The One Pantry Food Costco Will Never Let You Return

Shopping at Costco can be an exciting experience if you're looking for great deals. The store sells bulk packages of snacks, candy, and drinks, discounted electronics, and even clothes. Costco also has quite a fan-run social media accounts, dedicated to sharing the latest and greatest deals found in stores. While you may be able to find everything you need there, the store knows that not everyone will be happy with every purchase all the time.

Costco has a pretty lenient return policy. You can return both opened and unopened food to Costco if you're unhappy with it; the store even accepts dissatisfactory produce. Plus, you don't even need to have your receipt. When you take the items back to Costco, an associate will be able to pull up your Costco account and view the digital receipt to verify your purchase.

Though the store does allow returns of most items, there's one food product that the store will not accept back: rice.

According to Costco Wholesale's customer service site, there are a few items the store will not accept back — mostly electronics outside the return window and other non-edible items. (The rules regarding returns on alcoholic beverages vary by state.) However, the site does note that the store has a 100% satisfaction guarantee and will offer a full refund of the purchase price on items that meet the return requirements, which includes most foods sold in Costco stores.

One item that falls outside of this guarantee is rice. GoBankingRates reports that the wholesale store won't take bags of rice back for any reason. Once the bag is opened, you run the risk of spilling the small grains out and creating a huge mess. Even if you think your bag might be unopened, there could still be a tear, and accidents can happen. 

To eliminate the risk of spilled rice on the floor, Costco has begun refusing to accept returns on the bags of grains at all.

So what was the impetus for Costco's policy? It's feasible to surmise it was spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic — or rather, directly resulted from it. Customers began stocking up on bulk items during stay-at-home orders in 2020, and rice made the list of high-priority items for many shoppers. One could speculate it was created to deter customers from feverishly stockpiling products in the event of a supply chain breakdown, alongside curbing the risk of exposure during later returns.

On March 19, 2020, Instagram user @costcoinsider posted a photo from their local Costco store, sharing that it would not accept rice for returns. The user said they were "so happy Costco is making this move." Most of the comments on the photo praised the policy, with quite a few people confused as to who would be returning the restricted items in the first place. 

It seems the policy worked; GoBankingRates reports that it's still in effect, three years later. While you may not use it all right away, rice is typically shelf stable for a long time, depending on the variety. White rice can stay good for nearly two years, while brown rice will be good for six months. Fortunately, there are plenty of dishes that use rice as a component, so you can enjoy that bulk bag of rice for a long time.