What The Hell Happened To Costco?

I'm just gonna come right out and say it:

Costco is fucking terrible.

They used to be awesome. Now they suck.

What happened??

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I've been going to the Costco in Milford for what feels like forever. It used to be an event — when I was younger, I'd take days off so I could go with my Dad to eat lunch and get a pumpkin pie or something.

When I grew up and got married, it became a weekend staple for me and my wife: eggs, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, all the "adult" stuff you buy in bulk because it's cheaper than the supermarket. And like a lot of couples, it even became a quasi-"date night" for us — y'know, "let's get some pizza and ice cream while we're here."

If you got there at 9:15 on a Saturday morning, yeah, you'd have to wait in line for 15 minutes before the store opened, but then you'd be in and out with a cart full of stuff by 10:00.

Somewhere along the way, that all disappeared.

Now, the parking lot is ALWAYS jammed, and you have to circle three times before you can find a spot. Saturday mornings are reserved for Executive members. They scan your card at the door (pointless, since you still have to scan when you pay). The aisles are always blocked by pallets being restocked (which only used to happen overnight). When you finally get to the register (there are never enough open), they either try to upsell your membership (which somehow never pays off), or they push you to the self checkout registers that inexplicably don't have a hand-held scanner for the giant items in your cart.

Hell, sometimes they even check your ID when they scan your card!

And on top of all that, literally every price in the store went up by at least 10% between December 2025 and my visit this weekend.

In the blink of an eye, Costco went from "best retail experience in America" to "Walmart with a membership fee."

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When you search the interwebs, commentary from observers and employees alike suggests the root cause is, "OG leadership retired, and the board replaced them with outsiders who don't know or understand the 'Costco Way,' so it's become just another big-box store." I can't even cite that, let alone actually prove it, but… yeah, it tracks. Maybe they don't see a problem yet, because the place is still packed every day. Or maybe they think their reputation will continue to carry them forever. Or (most likely), they know and truly don't care, because they're just trying to bleed the brand — and us — dry before selling it for parts.

I've written other posts on this blog poking fun at "Bad UX," and this one fits that bill.

But it particularly bums me out, too.

Like I said, Costco used to be awesome.

Now they're just another symbol of capitalistic cultural rot.