The Costco Etiquette Tip You Really Ought To Know By Now

While shopping at Costco, members need to have a good amount of patience. The bulk retailer is known for bringing in big crowds who fill their carts to the brim and must wade through the traffic in each aisle. Having patience will not only benefit your own shopping experience, but also the experience of those shopping around you. Unfortunately, one of the most annoying things about shopping at Costco is the poor behavior of other members who are not adhering to Costco etiquette.

When you invest in a Costco membership, there are certain rules that fellow members expect you to follow for the safety and sanity of all shoppers and employees. While you may not find these rules posted on any signs while shopping, most Costco shoppers already know there are certain things you should and shouldn't do inside the warehouse. A Costco member brought up one of these such pet peeves on Reddit, sharing a photo of a crate full of chip boxes that had yet to be displayed for customers to purchase with the caption, "Dear Members, please don't." Opening merchandise that has not been properly displayed and labeled can cause a mess in the aisle, and may interfere with an employee's ability to transport that crate full of items when it is time to replenish stock. Unless you are a Costco employee who is currently clocked into a shift, avoid opening any unopened or un-shelved merchandise.

Ripping open merchandise that is shrink wrapped and waiting to be shelved for customer purchase is a major Costco shopping mistake. If a product is not ready for the sales floor or is being held as additional stock for products that are currently being sold, these items will be stacked on higher shelves, wrapped in shrink wrap, and usually do not have a price tag. Opening these items, especially when stacked on high shelves, could pose a safety issue to shoppers and employees who interact with the opened palette of products, especially when you pull from the bottom of a large stack making the foundation unstable and more prone to falling.

In the original post on Reddit, the frustrated member who snapped a picture of the poor shopping etiquette wrote, "If the product isn't in its normal area it is not hard to find where it is. There is no reason for this." One Reddit user responded, "How I died, snack bag carton avalanche," making light of what could be a rather dangerous situation if more people attempted to grab from the slightly opened stack of chip boxes. This is yet another rookie Costco shopping mistake that seasoned shoppers are disappointed to find while wandering the aisles. However, not all responses to the Reddit user's grievance agree that this behavior is totally unwarranted.

While most people can agree that taking it upon yourself to open an un-shelved product is not cool and can cause problems for shoppers and employees alike, they do understand why certain people have used such drastic measures. According to certain frustrated members in the comments of the aforementioned Reddit post, Costco's stocking methods have become inconvenient for frequent shoppers who are constantly looking for go-to products. While the bulk retailer is known for its "treasure hunt" style of shopping that keeps products new and fresh for shoppers, there are also many staple products that Costco frequently carries, especially when it comes to groceries. When these items are frequently moved, shoppers have a hard time finding them and end up ripping into new palettes of product if they cannot find the item elsewhere.

One Reddit user commented their insight on the opened stack of chip boxes, saying, "It's in response to the entire business model of Costco. They move stuff without notice and you can't find things... While I don't condone this since it only affects workers, totally foreseeable." Other users shared stories of searching all over the warehouse for items that were moved around the store for seemingly no reason. While from a business perspective it makes sense that having shoppers move through the aisles in search of their necessities will encourage more spending, it seems to have an adverse effect on certain shoppers.