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Costco vets their products very well, if I see something at costco and its something I need I just buy it. No need to research and I've never been burned. The

by omilu 2mo ago

Costco vets their products very well, if I see something at costco and its something I need I just buy it. No need to research and I've never been burned. They only sell good quality stuff.

altruios 2mo ago
Costco isn't perfect, and things slip through still. For example: this is a minor annoyance, but comes readily to mind. https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superfoods-plant-based-protein-powder-vanilla-bean-27-lbs/100393228 https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superf... The problem is labeling conventions leading to inaccurate assumptions of what's even IN that "protein powder"... you would think the protein, being the largest in print, is the primary ingredient but no. A serving is 51grams, and the protein makes up 21grams of that serving: less than half, that's not a 'protein powder' if the primary ingredient isn't protein. It should be labeled "SUPERFOODS with protein" not the other way around. There have been other things similar in scope less readily recalled. It may seem minor to some... but labeling accuracy and transparency is something we had to fight for collectively.
- al_borland 2mo ago
  Ingredients are listed in order from greatest to least amount. Protein is listed first. It seems it’s the creamer that throws off the ratio you’re looking at, which I’m assuming is there for consistency/taste.
- tejohnso 2mo ago
  A 51 g serving might contain 40 g of the protein blend, making it a protein powder as the primary ingredient is protein blend. However, this is plant-based protein, not pure way isolate. A plant-based protein powder from mung beans for example isn't going to be 100% protein. Chickpea powder contains roughly 20% protein. So I don't know if that helps at all, but it doesn't seem as bad as you and you might be suggesting.
- tiltowait 2mo ago
  The first ingredient is a plurality, not a majority.
femto 2mo ago
Check their tomato paste. It turns out that nearly every tomato paste in Australia comes from Xinjiang in China, including those marked as Australian or Italian. Simplot (Leggos), the big US company, was the worst offender, so it's possible that tomato paste in Costco's US stores has been produced in Xinjiang using slave labour, irrespective of what the label says. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/australian-tomatoes-leggos-coles-aldi-chinese-tests-show/106940742 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/australian-tomatoes-l...
- onionisafruit 2mo ago
  According to this none of the samples tested from US retailers contained Chinese tomatoes. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crezlw4y152o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crezlw4y152o It seems like the US ban on Xinjiang is working
  - femto 2mo ago
    Thanks for that informative link. I looked to see if there was any data beyond the ABC article and didn't find it. Some of the truthful brands listed in the BBC article are available where I live. Kudos to the US that their labels match their contents.
    - stubish 2mo ago
      The ABC just broke their story a few days ago. There will continue to be fallout over the next few months or years (much like their last one, where they found that many sunscreens did not meet their SPF ratings, a hot topic in the skin cancer capital of the world) (edit: whoops, Choice did the SPF rating investigation. ABC just did a lot of reporting on it)
- p-e-w 2mo ago
  The above thread was about quality issues, not ethical issues such as “slave labor” (a term somehow reserved for certain countries, even though most countries use unfree prison labor, including the US and much of the EU).
bell-cot 2mo ago
Compared to the big e-commerce retailers, Costco's total number of sku's isn't even a rounding error. And most of Costco's sku's are food, clothing, housewares, bulk consumables, and such - vastly easier to test and vet than computer & internet-connected electronics.
- ChoGGi 2mo ago
  Sounds like you're agreeing that Costco is well curated?
  - bell-cot 2mo ago
    Compared to Amazon and other e-tailers with hundreds of thousands of sku's of computer & internet-connected electronic stuff, 99% of which they do nothing whatever to curate? Yes. But that's kinda like saying that Random Pond is safer for swimming than a lava lake. Do I just assume nothing can go wrong when I myself shop at Costco? NO.
40four 2mo ago
I don’t disagree, Costco has a reputation for selling well vetted products, but that’s not a good comparison. I trust Costco (even their online only sales), but in no way do I trust the other merchants listed. We’re specifically taking about merchants that have a super shady online presence. They will basically sell you anything and everything and don’t care if it harms you. The ones mentioned (Amazon, Best Buy, New Egg), it’s going to be hard to argue they vet (or care about vetting) the digital products they sell. You might as well throw Walmart into group too, their online offerings have gotten super sketchy if you really do into it.
- Uvix 2mo ago
  Target as well. It was one thing when it was just Amazon acting as a sketchy third party storefront, but now everybody’s doing it.
  - SoftTalker 2mo ago
    And third party listings on Walmart or Target (and throw eBay in here too) often end up being fulfilled by Amazon. These sellers just list their stuff on all the sites and effectively use Amazon as their drop shipper.
riddlemethat 2mo ago
We bought a Bosch dishwasher from Costco in January. It was defective and wouldn’t start after 10 days. Costco replaced it. The replacement came with a big gash on the front off the truck so we refused it and Costco sent a third replacement. Again, it was the same model and again it wouldn’t start after another 30 days. Costco took it back. No cost to us for any of these delivery or install attempts. We bought a different model from Costco and it’s been rock solid. I expect I will never buy a major appliance from any other retailer as long as Costco continues to care like they do today.
- fn-mote 2mo ago
  > I will never buy a major appliance from any other retailer Weird. You experienced failures of the manufacturer (failure to start) and the warehouse (huge scratch), and are still singing someone’s praises. It sounds to me like the brand’s quality assurance is low and the retailer also isn’t taking care of their stock. If I had to take three days off work to accept these deliveries, doubtless I would have a very different conclusion from yours.
  - dsr_ 2mo ago
    He's singing the praises of CostCo, which made him whole. Any dishwasher could have these problems; any warehouse could. How the seller handles the situation is key to whether you use them again. CostCo has built a huge reputation for being trustworthy as a retailer. If they get purchased by private equity, I will stop renewing my membership, and think about how close the country is to decorating lampposts.
  - 542354234235 2mo ago
    The issue is that with a sample size of one (or three), then it is basically bad luck. If you get a bad unit (or a good unit) it doesn't really tell you much how reliable the other 100,000+ units are and how reliable the brand is. If you have a product get damaged during delivery, it doesn't really tell you much how reliable the other 100,000+ deliveries are. But most people have had a problem with some product they purchased and a company that stands by things and gives no questions asked support is very valuable.
red-iron-pine 2mo ago
arguably it's part of their main value proposition: bulk, but not terrible, and generally decent. fixed fee membership also means a very stable revenue stream and they can take the time to do this, while other places like newegg are herding 3rd parties to get cuts of ever cheaper 3rd party crap
Rickasaurus 2mo ago
I have to disagree, costco often has custom worse versions of better products, we recently had a costco air conditioner fail just to find out it wasn't built quite as robustly as the $50 more expensive midea sold elsewhere with an almost identical model number. Similarly had my costco GE washing machine fail last year right out of warranty. There's a real quality problem going on with costco right now.
- onemoresoop 2mo ago
  They’ll replace them if they break and the return policy is very good as well. It’s safe to buy from Costco

