8 Discontinued Costco Membership Benefits Customers Still Miss

As a Costco member, you get a wide range of benefits, from access to the iconic $1.50 hot-dog-and- soda combo to cheaper gas to more affordable prescription medications. There are even some hidden Costco membership benefits, like great deals on car rentals and homeowners' insurance. Generally, once a membership perk at Costco, always a membership perk at Costco — they tend to stick around — but there are a handful of discontinued Costco membership benefits customers still miss.

Costco membership is currently $65 per year for a Gold Star membership (the basic tier) and $130 per year for the Executive membership. Not extortionate, but not pocket change, either. So, if you're used to getting certain benefits for your money and then they're taken away, it can be disappointing. People who remember these benefits can end up lamenting them for decades. Some might even turn in their membership cards over them. Whether they're policies that have changed, services no longer offered, or simply favorite snacks no longer available from the food court, these missing benefits can sting.

All in all, Costco is a great place to shop. Yes, you have to brave the enormous aisles, and you might have to dedicate half a day to your shopping trip, but it offers incredible value. Plus, the company is known for paying workers well, and there are all kinds of employee benefits at Costco that leave us feeling good about spending money there. Still, these eight discontinued Costco membership benefits are a bit of a sore spot.

Most people are aware of Costco's impressive returns policy. You can take basically anything back that you aren't happy with, and some folks abuse it. There are some wild things people have returned to Costco, like Christmas trees after Christmas, or dirty cat litter boxes. However, there is a rule that says electronics can only be returned in-store for 90 days. It didn't used to be like that, though. Longtime Costco members may remember a wonderful time when you could return electronics with no time limit.

Although most people return items for genuine reasons, the unlimited return policy for electrical items began to take its toll. People could return working TVs years after they bought them, get a full refund, and use the refund to upgrade their set to the latest model — sometimes for less money than they paid in the first place. And the same could go for any electrical item. Things must have been getting out of hand because, way back in 2007, Costco decided to limit its return window for electronics to just 90 days.

This is still a generous amount of time compared to other retailers, which often allow returns for just 14 to 30 days. Still, it was a blow to those accustomed to returning items indefinitely. Today, if it's past the 90-day window but your item is still under warranty, you have to go to the manufacturer or, if your goods are faulty, go through Costco Technical and Warranty Services.

Costco Travel is one of the many perks of a Costco membership, allowing folks to book trips at highly discounted prices. But, one place you can no longer book a trip to through Costco Travel is Disneyland, California. So, no Disneyland holiday foods, no Matterhorn Bobsleds, and no Sleeping Beauty Castle. Not if you want the Costco discount, anyway.

Up until 2025, booking a trip to Disneyland was an option, but in May that year, it was announced that Costco Travel would no longer accept new bookings to the resort, and people still miss it. It's unclear why you can no longer book Disneyland vacation packages, but Disney World and Disney Cruises are still available. All we know is that it left people disappointed, particularly those who had priced up their trips before the deals disappeared or those who were relying on the Executive membership cashback to make the trip more affordable. Members had loved the perks they'd gotten for staying at the resort, and Costco let them do so at a reasonable price.

Now, some people might say, "Why not go to Disney World instead?" Objectively, it's larger and has way more to offer, but for many, it's too large. It spans over 40 square miles, which makes it roughly the size of San Francisco. For people with small kids or who only want to spend a day or two at the park, Disneyland is far more manageable. So, it's no wonder the former membership perk is greatly missed.

For many years, Costco had photo centers in its stores. Originally, these would have been used to develop rolls of film, but as photography went digital, the function changed somewhat. Instead, they served as places where people could print photos from digital cameras or create items like photo books, calendars, or stationery with personalized photos. However, in 2021, the warehouse chain announced it would be closing all its in-store photo centers, thus ending a lesser-used but still much-appreciated membership perk.

It's no surprise that these photo centers shut down. Although people in the U.S. are taking more photos than ever before, the popularity of smartphones and social media means that most are stored and shared online. The demand for printed photos declined so much that it wasn't worth it for Costco to use the space for this in its stores. However, many people still used photo centers, like those who liked to have physical copies of their favorite snaps, or people who wanted special items printed.

At the time Costco shut its photo centers, it still offered certain photo services online, which softened the blow a little. People could still go online for items like large prints on canvas or metal, calendars, or photo books, all at the great prices you expect from Costco. But it wasn't the same as being able to pop in while doing the grocery shopping.

