Costco Wholesale — Local services in Tustin

Review only for “Self Checkout”.

Dear Costco, I left the El Camino store feeling very disappointed and frustrated today. I shop here frequently and my experience is usually exceptional. I believe Costco’s paying members deserve a better self checkout experience than Wal-Mart or Target…. Does anyone else feel this way??? These standards should be the bare minimum, and hopefully, if your self checkout can not be improved, it is eliminated. Your technology is inferior to your competitors.

To be fair, I am already negatively biased against self checkout. I rarely use self checkout anywhere, and when I do, the experience leaves much to be desired. For a little background, I was a repair technician and operator for a radar and missile system in the Navy.

The attendant was highly professional, friendly, and did her best to be helpful. She should be commended for helping customers when they are having difficulty and experiencing frustration. It is NOT her job to fix a poor design or flawed system. I also requested a manager who was fantastic, but this is a problem far beyond store level. This is an executive level problem (too bad my Executive membership doesn’t qualify me!).

I had six items to scan. Three items were new clothing. One was a white linen shirt. I do not want to place any new clothing on the dirty metal area for scanned items, especially a white linen shirt. I placed a clean box there first. The system would not let me scan any items because the box was there. I was left with no acceptable options because the “new” system requires the purchased items to be placed in a specific area. Nothing else can be placed in this area, or checkout can’t proceed. I could have asked the attendant to clean the area. Why should I have to ask? I feel frustrated having to conform to unacceptable and sub-par standards. The line behind me was quickly growing, and I could tell the people waiting in line for self checkout were frustrated that my experience was taking longer than it should.  I took my items and waited in a normal checkout line so I could be treated with customer care that makes shoppers feel valued and appreciated. My wasted time at self checkout is frustrating. Perhaps more checkout lines can be opened when the store is busy. At least six lanes were closed today with the lines getting longer.

Costco, I am untrained for this equipment. Please consider me a dummy when it comes to self checkout…  It isn’t my job to find a workaround for what should be simple and basic customer service. It is Costco’s job to provide a superior shopping experience in all aspects if you want your members to feel valued and keep renewing memberships.

Corporate, this is all for you to see. I took the time to write because I love Costco. It is my favorite store. Also, I want all members and hard working employees to have the best experience possible. We all deserve this, from customers to top-level store management and everyone between!

When action has been taken to give the self checkout service that all paying members deserve, I will amend the most negative rating possible and leave a positive...

I don’t shop at Costco but always been a member, my partner does all the shopping and lucky me today I decided to go there for passport photo, I had to wait for 20 minutes to pick up the picture so I end up going to vitamin section, when I got to the register the lady was so rude, look I get it you might hate your job but you don’t get to have attitude with a customer, I’m the account holder, today I Couldnt find my card but I had my partner card on me, she rudely rolled her eyes and said I can’t help you because I need to have my own card, she wasn’t even listening to me and kinda saying ok leave, I made her to call someone, two different people came and they took my ID and came back with my account number, they saw The account is under my name, they tried putting my account number and her register was declining, the second guy told her try again and she said “I’m tried” I already tried twice, like are you kidding me?!!! Tired of what? Scanning two bottle of zinc for me? Just because I am standing for my right and you just don’t want to help me? You didn’t scan 100 items for me and you only punched few numbers? Don’t you get pay to do that? What’s the attitude for? I couldn’t stand her and all those people were waiting in the line, I just told them hold my stuff I’ll be back, I went to the membership department and got my card in less than 8 minutes, I told them about what happened and they told me she could just manually put my account number and process my purchase, like I KNOW! Of course she could, she was just tired, why don’t you just retire already if your that tired? When I went back she wasn’t there anymore, she knew!!! Funny how she took off, so unprofessional, is that how they treat people here every day? Why paying these people? For what? I can take my business somewhere else, if I pay for the membership and walk in there after two years and this is how they’re going treat me then no thanks, I’ll keep my money to myself and take my business somewhere els, I will definitely be making few calls including their corporate office and make sure they will find her and teach her some costumer service so she won’t stand there every day and treat people like the way...

Dear Costco Management,

I am writing to formally express my dissatisfaction with the experience I had at your El Camino Costco location on 10/26/25. As a long-time Costco member, I have come to expect a high standard of efficiency and customer service. Unfortunately, this visit was well below those expectations.

Upon arriving at the store, I was surprised to find that no shopping carts were available near the entrance. Customers were forced to search the parking lot for carts, creating unnecessary inconvenience and disorganization. Given the predictable increase in customer traffic on weekends, adequate cart availability should be a standard operational priority.

Additionally, there was only one membership scanning machine operating at the front entrance. The process was being overseen by an employee named Ping, who appeared to be enforcing membership verification in a manner that significantly slowed down entry and created an unnecessary bottleneck.

One particular incident was especially concerning: a father with two young children (both under ten years old) was delayed and prevented from entering the store because his wife, who holds the membership card, was already inside shopping. Rather than exercising discretion or empathy in this situation, the employee kept the family waiting at the entrance for a manager’s approval, further disrupting the flow of customers attempting to enter.

Considering that this occurred on a Sunday, one of the busiest shopping days, it is unreasonable to have only a single machine and attendant managing member entry. At least two operational scanning stations should be available during peak hours to ensure efficient customer flow.

Overall, this experience reflected poor planning, inadequate staffing, and a lack of customer consideration, which are inconsistent with the quality and service that Costco is known for. I would appreciate it if management could review the procedures at this location, particularly regarding entrance operations and cart availability, to prevent similar situations in the future.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to hearing how this issue will...