There's something fishy going on with Costco. How useful is a burning umbrella anyway?
In 2004, 700 female employees pointed a spotlight on Costco's practices of
promoting from within. According to SFGate, past and current employees have said that
Costco had a nasty habit of passing over women when management positions opened up.
The company also neglected to advertise open positions and their qualifications
The suit was only settled in 2013 when Costco agreed to pay out $8 million. Going forward,
all management openings would have to be posted for at least 10 days, and a system would be put
in place where employees could tell their managers they were interested in moving up.
Getting your special someone a Michael Kors handbag at a great price from Costco
seems like an awesome deal, right? Well, advertisements suggesting that customers
could do precisely that started popping up in 2013. The ads featured images of
designer handbags — many of which appeared to be Michael Kors designs. Michael Kors
was less thrilled than customers were, and in response, he filed complaints in federal courts.
The designer merchant explained that not only was
Costco not an authorized Michael Kors retailer, but it carried none
of Kors' handbags and was instead running a bait-and-switch false advertising campaign.
Costco didn't immediately comment on the story when it broke,
but it did settle the lawsuit in 2014.
There's no telling what's going to show up on the shelves of Costco,
and that's part of the fun of shopping there ... for customers at least.
"Oh, I love this place. I'd love to get lost in here."
In 2009, Citizens of Humanity, LLC was less than thrilled to find some of its very,
very expensive jeans for sale at Costco.
Since Citizens only had a limited number of retailers that were authorized to sell its product
— and Costco definitely wasn't one of them — it claimed the only way the big box retailer could
have gotten the jeans was if they had been stolen from a legit retailer. Citizens sued, insisting
Costco needed to both reveal where the jeans came from and come clean about selling stolen goods.
Retail Consumer Products says the case went to trial and set a pretty important precedent.
Not only did Costco not have to reveal its sources, but Citizens had no control over
what their distributors chose to do with the jeans after they were in possession of them. If
those distributors wanted to sell them to Costco, they could — much to the delight of some shoppers.
"Organic" is a pretty powerful buzzword, and anyone who vows to go as organic as
possible probably takes the claims very seriously. Unfortunately for Costco,
in 2017, The Washington Post did an exposé of Aurora Organic Dairy — the
main supplier of not just Costco, but Walmart, too.
In order to be considered organic, milk needs to come from cows allowed to graze
for the entirety of the grazing season. When investigators visited the farm, there were
almost no cows out grazing. Satellite photos taken throughout the season revealed the same thing.
The 2017 investigation came 10 years after the dairy had
been accused of "willful violation" of the USDA's standards for organic milk,
but no violations were found. Even though the case was officially closed, watchdog groups
continued to protest what they viewed as feeble investigations and an unacceptable verdict,
leaving Costco customers to wonder if their organic milk was really organic at all.
Earlier in 2021, Costco came under fire when an investigation by animal rights group Mercy for
Animals uncovered alleged mistreatment at the company's poultry processing plant in Nebraska.
A video filmed by an undercover investigator found injured chickens crowded in a dimly lit
space filled with excrement. It was grim enough that it led to an op-ed in The New York Times.
As CNN reported, Costco defended its farm,
claiming its chickens were housed in accordance with standards set by the
National Chicken Council. That didn't stop a lawsuit from two of the company's shareholders,
who alleged that the wholesale giant broke its fiduciary duties by violating animal welfare laws.
According to Delish, the lawsuit also alleged that chickens were "bred to grow
unnaturally fast" and impaired by large undersides that dragged on the ground.
Costco has not publicly commented on the lawsuit,
but when it comes to the low price of its chicken, the goose might be cooked.
Extreme food-related lawsuits aren't uncommon. Who could forget the infamous
human finger in Wendy's chili and the McDonald's coffee suit that
was so notorious it was immortalized in an episode of "Seinfeld?" Costco isn't immune,
and in 2022, the wholesaler was sued for some seriously fishy business.
According to CBS News, a family filed a $200,000 lawsuit against Costco after discovering worms
in their frozen halibut. The grossest part? They only discovered it after they started eating. Yum!
Per the filing, the family purchased a package of Kirkland brand Halibut
filets in March 2021. They cooked it the same day, and the parents ate some of the meal,
sharing the leftovers with their daughter. It was then that the horror unfolded:
their daughter picked at her fish with a fork and a bunch of live worms allegedly crawled
out. Needless to say, it caused emotional distress and put the their kids off seafood indefinitely.
At the time of this video, the suit hasn't been resolved. It's unclear
how Costco plans to worm their way out of this one.
Summer barbecues can get lit — but Costco members didn't expect their warm-weather
celebrations to literally go up in flames. In June 2022, the big-box retailer recalled 400,000
solar umbrellas because they were a potential fire and burn hazard.
SunVilla Corporation's LED Market Umbrellas, which have been on Costco shelves since December 2020,
sparked a nationwide recall after six reports of the lithium-ion batteries
overheating. In three of those reports, the solar panels caught fire while the umbrella
was charging indoors. In two reports, a solar panel overheated and ignited while attached to an
umbrella. In the final report, someone suffered from a smoke inhalation injury.
A month prior to the recall, Costco pulled the product from
shelves. Anyone who did purchase the umbrella qualifies for a full refund.
The coconut milk options at Costco got a little bit thinner in 2020 thanks to
some serious monkey business. According to USA Today, animal rights group PETA
claimed the wholesalers dropped Chaokoh coconut milk when the Thailand-based
company was accused of forced monkey labor. Yes, that's actually a thing.
"Chaokoh is accused of using monkey labor to pick the coconuts, PETA says."
See? We weren't lying. PETA began investigating the animal
abuse allegations in 2019. According to the nonprofit's corporate responsibility officer,
who spoke to USA Today, the investigation found that monkeys were chained and forced
to harvest as many as 400 coconuts a day, then locked in cages. The process
was reportedly legal — and even allegedly promoted by Thailand's Tourism Authority.
PETA gave Costco the head's up, and the company reportedly launched its own investigation. In a
letter obtained by USA Today, Costco Vice President Ken Kimble told PETA President
Ingrid Newkirk that he was concerned about the treatment of monkeys. He wrote,
"We have ceased purchasing from our supplier/owner of the brand Chaokoh […] We will continue to
monitor the implementation of the harvest policies and once satisfied will resume purchasing."
Costco didn't act alone; Walmart, Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop all
dropped the product. The controversy was so fierce that Theppadungporn Coconut Co. Ltd,
which produces the coconut milk, launched a third-party audit. After investigating 64 of
its 817 plantations, the brand told USA Today that it found no evidence of monkey labor.