Costco Wholesale — Local services in Newark

I’m writing this review in hopes management will see it and give one of the staff members working here a shout out. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her name but check your cams if you need to. I can tell you when and where to look lol- Sat 4/26/25 around 5pm just past the last register towards merch pick up. As someone who’s worked in customer service and managed a staff team, I know there are certain folks who are gems and rarely get their props. So I ask that you do your due diligence to figure out who she is to give her her flowers. Thanks :)

So, I’m a bit of a basic beach and sometimes buy into the hype around social media trends. I’m also in the Bay Area Costco group to monitor for anything interesting. I had seen that the Dubai chocolates had dropped in some Costcos for a while now, but not the bay. Then FINALLY in the last week, people on the group were posting they had snagged a bag at certain locations. At my last Costco run, I just casually looked around to see if they had it but nope. Eh, I expected as much.

Then today I happened to be in the area to have lunch with a friend, and I open Facebook to see a post that Newark had some. So before I headed home, I decided to swing by to see if I could snag one. The Facebook lady had posted a pic, so I was able to locate exactly where she found them. Nope, just sportsball cards. Meh. Then I do a quick pass through the warehouse in the usual spots where it could be and nada. Oh well.

I initially didn’t want to ask anyone because I can only IMAGNE the number of times each floor staff has been asked by a customer “do you have any of those Dubai chocolates?” in the past week. I had pulled up the app to see if there were any Costco’s on the way home that might still have it in stock and saw that Newark had “low stock”. Ok, see sometimes online inventory isn’t accurate, but it was enough for me to decide to ask a staff member. Maybe they had to hide the chocolates because some of my fellow basic beaches like to hoard the goods and leave crumbs for everyone else. Alas, scarcity mindset.

So, I walk over towards the checkout area and approach the merch pickup spot and locate my girlie by the last register (I think she’s Latina and had her hair in a bun- again for your convenience- 4/26/25 at 5pmish 😂) and I show her the pic and asked her if she knew if there was any left. Mind you, I was fully prepared to get the side eye, maybe a slight shudder, perhaps an exasperated sigh, and at minimum a pained smile from the person I asked. But she turned out to be super sweet and told me “oh, we had them today but they just sold out! They were just over there!” And I’m like oh no worries, thank you! Phew! Not an ounce of annoyance detected.

I decided to stop by the restroom before I head out, and afterwards, she must have seen me walk by and make my way towards the exit. Just as I’m about to leave I hear someone saying EXCUSE ME!!! I stop and turn to see another Costco employee (Asian kid, give him his props, too) holding A BAG OF DUBAI CHOCOLATES. He goes “were you the one looking for these?” Ummm YEAH! He tells me it’s their last bag and they had somehow just found it, then he takes me to customer service counter to quickly check out. YAAAS! ENTIRE DAY MADE.

This is a classic example of an employee going above and beyond. Maybe she is just really great at masking her frustration, but I think getting someone to chase me down for a bag of chocolates showed she actually cares about helping out customers. Not only that, the store was packed with many of my fellow Asians. How even? LOL.

I know it is RARE to find employees like this, and these employees often don’t get enough recognition for being awesome. So, here is your very specific and detailed recollection of events, documented for your convenience, from that Asian girlie looking for Dubai...

I go to Costco maybe three times a week. Today I had a little bit of cabin fever and decided that I needed to get out and so Costco was my target. A new one was being built, and that essentially makes the 4th Costco close to my house, with this one potentially being the second closest. I now have a Costco within 7 miles from my home in both directions heading north and south. That's also probably cuz I live in the middle of the Bay area California, which ensures that even if they added another Costco, there still wouldn't be too many for the population density. This is the new Costco that recently opened up next to the Newpark Mall. It took over the space that many years ago once housed the century Cinedome theaters. Upon arrival, you'll find that parking is spacious and makes you feel like you're in Hawaii because the entrance to the Costco is right next to the existing Newpark Mall parking structure. For all those who are wondering, it is essentially the same as the Costco at Auto Mall parkway in terms of layout. Matter of fact, if I knocked you out and you woke up you wouldn't know which one you were at. The only giveaway might be that the aisles seem a little bit wider and everything looks cleaner. That's not to say that the auto mall version is a dirtier place, there's just a newness about this one. As a bonus for the time being, you'll also find that the gas station for this Costco has very short lines. The downside, is that exiting the new park area will be much more difficult because the entry and exit points are few and typically single laned. Even on a late Saturday night, the closest exit had a line of cars trying to exit and enter the freeway, but that was also slow going. I can only imagine during the daytime that it would be far worse when the mall and the Costco patronage is much higher. Overall, this is going to be the classic Costco experience, but the location is going to make going more challenging than...

I went to the eye clinic for an exam. After the eye exam I got my prescription and gave it to the sales person on the floor. He asked me some questions and then told me that he recommended that I get two pairs. One for reading and one for far away. I told them that I had frames at home and forgot them so I was only going to get the ones for reading. I called my husband to bring them but he couldn't find them. The next day my husband went back with my frames. The manager called me and said they were about 5 years old and didn't recommended using them bc they could break. So I said ok. A couple days after that I went in to pick out frames. When I went to pay them, i explained the situation and expected the discount for buying a second pair. The lady at the front desk said there was nothing written down about it and it had to be purchased in the same day. She suggested I come back the next day when the manager was going to be in. The next day I went in and the manager had left for the day. I explained that I had to work. I was told that the manager was going to be in late the next day. So, again I went back and told the manager who I was, explained the story again and she REFUSED to give me the discount for the second pair! I get it should be the same day but had I known that the pair I had wasn't going to work, I would have bought the second pair at the same time. I could understand if it were a month but it was at most a week. I felt like they didn't care and just refused to accommodate me. I won't be going back for glasses...