Why Costco Pulled The Plug On Kirkland Signature Mayo Before It Hit Shelves

Mayonnaise is an emulsion, and as disgruntled home cooks know all too well, emulsions have an infamous tendency to break. In one iconic scene in the seminal 2022 film "The Menu," a team of world-class chefs serves a food critic a comically large bowlful of broken emulsion after the critic knocks one of their emulsified sauces for being slightly separated. It's a humorous critique on the pretentious nature of ultra-fine dining, but also a nod to how hard it is (even for professionals) to execute an emulsion successfully. It's for this reason that Costco abandoned its Kirkland Signature mayo debut before it ever launched.

According to a YouTube Short posted by The Wall Street Journal, "When Costco goes to make any new Kirkland product, it first looks at what the name brand is doing, and then sees what it wants to change. That usually means bringing down the price of the product. But, sometimes, it's changing the ingredients to make a product healthier." Here's where the issue begins. Mayonnaise is a combination of oil, egg yolks, seasonings, and an acidic component of either lemon juice or vinegar. In order to mix these clashing liquid ingredients together into a uniform texture, emulsification comes in. It's a careful, controlled process involving slow additions of each ingredient and constant mixing – giving mayo a dual passport to both condiment and sauce classification. It isn't a process that leaves much room for interpretation or deviation.

While exact recipes and processes vary from one brand to the next, it's pretty much impossible to deviate from mayo's basic, finnicky formula. Alas, deviation was the ambitious (if unrealistic) route Costco's development team took when trying to create a Kirkland brand mayonnaise. "The team went to add omega-3 to make it healthier, but the ingredients were also less stable, and so it broke," explains The Wall Street Journal. "To this day, Costco has left the mayonnaise space to its name-brand competitors."

Foodies can get a four-pound tub of Hellmann's mayo from a Costco warehouse in Queens, NY for just $11.99 as of this publication. But, they cannot purchase a tub of Kirkland brand mayonnaise because it doesn't exist. Hellmann's isn't even the highest-rated mayo brand sold by the warehouse. As of 2025, that title belongs to Costco's "Best Foods" Hellmann's-adjacent brand (which is also owned by parent company Unilever, and even uses the same typeface on the label). Still, mayo notwithstanding, there are plenty of other legendary Kirkland-brand jarred and canned goods we always pick up at Costco. For foodies stocking up on Kirkland Signature items for summer cookouts, you can find Kirkland hot dogs and napkins, but name-brand ketchup, mustard, and mayo will have to suffice in the condiments realm.