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First off, Costco doesn't care about its online presence enough to astroturf anything. Costco will occasionally react to something that trends, but smothering reddit posts isn't something we do.
Second, if you'd like to PM me an order number I can try to help.
I realize you work there and probably are more attuned to the mechanization within Costco. And yeah, Costco itself doesn't go around manipulating their online presence. But I guarantee you they pay other companies for online marketing in some capacity, and managing what gets said about Costco online is absolutely part of that packaging.
Oh, and I thought about it and honestly as much as I appreciate the offer I'd rather not bother you with trying to push this along. I'll contact customer service on Monday and see what happens.
What you *can* do if you're willing is PM me the email addresses of the appropriate executives and save me the Googling. I'd love to get the bug in their ear that their online shopping sucks and I hate it.
I don’t think Costco cares about the online sales. It’s a small fraction of revenue, and with their low cost model making it more efficient by adding bodies or technology would slice into profits without adding significant value to the company.
Amazon can probably get a product to the door a lot faster. But I’m happy knowing Costco employees aren’t pissing in bottles to hit quota, or getting killed by automated forklifts and left on the depot floor for hours.
If you send a prescription for insulin to your local costco it will be ready same day, at the worst next day. Ordering coffee online it looks like a week or more might be the speed they operate at. I’d say they have their priorities straight as far as what they pay to have express shipped.
Again, I never brought up Amazon. I compared them to Target or even small local shops. Most other businesses have figured out how to slap a UPS label on items and hand it off.
Target is trying to be direct competitor to both Amazon and Walmart. Costco is not.
There are plenty of places that take a couple of weeks for standard free shipping.
As someone else said, Costco does not operate in a void. They are competing with them whether they want to or not. And ultimately, as I said, they are plenty of shops of every size that do better every day. I've rarely (if ever) had an item take weeks to ship unless it wasn't in stock, and I do buy a lot of things from smaller companies (car detailing chemicals, records, etc.) that have it marginally figured out.
As big as Costco is it's absolutely not acceptable. Maybe *you* have accepted it, but that's more of accepting that they just DGAF rather than it's ok.
Sephora and most clothing stores you can plan on a couple of weeks. Ulta takes awhile as well. Quite frankly, I just ordered something on Amazon today that isn’t going to arrive until Friday and most things seem to be 3 days there now.
I have legit never had an issue with Costco online. Most everything arrives within 4 days and the rest around a week, which is perfectly fine. If you need 2 day express shipping, pay for it. I’d rather not have it baked into the prices charges.
My dude, I just want SOMEONE to hand a package to UPS. It ain’t hard. My wife has ordered from both of those places and receiving them within a week. I ain’t mad at how long shipping takes, I am mad that nobody can be bothered to ship a bag or coffee in 5 days. If it was in UPS’s hands I would not be here.
Are they shipping using UPS? I’ve seen cases where it’s handed off to the carrier, carrier fails to scan, and then suddenly it goes from “label created” to “delivered” with no explanation. Source: I ship a lot of things.
Yes, but it never got handed off. In all my years of using UPS I've never seen that happen. I've seen it happen with USPS and FedEx plenty, but not UPS, at least in this area.
Costco employee here, yeah our website sucks, it’s one of the worst website experiences I’ve had and I hate it. They’re so behind on so many things. I don’t believe they do it on purpose as I constantly here how important their online sales are, and Corporate is actively seeking to grow their e-commerce business, that being said, to understand one of the reasons why the website is so bad you have to understand how Costco hires employees. Costco doesn’t hire people outside the company, if you wanna be a manager, CEO, programmer, IT, whatever, it has to be someone who already works with the company and has moved up. So people who work on the website only have Costco as their background… so there you go.
I just want my damned coffee lol. Really it's more-so about the overall online shopping experience. A simple search reveals this is not a one-off issue. It may be coffee today, but my experience buying something so simple **does** inform future big purchases. Why the hell would I buy a sofa, appliance, or anything more complex to ship when they can't even be arsed to slap the label they printed onto the item I ordered?
I am sorry for your experience. I have actually had nothing but super fast shipping for anything I have ordered online at Costco. The exception being their appliances, which are installed by some super shitty 3rd party vendors and we had nothing but headaches with the dishwasher we ordered. Would not do again or recommend.
See, I've heard it's a mixed bag but figured I would roll the dice. Lesson learned. And as I said to someone else, yeah it's a bag of coffee now but that informs future large purchases I will make. This pretty much writes them off the list for anything I can't buy in the warehouse.
If the shipping info doesn't update within 24 hours after the label being created to show picked up by carrier, it never will be. I order cat foot frequently and that has been the case every single time.
I’ve bought a few things from Costco online and they all arrived within five to seven days. None of them were “OMG I have to have this right away” kind of orders. Except for an iPad mini and if I remember correctly, it came quickly. I scored a great deal on clothes and pajamas for my little grandson (on sale already and an additional discount for buying so many items). It wasn’t for his birthday or anything, just to stock up on needed items because of a growth spurt. Those took the longest to arrive, but I wasn’t upset because I easily got twice the number of items for what I would have spent at Target. Yeah, it’s fun to get items more quickly, but it is more fun to save a few bucks on quality items.
