r/CostcoEmployee

What is Costco's plan for when the members start to realize that member service is no longer a priority? I had a member come to me today concerned that her cashier seemed stressed and barely said hello. I explained that they have a fairly strict metric to adhere to and only have, on average, 65 seconds per transaction to meet those numbers. This lady was appalled and said 'That's not very Costco. I shrugged and apologized for her experience.

Where does this end? We used to have time to chat and be friendly with members but now it's all about how fast we can get them in and out.

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Has anybody's store management tried to address this issue? First it was just Instacarters, but now we deal with door dash and grub hub workers too.

The front end is constantly crying for boxes, but it is difficult to keep them supplied when 4 or 5 different delivery workers will grab up to 5
boxes each leaving nothing for other customers.

I have gotten to the point where i just refuse the delivery workers any boxes from my flat and of course they get pissed off.

Been at costco 5 months, Just heard I got an interview this week for a bakery wrapper position full time

While i really like the deli the main reason for moving is because it's full time but I'm not sure what I'm getting into or if i should just stay in deli

What are the pros and cons of deli vs. bakery? I heard bakery can be like repetitive movements but deli has the chicken room

and if I decide after the interview that I might wanna stay in deli, would there be any hard feelings between my manager and I? Like can I still choose to stay in deli?

Considering resigning from SIT. I’m only a week in and it’s been a disaster. My first day they just handed me some keys and have me running around trying to do key flicks on the front end or the occasional lot check, door count, item check etc.

No supervisor training in membership, no shadowing another supe, I don’t have a vest, I don’t have a BlueBook, sometimes I don’t even have a radio.

I genuinely have no idea what I’m doing and it’s insane how much is being asked of me without proper training. It’s clear to me that they’re using me to cover a shortage of supervisors.

I used to work at a different warehouse in a different part of the country and this doesn’t seem normal. Is this normal? What can I do?

I am going to hit 4 months soon and I just got sundays 8 hrs im at a business center tho picker

edit. i didnt realize it is that easy to get sundays

Around May I was hired (with no recommendation) into my local Costco specifically the food court. I was told my specific hire was eligible for a permanent position with the company rather than the usual seasonal.

Everything through this 1-3 month probation was solid, except for the departments shift supervisor, we’ll refer to him as Nancy.

Also what comes in later to this story is that I needed to receive an accommodation for bathroom usage when needed. For the past 2-3 years I’ve experienced gastrointestinal issues that comes in waves every so often maybe monthly then they disappear. In which I had received a doctors accommodation note for a previous job. I communicated to my direct manager, my food court manager which we’ll refer to as Henry, of this issue I had and let him know I am already in contact with my doctor to receive a written letter of accommodation. He told me that I should just use the restroom when needed obviously not during busy periods of time(which I never did during those periods of time). I let Henry know that my last job needed the doctors note, in which he said “ok I’ll ask HR and see if it’s needed”. Which he later told me it WOULD be needed. A bit later in my doctor required a physical visit. So I told Henry, I’d wait to see if my symptoms at this time truly required me to make the appointment and that for now I’d just track and see if it was necessary, he said “ok”. This will reappear later in the story.

Throughout my learning and time in the food department, nothing from Nancy was ever positive. I rarely received any positive feedback from Nancy, yet received positive feedback from everyone else in the food court department. Nancy is know to be angry, negative, and is constantly disappointed with everyone’s work other than our actual food court manager, and some of “the boys” in which he’d laugh, joke, and get distracted in conversation with fairly often, aswell as some of the adult ladies who had been there for months to years. Nancy constantly filled the environment with negative comments, rude interactions, and deliberately negatively directed comments towards me over the time being. Calling me slow, when I worked at the same pace or faster than others. Calling me wrong, when he asked me to count and make sure the amount of pizzas I needed up front were the correct number, when they were right. And many other negative comments that were work related. To this day he still is like this with workers that still work there. (I know this from being in a group chat with the workers).

It was my SECOND time doing skins(stretching dough to the pan and rolling out (docking) with the roller. I thought to myself “wow I must be getting better I’m completing them much faster that I was last week when I FIRST learned how to do it”. Turns out I was wrong.

Nancy picked up a skin, showed it to me and angrily asked “What is this?”… I asked quietly confused, “sorry… did I do it bad?”, in which he followed up raising his voice again, angrily, saying “There’s no holes in it!”.

