Look, nobody goes to Costco expecting a zen experience. You know it’s going to be crowded. You know someone’s going to clip your ankle with a flatbed cart. You know there’s going to be a traffic jam near the rotisserie chickens around 5 p.m. That’s just the deal.
But there’s a difference between the normal chaos of a warehouse store and the stuff that actually makes employees’ lives miserable. Costco workers have been venting online — mostly on Reddit — about the habits that drive them up the wall. Some of these are obvious. Some of them? You might be guilty and not even realize it.
Abandoning Frozen Food on Random Shelves
This is the one that comes up over and over again, and honestly, it’s hard to argue with. A customer grabs a bag of frozen shrimp, changes their mind somewhere near the paper towels, and just… leaves it there. By the time an employee finds it, the product is room temperature and has to go straight in the trash.
One worker compared it to someone coming into your house, pulling ice cream out of your freezer, and leaving it in the bathroom for you to find an hour later. Another employee said they’ve had to throw away thousands of dollars’ worth of misplaced perishables. A former worker at a different location said they once found two packs of ribeye steaks hidden inside a display box of pillows during inventory.
If you decide you don’t want something cold, just hand it to the cashier at checkout or ask any employee. They’d rather take 10 seconds to put it back than lose $30 worth of meat.
Blocking the Aisles Like It’s Your Living Room
This is, without question, the single most common complaint from Costco employees. It appeared in nearly every thread and every interview. And it’s not just annoying for other shoppers — it’s a genuine problem for staff who are trying to push heavy loads through the store.
Costco’s aisles are wide, but their carts are massive. One cart parked sideways in the middle of an aisle creates a full bottleneck, especially during peak hours. Add in a couple of friends who haven’t seen each other since last Saturday catching up right next to the Kirkland olive oil, and the whole flow of the store grinds to a halt.
Employees behind the scenes are often pushing or pulling extremely heavy loads. One San Francisco worker said stopping short with 2,000 pounds of product when someone suddenly walks in front of them is simply not possible. It’s physics. Push your cart to the side, grab what you need, and keep moving.
The Sample Station Free-for-All
Free samples are one of the great joys of the Costco experience. Nobody’s saying don’t enjoy them. But there are two behaviors around sample stations that make employees’ eyes twitch.
First: the people who treat it like a buffet. Going back multiple times, hovering around the station, piling up helpings — especially when kids grab every sample on the tray — leaves nothing for the people behind them. Second, and arguably worse: the trash. Employees say sample cups get thrown behind pallets, left on shelves, and stuffed between products constantly. One worker described pulling a pallet down and being drenched by a liquid-filled sample cup that had been sitting on top of it for about eight hours.
Every sample station has a garbage can right next to it. There are also trash cans at the end of the aisles. There are reportedly more than 50 trash cans spread throughout a typical Costco store. And yet.
Not Having Your Membership Card Ready
This one slows everything down twice — once at the entrance and once at checkout. At the door, employees need to check your card before you walk in. Waiting until you’re standing right in front of them to start digging through your wallet or purse backs up the line and blocks the cart pusher behind you.
At checkout, it’s even worse. Without a membership card, the cashier can’t pull up your information. They have to call over a supervisor. Everyone in line behind you waits. The Costco app lets you display a scannable barcode on your phone that works at both the entrance and the register. It takes about 30 seconds to set up and saves everyone — including you — a headache.
Bringing Your Entire Extended Family on One Membership
According to an employee from Hazlet, New Jersey, this is the worst thing customers do. Costco officially allows the primary member plus one additional household card holder. That’s it. Showing up with your parents, your siblings, your cousins, and your neighbor on a single membership isn’t just against the rules — it’s a real sore spot for workers.
As that employee put it: “Don’t abuse the membership and bring your entire extended family. The bulk of the money that Costco makes is on memberships.” When employees have to stop and verify who’s actually allowed to be there, it creates delays for everyone.
Abusing the Return Policy in Truly Wild Ways
Costco has one of the most generous return policies in retail. And some customers have decided to test its absolute limits. Workers have shared stories about members returning Christmas trees in January, outdoor furniture that had been sitting in the rain for years, and an empty case of wine because it “gave her a headache.”
One employee described a customer who returned a cat litter box that was still full of cat litter — and the smell stuck around the receiving area for weeks. Another recalled a member who returned a pillow after seven years. And perhaps the most legendary: a customer who returned a dozen fully eaten rotisserie chickens over the course of a year, bringing back only the empty carcass each time. The store accepted every one of them.
One Reddit employee summed it up: “I’m super annoyed at seeing people returning merchandise that are either years old, soiled, spoiled, broken through human error, or all of the above.”
Grabbing Items Off the Deli Restocking Racks
A lot of shoppers assume they’re getting fresher product by snagging something off the cart an employee is wheeling out from the back. Turns out that’s not how it works. A Costco employee named Hannah explained in an interview that customers should be selecting items from the display counters, not the restocking racks.
Those racks are for staff use. And here’s the kicker: another employee named Beth pointed out that products with earlier expiration dates sometimes end up on those racks, meaning the “fresher” item you grabbed might actually expire sooner than what’s already on the shelf. Same deal with muffins — workers say people hover and snatch items off the restocking cart, even though those muffins were made at the same time and have the same date as the ones already on display.
Parking Lot Chaos: Carts, Cars, and Cart Pushers
Cart pushers have what might be the most physically demanding job at Costco, and customers make it harder in several ways. First, workers ask that you grab a shopping cart from anywhere in the parking lot instead of only from the corral near the entrance. Every cart you grab out there is one less they have to push back.
Second: don’t run in front of a cart pusher who’s moving a full line of carts. Employees compare it to running in front of a semi-truck. Objects in motion stay in motion. Third: if the cart corral is already overflowing and jutting into the parking lot, don’t add more carts to the pile. And for the love of everything — don’t leave used diapers in the shopping cart. Employees say they find them regularly. Cart pushers actually wear plastic bags attached to their uniforms for picking up trash, and they’re still finding diapers.
Shopping Right Before Closing
Showing up at 8:45 when the store closes at 9 is one of the fastest ways to make every employee in the building resent you. Latecomers prevent staff from beginning their closing routine, and managers end up staying well past closing time. Some customers have even been known to duck under the closing gates to get inside after hours. That’s not just rude — it’s genuinely bizarre.
Costco’s customer satisfaction rate has dropped about 5% since 2024, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Whether that’s related to customer behavior, crowds, or something else entirely, it’s clear the in-store experience is getting more tense for everyone involved.
A Few Quick Ones for Good Measure
Don’t tip Costco employees. It’s against company policy and can actually get a worker fired. Don’t open boxes of garbage bags and pull one out to check the size — the dimensions are on the packaging. Don’t bring pets into the warehouse. Employees say it’s “gotten out of control,” and a chaotic, crowded Costco is a stressful environment for animals. Don’t sit your kids in the main body of the cart — it slows checkout because employees can’t safely unload items around a child.
And don’t open containers of fruit to mix and match the best-looking pieces into your own custom package. Employees in a viral Reddit thread described watching customers open every single container of grapes, try one grape from each, and then walk away. That’s not shopping — that’s grazing.
The best day to shop, at least at one New Jersey location? Monday morning or Tuesday evening. Weekends are a warzone. And the $4.99 rotisserie chicken rush hits around 5 p.m., so plan accordingly. A little awareness goes a long way — for the employees, for the other shoppers, and honestly, for your own sanity too.
