Costco Items That Have Fallen Off In Quality, According To Customers

Affordability is the backbone of the Costco experience. Its membership-based model is, notably, contingent on customers calculating that their savings will outweigh their membership fees. Naturally, the chain's commitment to bulk quantities is one strategy intended to lower costs-per-unit for customers. This is especially true with the store's in-house brand, and as such, is one of the ways Costco keeps Kirkland Signature prices so cheap. Lowering costs can also be a key motivator behind altering the formulas used to produce long-standing products. Whenever this happens, customers are quick to take notice.

Sometimes change is good, and a product that was once disliked comes back even better. Far more often, prior fans of a product will describe the noticeable change as a bad thing. This could stem from the fact that as food becomes more expensive, Costco and its suppliers must still keep goods affordable, even if that requires sacrificing recipes. Identifying the items that customers have described as dropping off in quality first required searching Costco-based communities online for pertinent discussions. For relevancy's sake, anything that made the final list was both criticized within the past year and still on Costco shelves at the time of writing. Ahead, you'll find nine Costco items that have fallen off in quality based on feedback from customers online.

In November of 2024, Mashed ranked 10 popular Costco soups and determined that Costco's own Kirkland Signature Chicken Tortilla Soup was the best of the bunch. About a year later in November of 2025, customers noticed that the Chicken Tortilla Soup was utilizing a new recipe. Unsurprisingly, the updated formula had fans of the previous version lamenting the change.

Foremost among the alterations to Costco's Chicken Tortilla Soup was the addition of cilantro — those with an aversion to the herb could no longer enjoy the soup whatsoever. Alleging that Costco changed which supplier it used to produce the item, some customers also found the new version spicier but less flavorful overall. Certain Costco members even described the new recipe as straight-up gross. "I bought it for the first time last week and thought it was horrible and I'm a cilantro lover," wrote one commenter on Reddit, confirming that a distaste for the updated Kirkland Signature Chicken Tortilla Soup was not exclusive to the cilantro-averse.

Many of Costco's best offerings are exclusive to the chain, including Kirkland Signature whiskeys, a deep selection of baked goods, and plenty more. On the flip side, Costco also sells a fair number of name brands, which include Ritz Crackers. While there may have been a time when Costco offered the same product as standard grocery stores — just in budget-friendly, bulk quantities — Costco regulars have found that Ritz Crackers have declined in quality to the extent that they're no longer worth purchasing.

In December of 2025, a Reddit user drew attention to the shortcomings of Costco's Ritz Crackers, and determined that Ritz Crackers from Costco were often less baked than the same product purchased elsewhere. This could, some posters theorized, result from Costco's Ritz Crackers being made separately from Ritz Crackers intended for general distribution. Simultaneously, commenters discussed an apparent brand-wide change to the Ritz Cracker recipe, resulting in a worse product across the board. According to these customers, grocery store-brand dupes had become preferable to name-brand Ritz. 

Between this possible difference in production and an overall decline, customers are in widespread agreement that Costco's Ritz Crackers fell off in a major way. "I did notice the Ritz crackers changed, very light and crumbly, mostly oil," wrote a Reddit user in the Canadian Costco subreddit, suggesting that Ritz Crackers aren't just worse in the U.S. but across the border as well.

Despite its limited, intentionally curated selection, Costco offers shoppers a solid range of organic foods. Organic cauliflower rice and organic almond butter, for example, are among some of the healthiest foods you can find at Costco. Kirkland Signature Organic Applesauce pouches are likewise a Costco staple, but according to some customers, a change in recipe has left the product not as good as it once was.

Around January of 2026, Costco members noticed that the packaging of Kirkland Signature Organic Applesauce had changed. Before even tasting the product, it was apparent that Costco had altered the formula based on a lower listed fiber content compared to the previous recipe. Understandably, that change upset those who value dietary fiber in their fruit-based snacks. Furthermore, some former fans of the product noticed that the version with the new packaging simply didn't taste as good as its predecessor. "I have the new packaging now and do not like the product as much," wrote one Reddit user.

As authentic Asian foods grow in popularity throughout the U.S., Costco has started stocking items such as microwavable tonkotsu ramen and shrimp chips, among plenty of other examples. That said, decidedly Asian-American foods still have a place on Costco shelves. One such item that some Costco shoppers once enjoyed — only to now discover a drop in quality — is the Ling Ling brand's bag of frozen Chicken & Vegetable Potstickers.

One Costco shopper online drew attention to a change in the Ling Ling potstickers in June of 2025. They claimed to have eaten them weekly for years, only to notice the product's meat and veggies both looked different and tasted worse. That observation inspired some additional Costco members to share that they, too, noticed changes, including less filling and lower-quality dumpling wrappers. "I just opened a new package last week and thought the same," wrote one Reddit user. "I'm sad as I've been eating them for 15+ years and now they're just not as good."