by omilu 2mo ago

Costco vets their products very well, if I see something at costco and its something I need I just buy it. No need to research and I've never been burned. They only sell good quality stuff.

altruios 2mo ago

Costco isn't perfect, and things slip through still. For example: this is a minor annoyance, but comes readily to mind. https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superfoods-plant-based-protein-powder-vanilla-bean-27-lbs/100393228 https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superf... The problem is labeling conventions leading to inaccurate assumptions of what's even IN that "protein powder"... you would think the protein, being the largest in print, is the primary ingredient but no. A serving is 51grams, and the protein makes up 21grams of that serving: less than half, that's not a 'protein powder' if the primary ingredient isn't protein. It should be labeled "SUPERFOODS with protein" not the other way around. There have been other things similar in scope less readily recalled. It may seem minor to some... but labeling accuracy and transparency is something we had to fight for collectively.

al_borland 2mo ago
Ingredients are listed in order from greatest to least amount. Protein is listed first. It seems it’s the creamer that throws off the ratio you’re looking at, which I’m assuming is there for consistency/taste.
tejohnso 2mo ago
A 51 g serving might contain 40 g of the protein blend, making it a protein powder as the primary ingredient is protein blend. However, this is plant-based protein, not pure way isolate. A plant-based protein powder from mung beans for example isn't going to be 100% protein. Chickpea powder contains roughly 20% protein. So I don't know if that helps at all, but it doesn't seem as bad as you and you might be suggesting.
tiltowait 2mo ago
The first ingredient is a plurality, not a majority.

femto 2mo ago

Check their tomato paste. It turns out that nearly every tomato paste in Australia comes from Xinjiang in China, including those marked as Australian or Italian. Simplot (Leggos), the big US company, was the worst offender, so it's possible that tomato paste in Costco's US stores has been produced in Xinjiang using slave labour, irrespective of what the label says. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/australian-tomatoes-leggos-coles-aldi-chinese-tests-show/106940742 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/australian-tomatoes-l...

