of its square feet (+211% more sales per square feet) and people.
Amazon's market cap might dwarf other retailers but its domestic retail sales are less than half of Walmart's at $233 billion, putting the company solidly in second place. Coming in third, Costco brought in $163 billion in revenue in 2022 from their 591 stores in the country.
But compared to its peers, the wholesale club is more popular with higher-income millennial and Gen X households. In particular, Asian-American shoppers are even bigger fans of the brand, and are nearly twice as likely as the average US consumer to shop at Costco, according to Numerator's data.
When inventory of an item or category of items becomes too small to mass out in typical Costco displays, warehouses may liquidate this unsold merchandise. Usually this merchandise will be categorized as Grade A/B.
Roundup. Monsanto's weedkiller, Roundup, has been linked to cancer in humans. One couple even won a $2 billion lawsuit over such a claim, prompting Costco to pull the chemical killer off shelves and remove all products that contain glyphosate.
Mac and cheese, fish sticks, and Kirkland prosecco all made the list. And yes, products from Costco's in-house brand, Kirkland, feature prominently as most states' most popular items.
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