Costco's freezer aisles are stocked with all sorts of ready-to-eat foods, which are suitable for quick and fun meals. In particular, Kirkland Signature produces its own Breaded Panko Shrimp, packaged in a bulk 2.5-pound box that contains between 40 and 50 shrimp in total. However, customers enticed by the idea of a breaded shrimp family dinner should know that Costco members on multiple social media platforms have characterized the product as noticeably declining in quality.

In a December 2025 post to a Costco-based Facebook group, one user described their Kirkland panko shrimp as breadier, and with less shrimp than usual. They posited that Costco may have switched suppliers. Plenty of responses also characterized the product as generally subpar, with one Facebook user specifically agreeing that the quality fell off. Months earlier, on Reddit, a user noticed the same thing: More breading and less shrimp. Once again, that assessment was shared by commenters. "I used to buy these all the time," reads the original post on Reddit. "They were 1 part shrimp and 2 part breading. The flavor of the breading wasn't the same and the quality of the shrimp was lacking."

Beecher's is a Seattle-based cheese company that also produces a fairly wide selection of premade meals. Perhaps the single product most closely associated with the brand is its "World's Best" Mac & Cheese. While there may have been a time when shoppers agreed with that "World's Best" designation — in 2022, Mashed ranked it second on a list of Costco prepared meals, for example — a fair number of Costco shoppers familiar with the product have found it no longer worthy of such a lofty title.

Notably, in a Facebook discussion otherwise dedicated to the Kirkland Signature Breaded Panko Shrimp's decline in quality, one user brought up Beecher's "World's Best" Mac & Cheese as an example of another Costco product that went downhill. The comment received three likes and a couple of responses about its general lack of quality. Meanwhile, on Reddit, posters began discussing a change in Beecher's Mac & Cheese around August 2025, with some recounting a general loss in flavor. As it turns out, that phenomenon isn't localized to just Costco. "I've bought this for years at local grocery stores because I live near Seattle where it's made," wrote one Reddit user. "It was really good up until the last year or so, and now it's definitely more bland. I'm assuming Costco gets the same product as what is locally sold, just in bigger quantities, so I'm not surprised it seems worse now there too."

The ingredients in Costco's Kirkland Signature Organic Tortilla Chips could hardly be simpler: organic corn, organic sunflower oil, and sea salt. Despite this basic formula, Costco shoppers have found that the organic tortilla chips ended up losing some of their luster, to the extent that the tortilla chips earned a spot among 9 food items better off purchased from Aldi than Costco.

In August of 2025, one Reddit user posted that they found their Kirkland Signature Organic Tortilla Chips more brittle than they were used to. They theorized that more finely ground corn was at fault, increasing the amount of air in each chip. Commenters then shared some additional changes, such as a reduction in chip size and a general decline in flavor. Others simply agreed that they noticed the chips getting worse. "They've definitely changed and not as good," one user commented in that Reddit thread. "I stopped buying them."

Non-dairy milk options have become so plentiful that customers no longer have to choose between just soy milk and almond milk. There are also options like toasted coconut almond milk, or sugar cookie oat milk creamer. Simply put, there's no reason to settle for a subpar non-dairy milk with so many options available at virtually all grocery stores. As such, Kirkland Signature Organic Non-Dairy Oat Beverage is a product some customers will want to avoid, based on the fact that Costco shoppers have catalogued its decline. That said, it's worse off in just one particular category that shouldn't matter to those without the means to make milk-based espresso drinks.

In July of 2025, Costco members online began sharing that the Kirkland Signature Organic Non-Dairy Oat Beverage lost its ability to froth. Users on Reddit were able to compare the labels of an older batch of the oat beverage and a newer one — the biggest difference between the two products was an "organic oat base" in the older recipe, whereas the updated formula uses organic oat milk. That change, seemingly, rendered the Kirkland Signature Oat Beverage unable to froth properly. "Confirms what I was thinking," wrote one Reddit user who was apparently unable to froth their Oat Beverage. "I went through a case of that and was super frustrated."

Aside from Costco's famous rotisserie chickens, the chain offers plenty of additional precooked (albeit refrigerated) meals. While the chickens are among Costco's premier offerings, these other precooked meals can be hit-or-miss. Kirkland Signature chicken alfredo, for example, is safely among the best pre-made meals you can buy at Costco, whereas Kirkland Signature mac and cheese is divisive. One unique product in this category is the Kirkland Signature Ravioli Lasagna, which incorporates four-cheese ravioli into a classic lasagna recipe. Those intrigued by the idea should take note that Costco members have claimed the Ravioli Lasagna doesn't taste quite as good as it used to.

After an absence, Ravioli Lasagna returned to Costco shelves around November of 2025. Members immediately noticed that it wasn't quite the same as they remembered. One frequent complaint was an excessive level of salt. Meanwhile, some customers critiqued the flavor of the meat, a lack of vegetables, and a surplus of oil. "We had it last night and I was so disappointed," wrote one Reddit user. "Ours had almost no red sauce, it was just this oily grease holding it all together. Bummer. It used to be one of the best."