We've already mentioned how Costco's in-store photo centers shut down, but online services remained. Well, that wasn't for long. In 2023, two years after the physical photo centers closed up shop, Costco also stopped its online photo services. This left customers disappointed, many of whom had been using the photo center for years and appreciated the offerings and the quality.

When Costco stopped providing online photo printing as a membership benefit, it instead referred its customers to Shutterfly as an alternative. It offered Costco members a 51% discount and free shipping on orders that came to over $49. This seems like a good deal, with Costco members still getting great value, but customers continued to miss the store's own photo services. Folks complained that Shutterfly's paper quality and printing colors were simply inferior to Costco's offerings, and it wasn't the same.

It marked the end of an era for Costco. For decades, people had been getting photos printed via Costco, first in-store only, then online and in-store, and finally just online, before it all petered out. Sure, there are more places to print photos, but the point is that this is one more membership perk to cross off the list.

Access to the Costco food court is among the best membership benefits for some customers. One recent Costco food court change is the introduction of scanners to check people's membership cards. So, there's no longer a chase of people getting those impressive prices on things like hot dogs and pizzas without coughing up for membership. But, Costco shoppers also had to mourn a beloved food court favorite: the much-adored combo pizza is no longer a perk of membership.

This was effectively a take on a supreme pizza, topped with sausage, pepperoni, onions, green bell peppers, mushrooms, black olives, and cheese. Costco discontinued it in 2020, and it hasn't come back to the regular U.S. food court menu. The combo pizza was replaced by a combo calzone, but it didn't hit the same. It never reached the iconic status of the pizza it took the spot of, and the warehouse chain clearly received enough complaints about the calzone that it took note. However, rather than bringing combo pizza back, Costco is simply replacing it with a whole new menu item: chicken strips.

The $1.50 hot-dog-and-soda combo that the Costco food court is so well known for might be a membership perk that isn't set to go away any time soon. It's been that price since 1985 and the CEO doesn't want to change it. But, the same can't be said for the combo pizza. It's gone but certainly not forgotten.

Costco is known for selling good-quality coffee. There are often name brands hiding behind Costco's Kirkland products. With coffee, you get the best results when you grind it fresh yourself rather than buying it ground, since it can be sitting on the shelf for months, losing flavor. Costco once had coffee grinders you could use on-site, so you could buy whole beans for fresher flavor without having to buy a coffee grinder yourself. But that perk went out of the window in 2025.

Customers miss having the ability to grind their coffee there and then. These were fast, quality grinders that would be expensive to buy for use at home. But it seems that grinder privileges were revoked because people couldn't use them correctly. Reports suggest that shoppers were double-grinding their coffee in the hope of making it finer. But it doesn't work that way; it just clogs up the machine. This and other types of misuse meant that Costco staff were taking up a lot of time cleaning and fixing the machines instead of doing their jobs, which isn't good for the bottom line. As such, free use of coffee grinders in Costco stores isn't a benefit likely to come back any time soon.

While not exactly a benefit of Costco membership, the Citi Costco credit card was a great deal for members due to a particular offer. As Costco members, credit card holders are able to receive cashback on purchases, making the store an even better value to shop at. But, this wasn't the only benefit. One of the major reasons some people used the card was the extended warranty. This gave users a full 24-month warranty on purchases, so if anything went wrong, it was easy to get a replacement or have an item repaired free of charge. But then, in early 2023, this all changed.

Holders of the Citi Costco card were informed that the extended warranty period was being discontinued. This didn't just mean there would be no new warranty issues, but that any extended consumer protection provided by this scheme would be void. Some folks intentionally used this card to get an extended warranty, which left Costco shoppers disappointed, and potentially in for a huge bill if a product they'd bought developed a fault. Previously, up to $10,000 had been covered, which isn't a small amount to swallow.

We've already discussed the fact that Costco's photo centers closed their doors to customers. But, this left members without another much-loved benefit: affordable passport photos. Costco was once known as a hotspot for getting passport photos printed. When applying for a passport or other kind of photo ID, there are usually strict rules about the size, composition, and quality of photos. Often, it can be expensive to get these types of photos shot, but not at Costco.

Not only were the warehouse chain's photos priced extremely affordably, but the quality was also good. Members complain that, with the photo centers gone, they now have to spend more on passport photos and the quality is worse. It's all very well paying more for something when you get a better product for your money. But paying more and getting something worse just adds insult to injury. It seems like passport photos are a perk of Costco membership that shoppers will be missing for a while. And there's no sign that Costco will ever reverse its decision on the photo centers, so it's likely gone for good.