Costco Is Offering A Refund On Kirkland Vodka After Numerous Customer Complaints
Costco's Kirkland brand may be beloved for offering surprising quality from a discount retailer, but one of its products suddenly isn't delivering what customers expect. Normally the big box store rakes in raving compliments, and even famous chefs like Julia Child extolled the virtues of Costco hot dogs or olive oil. What makes the recent customer complaints even more surprising is that they are focused on the Kirkland liquors, specifically the vodka, which is one of the most popular brand items. It's considered so surprisingly good by fans that people have speculated that a name brand, like Grey Goose, is masquerading as a store brand. But recently something has seemed off, with commenters taking to Reddit to claim that the quality has declined. Now that concern has been acknowledged as Costco began offering refunds to customers who recently bought its vodka.
In a thread on Reddit, user mxnt has posted a screenshot of a message they received, confirming that Costco is letting people return Kirkland Vodka. Normally Costco's website states that alcohol returns are determined by state and store, so this looks to be a step above what it normally offers. The message states that while the problem with the vodka is "not a food safety issue," the liquor "does not meet our quality expectations." It adds that the affected bottles of vodka would have been sold between June 12th and August 10th of this year.
Costco customers have been complaining about off flavors in the vodka
The message from Costco does not contain any information on what was wrong with the vodka, and the company has made no other statements, but it was clearly receiving enough complaints to know something was wrong. The first concerns started to be raised, also on Reddit, almost a month ago. Some commenters in the threads discussing the vodka issue have compared the taste to acetone, said they "couldn't get past the first sip," and complained about chemical flavors. Many of the customers say they have been drinking the vodka for years before this and the difference was immediately apparent.
This isn't the first time customers have had problems with a fan-favorite product this year either. Back in the spring, another wave of comments expressed concern over Costco's $4.99 rotisserie chicken, with similar complaints of a chemical taste and other unpleasant flavors. The chain never responded to those concerns as they have with the vodka, but reports speculated that preservative phosphates listed on the labels could be the issue, as some people have palates that give those ingredients a chemical note. Whatever the issue, to see multiple quality concerns from a Costco product in one year is surprising, so let's hope it's not a sign of more issues to come.