Though COVID has influenced Costco's new food rules, the superstore chain has long had some
strict guidelines both for employees and customers. From the do's and don'ts of the kitchen to
who's allowed to eat at the food court, consider this your unofficial guide to the rules regarding
Costco's food.
Thinking about applying for a job in Costco's food court, bakery, or meat department? Well,
if you're a fan of painted nails, you might want to consider another position, because
a trip to the nail salon is going to be wasted money.
Nail polish is a no-no for food workers. The primary reason for this isn't that Costco
is trying to stifle style but because of the potential for nail polish to chip and end
up in food. That seems like a pretty reasonable argument — nothing ruins a bite of pizza
like looking down and seeing a chip of red nail polish laying on top of a pepperoni.
The same goes for acrylic nails. A Costco food safety manual details that employees
must have, quote, "trimmed and short" fingernails and that:
"No jewelry of any kind can be worn."
Not even a watch is allowed. Other departments within Costco likely aren't as strict about
employee appearance. Several Costco employees said they got away with sporting facial piercings,
but this seemed to depend on how lenient the general manager was.
"I never knew the beauty of Costco and one day I woke up and I had, like, an epiphany.
And I was just, like, 'Let's go to Costco.'"
Nobody wants to eat food that's been touched by dirty hands. It can lead to food poisoning
and is just overall gross. It's standard practice for employers to require employees to wash
their hands before handling food. Costco, however, takes things a step further and has
strict protocol in place when it comes to keeping hands clean.
The chain expects its food suppliers have hand-washing sinks strategically placed so
that food prep employees can wash their hands the second they enter the building and proceed
to their work station with minimal risk of germ infiltration.
Those hand washing stations should also be completely hands-free, of course, for extra
safety. As far as clean hands are concerned, hand washing is only the first step.
If Costco hands are going to be touching any sort of ready-to-eat product, a few squirts
of soap simply isn't good enough. Employees are to wear gloves and abide by Costco's written
glove policy.
The retail chain requires employees to wear either single-use latex-free or reusable gloves,
and any reusable gloves must be clean and sanitized before starting a shift or coming
back from break.
According to an NPR article, Costco sells about 60 million rotisserie chickens each
year. Even though the chickens are a loss leader, they're invaluable because most people
who buy them are going to venture deeper into the store and make other purchases.
The chickens taste great straight out of the bag, and you're pretty much guaranteed to
get a fresh one every time.
"So what is the secret of these chickens?"
"Well, it's a larger chicken than you're going to find in other stores and then the price."
Yep, just like everything else food-related under the Costco roof, there are certain chicken
rules that must be followed.
One employee told Business Insider:
"Our famous rotisserie chickens are not allowed to be sold after two hours of sitting in the
warmer."
Any chickens that aren't sold within the two hour time frame are turned into soup. The
employees who handle those rotisserie chickens can also be seen wearing aprons, gloves, hair
nets, hats, and beard nets if they have facial hair.
With the $5 chickens being such a big part of Costco's food strategy, it's understandable
why they take rotisserie chicken safety seriously.
Walk into any Costco bakery, and you'll see rows of breads, pastries, and cakes, all ready
to be sold. So what happens to all that food that doesn't make it off the shelves?
Food such as baked goods are often donated to food pantries. Some produce products even
find their way into city zoos or various animal sanctuaries.
One Costco employee said the food court is incredibly strict about throwing away food
— even before a customer touches it. The employee explained:
"Let's say a member asks for a slice of cheese pizza. We place that piece onto a plate, with
tongs, of course, then place the plate onto the counter. If the member says, 'Oh darn,
I've changed my mind, I'd rather have pepperoni pizza,' then we have to toss the pizza that
they didn't want into the trash."
The customer doesn't even have to touch the plate. We're not faulting Costco here — gambling
with food safety isn't worth the risk. It's that sort of customer indecisiveness that
contributes to food waste, though — so choose wisely.
Costco's food court is a serious money-maker. According to CNN, those hot dogs and popular
rotisserie chickens that shoppers love to buy help the food court pull in nearly $1
billion annually for Costco. Considering that the food court is a money-making machine,
it's only natural that Costco would be serious about its food court safety.
