Costco Shoppers Can't Find Its Popular Peanut Butter Pretzels. Here's Why

If you've been stumped by the sudden lack of peanut butter pretzels at Costco, you're not alone. The company reportedly put the popular snack under a "pull-and-hold" notice this week, meaning that all of the product has been removed from the sales floor and held until a quality assurance check is completed by the manufacturer. According to a self-identified Costco employee commenting on a Reddit thread about the matter, the issue is that "the seals aren't holding on the jars, so they are showing up stale." Another Costco employee corroborated the claim that it's a buyer pull-and-hold.

It's not a health concern, so the product hasn't been recalled yet — which means it isn't showing on the Costco recall page — but it is a pretzel shelf-life quality concern. The pretzel nuggets are made by H.K. Anderson, an Utz Inc. brand. No details are yet available for affected lot numbers. 

As with the voluntary quality recall and refund initiative for the Kirkland Signature American vodka in August, there may be an investigation occurring with H.K. Anderson and Utz into the reported issue with the pretzel jar seals. In the case of the Costco vodka recall, the pull-and-hold was resolved with a letter sent to members whose records indicated they had purchased the product from one of the affected lot codes. The same could happen with the pretzel nuggets if the companies are able to trace the problem.

If you can't wait to get your hands on the salty, nutty, crunchy snack, there are alternatives. As of writing, the pretzels are still available from the Utz website, for those in desperate search of their favorite peanut butter pretzel snacks. The Kirkland Signature jars are allso available on Amazon, though without identifying the lot codes for the problem with the seals, it's unclear whether or not those could be affected by the staling issue. Of course, not everyone cares about the seal issue — one customer on Reddit noted that it can be difficult to remove the seal. So maybe it's not the worst thing to have the seals a little more loosely attached.

Another customer recommended that a stand-in for the Kirkland Signature pretzel nuggets could be the Trader Joe's bags. While you'd have to buy more of them to make up the volume difference, and the bags aren't easily resealable like the Kirkland Signature jars are, with the price ($2.49 for a 16-ounce bag) and the speed at which most people seem to inhale these pretzels, that might not be a problem. For resealable 24-ounce bags, fans can turn to Aldi's peanut butter-filled pretzels. 

If the vodka pull-and-hold taught us anything, it could be weeks until the investigation into the quality issue with Costco's jars is resolved. And from the looks of that Reddit thread, many Costco members can't wait that long.