Costco fans share key hack to solve major member problem | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Most Costco members will probably tell you that there are both pros and cons to shopping at the warehouse club stores.

The upside, of course, is scoring bargain prices on bulk items, not to mention getting access to interesting new products on a regular basis.

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Costco also has one of the most generous return policies in all of retail. For the most part, if you want a refund, all you need to do is bring back the item you don’t want. It’s that simple.

On the flip side, though, most retail locations let you walk in the door without having to show a membership ID or pay an annual fee. At Costco, you may not love the idea of having to shell out $65 or $130 per year, depending on the type of membership you have, and dealing with bottlenecks to get in the store.

It’s also hard to overlook the fact that Costco tends to attract large crowds, especially on weekends. And there’s nothing like a jam-packed warehouse to sour the shopping experience.

Some people also find the checkout process at Costco frustrating.

It’s not just that you have to wait in a long line to pay for your haul. Adding insult to injury is that once you’ve put in your time in the checkout aisle, you often have to wait in yet another line for a receipt-checker before you can actually get out the door.

Costco fans share a key hack to solve a major member problem.

Image source&colon; Tim Boyle/Getty Images

Disappearing products are a big issue at Costco

Another pain point for Costco members is the fact that beloved products can disappear from the store’s shelves without warning.

Unlike major supermarkets, which commonly stock 30,000 to 60,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) at a time, Costco intentionally limits its inventory to about 4,000 SKUs. That way, it can keep tabs on quality and better position itself to negotiate good prices.

The problem with this strategy, though, is that for new products to come into the store, existing products have to leave.

Sometimes, Costco will phase a product out gradually, pulling it from certain locations first before getting rid of it altogether.

Other times, though, Costco’s decision to remove a product from its inventory can be drastic. You may find that an item you buy on a regular basis is there one week but gone the next, to the point where you can’t even order it online.

Costco fans share important hack for discontinued products

If you’ve ever experienced the disappointment of seeing one of your favorite products disappear from Costco’s shelves, you’re not alone. But you may not know that there could be a way to bring that product back.

One thing Costco is known for is its commitment to excellent customer service. To that end, Costco is open to suggestions on ways to improve the member experience. Those could run the gamut from policy changes at warehouse club stores to having discontinued items brought back.

Recently, one Costco fan took to Reddit to share that their local warehouse club store had stopped selling a favorite snack food of theirs — Nerds Gummy Clusters. The user requested that Costco bring them back, and lo and behold, they were spotted on shelves not long after.

Other Redditors were quick to chime in that they, too, had been successful in having discontinued items brought back, or new items introduced.

“You can absolutely request that your local Costco carry something that no other Costco carries,” one user wrote.

“Use the suggestion box typically located near the exit,” another wrote, explaining how to offer feedback for store managers.

On top of doing that, it’s easy to provide Costco with feedback on its website. Just click the “feedback” tab on the right side of the screen, or find the feedback section on the mobile app. From there, you can request that a discontinued item be returned.

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Of course, Costco can’t necessarily restock items every single time a customer asks. But if enough people make a request for the same missing item, it could have an impact.

So the next time a favorite product of yours is suddenly pulled from Costco’s shelves, round up friends and fellow members and encourage them to write in asking for its return. If enough people express their disappointment, it might very well work.

Maurie Backman owns shares of Costco.