Some Costco employees believe that the chain uses the food court as a testing ground for
new employees to see if they have what it takes.
One employee said:
"If you start in a food department, especially Food Court, Bakery, Deli, etc., it is hard
to get out as none of these departments are remotely 'easy' to work in and they will be
less likely to move you out if you are a good worker."
Another employee said that newbies either:
"Start out pushing carts or food court. [But] hang in there, pass your 90 days, and reap
the benefits. Look for job postings in the break room. I went food court, to cashier,
to membership in a year and a half."
Like every grocery store in the United States — and much of the world — the COVID-19
pandemic threw Costco for a loop. All of a sudden, normal operations came to a halt,
and a whole new set of rules had to be put into place. This was especially apparent when
it came to food and drink.
At the end of March 2020, Costco temporarily did away with its food sample servers out
of concern regarding virus transmission. Having potentially hundreds of customers a day grabbing
free pretzel bites understandably seemed too risky.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, when Costco did finally bring back the popular free food
samples in June 2020, obviously there were some new rules in place.
Rather than offer food items like freshly made meatballs, the free samples would only
be packaged items kept behind a protective plexiglass shield. It might not have been
the free food extravaganza that Costco shoppers were used to, but the president of Costco's
Club Demonstration Services said:
"[It was necessary] to make sure we are taking the right steps to engage members safely."
One of the tell-tale signs that we had entered a new normal in the early months of the pandemic
was the absence of certain grocery items in stores.
First it was toilet paper, then foods like bread and even yeast. It wasn't just panic
buying that impacted grocery stores like Costco but the production of those foods and products.
Meat processing plants slowed production in the early months of the pandemic, and this
led to fewer items finding their way to grocery shelves. Costco shoppers who entered stores
in May 2020 were met with new rules that limited the amount of meat they could buy. Where pre-pandemic,
a shopper could stock up on a month's worth of beef, shoppers could now only purchase
three products of beef, pork, or poultry at a time.
There were also rules about what Costco shoppers could bring into the store. A Costco regular
said a manager told them they couldn't walk around the store with the iced mocha they'd
purchased from the outdoor food court.
Another shopper informed them that the policy was most likely put in place to reduce the
risk of transmission from shoppers constantly removing their face masks to nosh on snacks.
Yes, mochas are delicious, but not worth the risk of spreading COVID.
Costco may have a lot of rules in place regarding how its food is prepared, sold, and even consumed
in the store, but when it comes to food returns, it's almost anything goes — or at least
it used to be.
The chain's lax return policy has become somewhat of a Costco trademark, and this has led to
people returning all sorts of food products that most grocery stores would not. The craziest
items that people have returned to Costco have been well-documented and include everything
from "liquified watermelon" to frozen fish that was over a decade old.
But in December 2020, Costco put its foot down regarding certain items that people had
hoarded and now wanted to return. Among non-food items like toilet paper and Lysol, Costco
was no longer accepting returns on water or rice. As for the current company rules on
returning a garbage bag of liquified watermelon — just please don't.
The whole point of Costco's rules regarding food, of course, is to avoid selling its customers
contaminated products. A food poisoning scandal can cost a company millions in lawsuits and
lost profits due to customer distrust.
Even with the strict protocol Costco has in place for its employees and vendors, a few
food poisoning episodes have slipped through the cracks.
For example, in 2011, at least 20 people fell ill after eating bad cantaloupe, and many
of those folks bought the fruit from Costco, reported The New York Times. While the fruit
was traced back to a farm in Guatemala owned by produce giant Del Monte, the incident no
doubt led to concerned Costco shoppers skipping over the melons on subsequent shopping trips.
Then, in 2018, Costco was hit with a lawsuit by a woman who claimed some bad chicken salad
she had purchased led to E. coli poisoning and ultimately led to her requiring a kidney
transplant.
Costco and the woman eventually reached an undisclosed agreement. Avoiding this sort
of thing and the financial fallout that can follow, though, is exactly why Costco means
business when it comes to food safety rules.
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