Costco Shoppers Agree — This Inconsiderate Behavior Should Get Your Membership Revoked

Pretend you're spending your weekend shopping at Costco (since it is the best time to shop if you're after the free samples, of course). You're navigating the wide aisles, the foot traffic, and the temptations around every corner. And then, you see it — a large pre-made meal from the deli section's fridge, left on a random shelf by a shopper who changed their mind. If that sight upsets you, you're definitely not alone; hundreds of Costco fans on Reddit agree that this behavior should get a person's membership revoked immediately.

Leaving perishable items out of the fridge (or freezer) on a room-temperature shelf effectively makes them unsellable. They stay on that shelf until an employee discovers them, by which time the food is almost certainly spoiled. "People who do this should have their membership revoked, period," said one commenter on Reddit, with over six hundred people upvoting their viewpoint. "Ive seen entire shopping carts abandoned," reported another person. "Warm meat found hours later. Thousands and thousands of dollars in food straight to the trash."

It's precisely the food waste element that's deeply upsetting people. As someone pointed out, "There is never a time when this is ok but especially not when the economy is in the [expletive deleted] and there are so many that are going without."

If you change your mind on a particular perishable food halfway through your shopping trip, the best move is to take it back to the fridge or the freezer. But since Costco is a massive store, it's also okay to give the item to the cashier and tell them you won't be taking it. The cashier can then promptly have somebody take it where it belongs, whereas if you leave it on a random shelf, it will almost certainly get wasted.

Grocery stores are struggling with food waste. Although many Costco shoppers clearly opine that avoiding waste is partially the responsibility of the customers, Costco as a chain likely can't rely on people's good manners alone. Not to mention, it generates a lot of waste that goes beyond what people leave behind. As such, it has food waste policies in place that make sure the majority of the unsold food gets donated, recycled, composed, or otherwise repurposed.

According to the chain's most recent sustainability report, 82.8% of overall waste was able to be diverted from the landfill. In concrete numbers, 1.7 million tons were diverted, and 355.7 thousand tons ended up incinerated or in a landfill. Having this system in place, it's therefore unlikely we'll be seeing memberships revoked over items left on nearby shelves. The store is more serious about people abusing its return policy, though — that's actually the most common reason Costco revokes memberships.