10 Costco Items That Get The Most Customer Complaints

Most of the time, people love the food sold at Costco. It's generally good quality, you can pick up a lot at once, the store has a pretty novel selection of goods, and you can also pick up some fantastic food bargains while you're there. However, we'd be lying if we told you that there's nothing in this store that really gets on people's nerves (and you probably wouldn't believe us if we did). All retailers have to deal with customers not loving some of their items, and in the case of Costco, there are a few products that show up again and again in customer complaints.

Some of these items might not be a surprise, while others could raise eyebrows. Costco staples that have famously taken a downturn in their quality, like its chicken, experience repeated customer complaints that the store seems to have yet to address. Other complaints have sprung out of what seems to be a recipe change by Costco, while items like its Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum have nosedived in flavor, and customers are not happy about it. If you're looking for some products that make Costco customers very angry, you've come to the right place.

Of all the Costco items out there that receive customer complaints, few are as consistent as its chicken. Costco's Kirkland Signature chicken has faced a barrage of negative attention from its customers, purely because it's awful. Over the last couple of years, more and more shoppers have noticed that the chicken has a woody quality and is overly tough, making it a nightmare both to prepare and eat. Elsewhere, customers have found that its chicken is stringy, which again makes it completely unappealing.

Unsurprisingly, customers aren't shy about sharing their experience of this chicken and complaining about its quality. Some have even gone as far as to email the CEO of Costco himself, Ron Vachris, which they posted screenshots of in a Reddit post. To his credit, Vachris responded directly, offering a refund and saying that he'd look into the issue. Other customers have advised people not to waste their money on the chicken. Whether it's frozen or not, it doesn't seem to matter, and you're better off getting yours from a different store entirely.

Costco has an impressive meat selection, but not all of its items hit the spot. If you want any proof of this, check out what customers have been saying about its Kirkland Signature Beef Back Ribs. Costco shoppers have been stunned by the sheer lack of meat on these ribs, particularly for the price. "Barely any meat on them. 1/10 would not recommend," said a customer on Reddit, just one of many who pointed out the meager amount of protein in each of Costco's packs.

Although beef back ribs generally have less meat than other rib cuts, it's worth saying that Costco customers have compared the product it offers to other retailers and have found it seriously lacking. One shopper mentioned that when they bought beef back ribs from their butcher, they got loads more meat than when they purchased them from Costco. Having said this, you do tend to get what you pay for here: Perhaps one of the reasons why Costco's able to keep its Kirkland Signature Beef Back Ribs fairly cheap is because there's not that much beef on them at all. If you ask us, though, we'd rather spend the extra money and get something more tasty.

We're not really in a position to tell huge retailers how to make their decisions. After all, they have plenty of people employed who do that for them. But if we were, we'd say this to Costco: Change the design of your milk bottles. Your customers hate them. The design of Kirkland Signature Milk cartons is something that customers absolutely loathe, and they're not shy about complaining about how difficult it makes pouring the milk into literally anything. Now and again, Costco might switch temporarily to a more conventional milk carton shape ... but then, it reverts back to the clunky, bulbous, strangely ridged version that shoppers hate.

The reason Costco's milk cartons are in that strange shape all comes back to its central offer to customers: Its big-box nature. Their dimensions mean that they can be stacked and shipped without crates, and as a result, they can arrive at Costco's warehouses and get wheeled out onto the shop floor with barely any work in between. Sadly, though, it also means that whenever someone wants a glass of milk, they have to put up with a small puddle of it on their kitchen counter.

If you want to buy an item that you'll probably hate as much as other customers from Costco, then why not try Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew Coffee? This product is one of those that Costco customers actively warn against buying, because it tastes absolutely terrible. Cold brew should be bright, punchy, and zesty, but instead, Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew Coffee's taste has been compared to the dregs that you'd get at the end of a coffee pot. "I drink a lot of cold brew and Costco's is the worst I've ever had," said a Reddit commenter, and they weren't alone in complaining about the item.

The lengths to which Costco customers actively go to avoid drinking Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew Coffee once they've bought it are pretty wild. One person mentioned that it took them several months to get through a case, and that they'd only drink it when there was nothing else available. Elsewhere, customers have said that they've ended up giving the coffee away (sorry to the person who ended up with it). With its metallic, stale flavor, this is an item that's best avoided entirely. Just make your own cold brew instead, save the money, and enjoy a refreshing, buzzy drink.

Looking for a disappointing avocado? Head on down to Costco. The retailer's avocados have become infamous for their inferior quality, and customers have been quick to voice their irritation about them in a barrage of complaints. "I'm so disappointed with the avocados lately," said a frustrated customer on Facebook. "Just threw away 2 from the last bag I purchased and it's not the first time I've had to do that." In the comments on that post, other customers were quick to agree, while other shoppers have voiced their anger elsewhere about how bad Costco's produce is.