By now I’d been used to Nancy’s angry and rude remarks. But I feel like this could’ve been a teaching moment for me, a way to kindly reshow me what went wrong. But he just annoyingly exhaled after and let me refigure it out in my own.

One day I was closing with 2 other people. My first time closing on dishes. I went as fast as possible and even had help from a coworker, despite another coworker throwing their work into me. Yet I did not finish on time. All dishes were done despite the pumps for the condiments and the cleaning of the 3 compartment sink itself. I was later taken to the office by Nancy for a written coaching. While being coached I told him I understood why I was being coach, and signed the coaching document with no hassle.

Another day I was pulled in for another written coaching. This time Nancy told me it’s because I didn’t clean the drain under the soda fountain machine. I verbalized to Nancy, that I never knew there was a drain there, no one had ever informed me of it, all he had to say was “well yeah there is a drain there”, and I again, accepted the coaching with no hassle.

There was a time when I approached Henry, asking when I would be learning how to make the pizzas and do prep like the other trainees who were hired at the same time as me. He said Nancy should be teaching my the following week, which never happened.

There was a time when I approached Nancy, asking how I could do my job better, where there could be improvement, and things such as that. He told me my main focus should be working on speed and awareness. Which I understood and said I’d get that worked on.

It’s not like I never communicated or at least tried to communicate with my progress or what I was doing wrong or right.

Then the day came.

I was working as normal when a higher up asked me to come with them to the main office, where I was sat with them, another higher up which I had interviewed with for my second interview initially we’ll refer to him as Seth.

Seth told me pretty much right off the bat that I was being terminated. Then he went over why. He started off asking “do you -care-, when you’re being coached?”……… it came off extremely condescending and sarcastic.. no doubt about it, it had to have been. I responded hesitantly, “well umm yeah I care? I usually just respond with yes or no if I’m asked any questions, and I ask questions if I don’t understand what I’m being coached for.” I remember him just condescendingly smirking. Then he followed up with “I heard you leave the department quite often.” In which I responded, “yes for the bathroom, I spoked to Henry about an accommodation I was gonna get from my doctor for the more than usual usage of it”.
He responded saying “but did u tell -me- about that accommodation?”…. I told him I thought telling my immediate manager was enough and that I figured it had already been communicated with higher ups? And that I didn’t know I was supposed to also let him know.

I assume when Nancy gave the feedback and reasoning over to Seth, that he twisted the story, to his negative outlook on everything, and that it could possibly be why Seth was incredibly rude and condescending when I was pulled into the office for the termination.

The conversation basically ended there, there was clearly nothing I can say or do to save my job since he already decided before I sat down that this day I was going to be terminated. He also read my separation info, most importantly that only after one year, I’m eligible to be rehired. After that I pretty much cried and left the warehouse as soon as possible.

The experience was extremely odd, the way he sarcastically asked the questions and responded with things I wouldn’t have been capable of defending myself of, like telling him instead of my own direct manager about the accommodation.

I have texted Henry before which I’ll attach the messages here.

And a fellow coworker had their own story to tell which I’ll also attach here. However I heard that she was then confronted about the complaint she made against Nancy and was told she was a liar.

And a befriended coworkers who’s fairly trusted by Henry and Nancy told me that the head of the store I assume or head or hiring I assume, someone we’ll call Moses, doesn’t rehire people who initially didn’t pass their 3 month probation back into the warehouse.

The reason I’m telling this story is because I have an urge to email someone, anyone, who would take care of a case like this at the warehouse, because despite 3 month probation being the time frame where they can fire you/ decide not to keep you for any reason, I feel my termination was unfair. And I still want an opportunity with the warehouse either soon or in the future possibly after my one year of waiting for eligibility is up, I don’t want the bias of Nancy(someone who isn’t even head of the department) to have determined my worth in the department when everyone else thought I was a good worker.

Should I even write an email?
Who should I write it to?
Should I mention Nancy at all or just the want for an opportunity back?

How do I exactly go about this?

What are some of your rudest member stories? I got a couple. One was when a member walked up to me and opened with “hey do you speak english?”. Another one was this couple came up to me looking for an item that I know for a fact we didn’t have. She immediately said “I KNOW YOU HAVE IT SO DONT TELL ME YOU DONT”. So after telling her that Im positive we dont have it, I call on the radio with her and her husband glaring at me the whole time…and what do ya know..we dont have it. No “thank you”, or “thanks for checking”, they just turn around without saying anything and storm off. One more was when I worked in the food court. A member ordered a chicken bake and I told him it would be a few minutes because I had to put it in the oven. He proceeded to time me on his watch announcing every few seconds how long its taking “GOING ON 2 MINUTES HERE” saying my name as if he knows me. Then when it comes out he gives me this disappointed look and just walks off. I got probably a hundred more, but these were a few of the frustrating ones.