onionisafruit 2mo ago
According to this none of the samples tested from US retailers contained Chinese tomatoes. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crezlw4y152o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crezlw4y152o It seems like the US ban on Xinjiang is working
- femto 2mo ago
  Thanks for that informative link. I looked to see if there was any data beyond the ABC article and didn't find it. Some of the truthful brands listed in the BBC article are available where I live. Kudos to the US that their labels match their contents.
  - stubish 2mo ago
    The ABC just broke their story a few days ago. There will continue to be fallout over the next few months or years (much like their last one, where they found that many sunscreens did not meet their SPF ratings, a hot topic in the skin cancer capital of the world) (edit: whoops, Choice did the SPF rating investigation. ABC just did a lot of reporting on it)
p-e-w 2mo ago
The above thread was about quality issues, not ethical issues such as “slave labor” (a term somehow reserved for certain countries, even though most countries use unfree prison labor, including the US and much of the EU).

bell-cot 2mo ago

Compared to the big e-commerce retailers, Costco's total number of sku's isn't even a rounding error. And most of Costco's sku's are food, clothing, housewares, bulk consumables, and such - vastly easier to test and vet than computer & internet-connected electronics.

ChoGGi 2mo ago
Sounds like you're agreeing that Costco is well curated?
- bell-cot 2mo ago
  Compared to Amazon and other e-tailers with hundreds of thousands of sku's of computer & internet-connected electronic stuff, 99% of which they do nothing whatever to curate? Yes. But that's kinda like saying that Random Pond is safer for swimming than a lava lake. Do I just assume nothing can go wrong when I myself shop at Costco? NO.

40four 2mo ago

I don’t disagree, Costco has a reputation for selling well vetted products, but that’s not a good comparison. I trust Costco (even their online only sales), but in no way do I trust the other merchants listed. We’re specifically taking about merchants that have a super shady online presence. They will basically sell you anything and everything and don’t care if it harms you. The ones mentioned (Amazon, Best Buy, New Egg), it’s going to be hard to argue they vet (or care about vetting) the digital products they sell. You might as well throw Walmart into group too, their online offerings have gotten super sketchy if you really do into it.

Uvix 2mo ago
Target as well. It was one thing when it was just Amazon acting as a sketchy third party storefront, but now everybody’s doing it.
- SoftTalker 2mo ago
  And third party listings on Walmart or Target (and throw eBay in here too) often end up being fulfilled by Amazon. These sellers just list their stuff on all the sites and effectively use Amazon as their drop shipper.

riddlemethat 2mo ago

We bought a Bosch dishwasher from Costco in January. It was defective and wouldn’t start after 10 days. Costco replaced it. The replacement came with a big gash on the front off the truck so we refused it and Costco sent a third replacement. Again, it was the same model and again it wouldn’t start after another 30 days. Costco took it back. No cost to us for any of these delivery or install attempts. We bought a different model from Costco and it’s been rock solid. I expect I will never buy a major appliance from any other retailer as long as Costco continues to care like they do today.

fn-mote 2mo ago
> I will never buy a major appliance from any other retailer Weird. You experienced failures of the manufacturer (failure to start) and the warehouse (huge scratch), and are still singing someone’s praises. It sounds to me like the brand’s quality assurance is low and the retailer also isn’t taking care of their stock. If I had to take three days off work to accept these deliveries, doubtless I would have a very different conclusion from yours.
- dsr_ 2mo ago
  He's singing the praises of CostCo, which made him whole. Any dishwasher could have these problems; any warehouse could. How the seller handles the situation is key to whether you use them again. CostCo has built a huge reputation for being trustworthy as a retailer. If they get purchased by private equity, I will stop renewing my membership, and think about how close the country is to decorating lampposts.
- 542354234235 2mo ago
  The issue is that with a sample size of one (or three), then it is basically bad luck. If you get a bad unit (or a good unit) it doesn't really tell you much how reliable the other 100,000+ units are and how reliable the brand is. If you have a product get damaged during delivery, it doesn't really tell you much how reliable the other 100,000+ deliveries are. But most people have had a problem with some product they purchased and a company that stands by things and gives no questions asked support is very valuable.

red-iron-pine 2mo ago

arguably it's part of their main value proposition: bulk, but not terrible, and generally decent. fixed fee membership also means a very stable revenue stream and they can take the time to do this, while other places like newegg are herding 3rd parties to get cuts of ever cheaper 3rd party crap

Rickasaurus 2mo ago

I have to disagree, costco often has custom worse versions of better products, we recently had a costco air conditioner fail just to find out it wasn't built quite as robustly as the $50 more expensive midea sold elsewhere with an almost identical model number. Similarly had my costco GE washing machine fail last year right out of warranty. There's a real quality problem going on with costco right now.

onemoresoop 2mo ago
They’ll replace them if they break and the return policy is very good as well. It’s safe to buy from Costco