The issues with Costco's avocados are pretty extensive. The main one seems to be that they turn from hard to overly soft in the blink of an eye, leaving customers with barely any middle ground (or time) to enjoy them. Different shoppers have said that their avocados have a watery consistency and taste, which is far from the firm, buoyant, richly flavored fruit that we all want. Customers have theorized that Costco has shifted from importing its avocados from Mexico to Colombia, which may explain a recent deterioration in quality. It seems like it's something that Costco needs to sort out, though: Once customers start complaining, it's hard to turn back.

Costco items can be a little hit and miss, not just in terms of consistency, but in terms of how quality can vary between multiple flavors contained in one product. A good example of this is Costco's Kirkland Signature Protein Bars. Multiple customers have taken to online forums to complain about the quality control of this product, with folks pointing out that their purchases of it can give them vastly different results. Sometimes, the protein bars inside are totally fine and have a soft, chewy, moreish consistency. Other times, though, they're hard as stone and almost impossible to munch through.

Elsewhere, shoppers have flagged that the protein bars are sometimes manufactured poorly in different ways. One customer found that when they bit into their protein bar, they were greeted with a mouthful of granulated sugar that hadn't been blended into the mix properly. All that being said, people don't actively hate this product, and some folks have suggested workarounds for the hardness issue (apparently, all you have to do is briefly blast them in the microwave), but can Costco just make this product right? Then we wouldn't have this problem.

Any product that promises to take away the hours needed to prepare excellent barbecue should be a winner. However, that's only the case if the product's actually, y'know, good. Unfortunately, when it comes to Kirkland Signature Burnt Ends Beef Brisket, it doesn't quite fulfill that promise. Costco's burnt ends are a food item that's received a huge amount of vitriol from customers, because it tastes pretty awful.

Shoppers seem to be in agreement about the negative qualities of the Kirkland Signature Burnt Ends Beef Brisket, and the main issue seems to be the ability to actually eat it. Those who've bought the product discuss how fatty and tough it is, saying it can be more gristle than actual meat. The burnt ends also seem to be overly smoky, which takes away from any potential subtlety in the product — barbecue's not exactly meant to be demure, but you want some dynamics, right? Above all, though, the Kirkland Signature Burnt Ends Beef Brisket just isn't that pleasant to eat, and customers aren't shy about expressing this. This is an item that's best avoided.

We present to you the curious case of Costco bananas, which have left customers both infuriated and confused. When you buy green bananas, you expect them to gradually turn yellow and soften before they turn brown, right? Well, Costco shoppers have found that the yellow sweet spot just doesn't exist here. Instead, the retailer's bananas seem to go straight from green to a rotten brown, leaving people without any chance to eat them at all.

We don't know how, exactly, but Costco's bananas just remain green, never quite softening or turning that familiar shade of yellow. We'd kinda prefer our bananas to go overripe, to be honest. There are a few ways to cook with overripe bananas, after all. When bananas stay green for all eternity, though, they're pretty much totally obsolete and are just a big waste of money. We'd advise that you save your cash and shop for your bananas elsewhere. In fact, given that Costco's produce is often worth skipping entirely, you may just want to get all of your fresh fruits and veggies in another store.

Costco really does love to change its products for the worse, doesn't it? There have been countless examples of recipe changes or alterations that turn a once-beloved product into something that customers detest. Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum is just one more victim of this tendency. Shoppers have observed has had its recipe tweaked recently, and now? Well, people sure do hate it. They're not shy about spreading the bad word, either.

Unfortunately, the new Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum now has an aggressive flavor that goes way too hard on the vanilla. The result is a medicinal, overpowering taste. "The new Costco spiced rum tastes like very bad cough syrup," complained a customer on Facebook. "It is so bad that I couldn't get through my drink and I dumped the entire bottle down the sink." Others have chimed in elsewhere, saying how awful it is, and how the taste of this spiced rum is a letdown. Want our advice? Skip this one, or you'll be complaining about it too.

Pre-crumbled bacon feels like it should solve a lot of problems in the kitchen, not create more. Regrettably, Costco's Kirkland Signature Bacon Crumbles does the latter instead of the former. This bacon product has been receiving negative reviews and complaints for a while now, from customers who observed that, like so many other Costco products, its supplier seems to have changed in the last couple of years. Now, its taste just doesn't hold up, and it also doesn't stay as fresh as it did before.

There seems to be a quality control issue here. While bacon is meant to be fairly fatty, Kirkland Signature Bacon Crumbles takes things to the next level. Customers have said that these bags mainly contain pieces of fat and gristle instead of actual meat, and Costco also sometimes decides to throw in pieces of pork skin, which are not only horrible to eat but which have no place in a bag of bacon bits. It's one of those products that people can't just get behind, and when you consider how easy it is to make crispy oven-baked bacon, it's hard to justify spending your money on this.