It grinds my gears I’m doing my job just packing and lining up stuff in the carts and some members just move stuff around like nothing when i’m working my a** off trying to do a good job for them

Has anyone’s warehouse began their seasonal hiring yet? I just read the handbook for a refresh and saw it says we can start getting them October 7. I haven’t heard of them starting at all, and they just cut all part timers hours the last two weeks down to the minimum, even though we have been incredibly busy

Today was literally a nightmare at my warehouse of course Saturdays and Sundays are always busy and when it gets busy on the Front End the supervisors have no communication at times with us employees like today I get chewed out by a supervisor cause I had to be at a certain position but they didn’t find a replacement for me. Their needs to be some communication

I’m at a location in the SE region and our front end manager thinks it’s the end of the world if our prescanning percentage is low. We literally have to scan everything we can, even if it’s one item. They want us to stop members from walking up to an open machine at self checkout so we can scan their items. It’s getting ridiculous. How is everyone else doing?

What do I do? Am I done?

I know, not a meme but should be. This email from corporate is sent out just after the request for every rx department to cut hours.
Doesn’t matter how busy you are, doesn’t matter that you’re headed into cough/cold/flu season. Arguably the busiest season all year. It is so busy no one can get winter leave because we’re short staffed.

But please make sure you do everything you can to kiss the members ass. Oh, they aren’t members? Kiss the ass anyway.
Patient yells, swears and threatens you? That’s ok have someone else talk to them.
The place is going downhill fast.

“Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our members each and every day. During our recent location walks and review of member feedback, we continue to see wonderful examples of compassionate care, efficiency, and exceptional service across our Northern Division pharmacies. Your commitment during this busy season makes a huge difference.
As we prepare for increased patient volume during the peak of this season, we want to address a few key areas where we have an opportunity to elevate our service standards and ensure a positive experience for every patient. Per page 91 of the 2025 Employee Agreement regarding Member Service standards, our primary duty is to treat our members in a friendly, courteous, respectful, and expeditious manner. These are the most common areas of opportunity we are seeing recently:
Employee Attitudes & Greetings: First impressions are key. Cashiers, In-Window Technicians, and Counseling Pharmacists are the greeters for our departments. Please ensure team members make eye contact, offer a warm smile, and sincerely greet each member using their name and position. Phone calls must follow standard etiquette—answering promptly, using full greetings, asking before placing callers on hold, and thanking every member.
Line Management: We must actively manage both Pay Ahead and non-Pay Aheadlines to maintain our "2's a crowd" standard. When a second member joins either line, immediately call for assistance to open additional registers or step in to facilitate. Pay Ahead lines must be staffed at all times. Pharmacists should keep a watchful eye on waiting areas and step up to assist whenever backups begin to form.
Proactive Communication: Given our high volume of vaccinations and prescriptions, clear communication is essential. Clearly inform patients where to wait for vaccine appointments and check in with those in the waiting area. If a prescription promise time will be exceeded, ensure patients are contacted immediately. When members seem unsure or are lingering, proactively approach them to offer assistance.
Please take the time to review these expectations with your teams as soon as possible. Thank you for leading by example and showcasing the very best of Costco Pharmacy!”

I heard a bunch of horror stories from my store about morning but is it really that bad? Just curious , i start tuesday

Hey everyone! I just applied to the Costco by my house and landed an interview! Im excited but very nervous - not so much about the interview itself but because of what was relayed to be while the interview was scheduled.

The hiring manager notified me that I would be seasonal - hours are NOT guaranteed, so anywhere between 8 hours of work to 35-40. I currently work a part time job as a barista at a cafe, and genuinely cannot afford to leave that job if I'm only given 8 hours of work a week by Costco. However, I am a hard worker and very dependable, and I would love to be given an opportunity to possibly leave the cafe job if enough hours are given.

What does a seasonal hire need to expect? In my case specifically, what advice can you give me?

Hello :)

Costco alumni here just wondering about when the seasonal positions start to show up on the career portal. I know in my previous position at Costco they told me that positions start to open up in october in preperation for the holiday season and I am trying to find work at Costco in a different state at the moment.

Any help would be massive!

Thank you! :)