Costco Wholesale — Local services in South San Francisco

Hey, it’s Costco. Tip: Come here for fuel before they open the warehouse.

Don’t trust the other drivers when you get here because they’re all looking for spots and not watching where they’re going; Careless behavior continues inside the warehouse when people are pushing carts. Give everyone lots of room and watch your heels because people will ride up behind you with their cart and try to take out your Achilles tendons.

Great selection and always great quality. People are always willing to help you. The store is kept clean and functional as per Costco’s quality control and safety procedures.

This is the secret place for cold brew coffee too. They come in the tall narrow cans, packs of 12 and they are very good and consistent.

No one here needs me to expound on the deli/meat/bakery department as it is always top-notch and the only place to find better meat, albeit for much more money, is Whole Paycheck.

But the issue here remains many of the other shoppers. Not everybody is so blissfully and detrimentally unaware of other people. Yet here the concentration of those individuals in one place makes it seem like everybody in the world is careless and trying to kill you with their ineptitude. Two weeks ago, I was walking from my vehicle to the front door. I experienced three near misses from people racing across the lot to get to the fuel line. For more carnage, I returned from one shopping trip to find somebody had sideswiped the passenger door side of my truck preventing access through the loading doors. No note, nothing. Just took off. They probably didn’t even know they did it because they were so unaware. Even with the extra large spaces, people still manage to display a depressing lack of spatial awareness. Costco is quite voluminous in terms of foot traffic and space able to be occupied which makes this next point even more frustrating. People will walk five abreast of one another while shopping and walk right into somebody coming the other direction. Or they will camp out in the middle of an aisle and not let anyone pass, pretending they are the only ones that exist there. Such solipsism has no place in a space where people are in close proximity. Then there are the supposed adults that stand on the back of their carts and ride them. One such person even struck my cart as they flew out of a side aisle. It’s almost like people became adults, but never actually matured. Then let loose in a public setting. Add to those mindless individuals the people that put children who are far too old in the main part of their basket, and allow them to stand up while they push through the store. Those people should be arrested for child endangerment. I know it’s not everyone’s job to be the police, but you really do have to watch your back here. The ineptitude, solipsism, lack of forethought, dangerous behavior amongst other customers, should make people want to wear body armor shopping here.

Finally, returning to the fueling station, the observation here is of people using their vehicles as weapons to jostle for position. I guarantee you those same people would behave very different when pushing their carts in front of other people rudely at the checkout lines. I’ll bet you the same. People wouldn’t do it standing in line at the bank, the DMV, the kiosk at the fast food place…etc. What makes people think it’s acceptable to do it with a 4000 pound appliance? Then there are the people who will pull to the first pump in a row of four and stop. Rather than pulling all the way forward, they selfishly make everyone behind them have to parallel park at the other free pumps. No common sense or courtesy.

In summary, shop here when you need necessities en masse and you need decent fuel for less than surrounding stations. Unfortunately, it is not Costco’s job to police peoples behavior unless they get unruly. So with that in mind, go in here prepared for battle and expect to get your toes run over once or twice by the sort of beings I’ve mentioned. Because we live in a society where people seem to be incapable of being...

2.0 star rating 1/14/2017 I have always loved coming to Costco for as long as I remember to stock up on household necessities, and food. We love what Costco has to offer from the photo center, the tire center, the eye center, and everything else. However, the associate working the photo center today was very rude, unhelpful, and lacks basic customer service. My uncle came with us and intended to take a passport sized photo to use on his tombstone. He even went to the extent of dressing up, wearing a suit and tie to ensure his picture looks nice and proper. The first time we took the picture, I asked Alex for my uncle, since he does not speak English, to see how the picture looked like. He showed us very quickly. When I asked for a retake, I told him specifically that we wanted the picture to show more of the body, instead of a full headshot, not showing just the collarbone area and up. He didn't listen to what I had to say, and simply ignored me. When we asked to see the picture, he again showed us very quickly and seemed to not care how his customer's picture turns out. When we saw the developed photo, we were unhappy with the results because the photo did not display the tie and that just beats the purpose of uncle going the extra mile to dress up. I asked Alex if he can fix it, but he responded saying he was only following the proportions on the passport booklet. If we wanted to have it fixed, my uncle has to pay again and retake the picture. When we went through the process to take the picture, Alex spoke to us rudely, like he did not want to do his job or take further retakes for us. I asked if there can be less white space above the head and more of the body, and he rudely said no, saying that there needs to be more space for cropping, which doesn't make sense if it is just white space. When we saw the developed picture, it was better but there was still a lot of white space above the head, which isn't very proportional to how the picture is supposed to be like. Alex's way of taking people's passport picture is snapping the picture very quickly and getting the service done as fast a possible. He should put more care and consideration into his customer's pictures because no one wants a crappy photo. Maybe he was just having a bad day, but please do not vent your frustrations onto customers. It only leads to disappointed and...

Oh Costco. Love you / hate you. There always seems to be some inventory change that necessitates another stop before going home. Speaking specifically this time about Cocoa powder. I understand that availability changes sometimes and new vendors must be sought out but, Costco should be good at that by now. A place that is literally a giant warehouse and sells 25lb bags of flour and sugar should think twice about deciding to stop carrying a very common baking ingredient like Cocoa power. A little goes a long way and a small by comparison 2lb container would be a good item to make a little profit on with minimal retail space sacrificed. Especially when compared to the various kinds of 50lb bags of rice that sell for so little that I wonder how the shipping costs are even covered. Outside of those kinds of highly annoying product inconsistencies, the overall retail experience is quite good. The staff is always professional and kind. The checkout lines move with an impressive speed and efficiency. The only other gripe would be the big storage piles and pallets at the isle ends that create bottlenecks for the cart traffic. At least the sample stands that create the same problem have an obvious sales and marketing purpose. The extra product piles at the isle ends however, beg the question, are they really out of space? It's a really big building after all. I suspect that they're trying to slow shoppers down so they buy more stuff. Costco, if you're reading this, trust me, when I set foot in your store I'm going to buy PLENTY of stuff. Don't give me reasons to hesitate from going there. I already have to stop at the regular grocery store every so often anyway because I can't risk the time it takes to discover something I need isn't at Costco. Having said all that, Kirkland grain free dog food is high quality and very reasonably priced. Keep that in inventory and I'll never stop...