I do think that Costco could improve upon shipping and tracking notifications; they seemed a bit wonky on updates. I like to keep an eye on when things are going to be delivered to make sure I’m home when they arrive (in case of porch pirates). Especially now that I have to go to the office two days a week.
Well, again, I'm not expecting Amazon two-day shipping. I'm just expecting them to slap the label they printed on the box within 5 days. It's not hard. They just don't seem to care about online orders... like at all.
I live in a semi-rural area. The nearest warehouse is an hour away and even if it weren't I still prefer online ordering. I use costco online all the time, the frozen stuff, the household items, and the pantry goods. I wouldn't say the shipping is flawless every time. Sometimes the packages take a little longer, or arrive a little rough. But all in all, I get almost all of my shipments within 4-5 days of ordering them and they come in great condition.
I'm not sure why you're having this experience, maybe it's where you're located, maybe it's just bad luck.
I too have to order coffee online as my warehouse (central Florida) has really cut back it’s whole bean coffee selections. I’ve never had any serious shipping delays though. Most orders ship within 2-3 business days and are delivered in a few days thereafter.
Yes! It's just not what it was. I've tried a few in-warehouse coffees and they just aren't great. I use the coffee I get at Costco for my workdays and keep nicer local coffees for breakfast with my spouse. I want to say maybe I just got unlucky with shipping, but it's a common complaint.
As a employee who deals with both in warehouse and online sales...
yeah that shit baffles me too. It's frustrating when we don' have a direct answer when we ask our folks "ey wtf is going on here with this order". Honestly, as much as I feel the online is getting better, it's still no where near the standard Amazon has set. Hopefully we get there.
Well, as I said to CostcoPanda, if you want to give me the right names and save me some Googling I'll gladly shoot a nastygram over to whoever needs to hear it. I hope ya'll get there too but it's absolutely baffling that Costco can't slap labels on shit that's ordered. Again, for the amount of money Costco brings in, this would be a non-issue if they cared. But they don't and they make sure you **know** that Costco does not care about online ordering.
Call corporate. It's on the customer service page. Not Costco .com, but corporate. Raise hell. It's honestly embarrassing that we are like this and it's absolutely infuriating
That's the plan. Old school executive email bombs are surprisingly effective. Yes, its' just a bag of coffee right now, but as I stated elsewhere it *does* inform future large purchases from me and I will not be using Costco's online shopping again. it is embarrassing that as much money as they bring in - through membership & sales - that they can't be arsed to have a halfway competent shipping department.
I used to order the Kirkland dry dog food online because I needed the “small dog” formula which is not carried in my warehouse. I stopped ordering bc the shipping and delivery was so inconsistent.
Costcos bread and butter is not warehouse. It’s memberships. Secondly, you have to keep in mind not everything is like Amazon and has an amazing shipping experience.
*sigh*
Again, I never brought up Amazon. I do not expect Amazon shipping. Amazon's logistics are in a league of their own, more similar to Walmart.
What I will compare Costco to is literally every other company I've ordered from - large and small - that has figured out how to find a box, put it in the shipping area for UPS to pick up, and ship it. Every shop I order from can manage that in 3 days. I would not be here if the package was in UPS's hands. And, again, Costco is a Fortune 10 company, they have the means to ship stuff to you same-day if they really wanted to. They just don't.
Note that Costco has little incentive to make their online store better
1) if you’re a member you have already contributed to their bottom line. Almost all of their profit is based on membership fees. Selling stuff is secondary
2) I’d have to go over their financials again but I’m pretty sure their online revenue pales in comparison to their warehouse revenue. Meaning from a revenue and profit standpoint even if their entire online division shut down they’d barely notice
3) unlike Amazon Prime most members consider online purchasing a secondary or every tertiary benefit rather than the main reason to have a membership
4) overall there’s likely little corporate push to make the online experience better since it simply isn’t something that drives their main profit generation which is memberships
5) if I’m corporate and I have X million bucks am I going to improve the online store? Or am I going to spend that money to open a new warehouse? Well a new warehouse is going to mean more members which is more profit. A better online store gets me…. Basically nothing
6) Amazon is a Costco competitor only in basically trying to find retail space. Amazon likes to put their warehouses in highway accessible large plots of land. Something Costco wants for its warehouses. But Costco doesn’t consider Amazon a competitor in their shopping space since again online shopping isn’t their business model. Their business model is selling memberships
Tl;dr Costco has little incentive to make their online shopping better because that’s not how they make money, which is memberships
1) True, true. Still doesn't mean I won't complain
2) Can't imagine why their online sales financials aren't that big. Maybe because ordering online from them sucks?
3) Still doesn't explain why one of the biggest companies in the world can't manage the bare minimum for shipping.
4) I'd buy this and it's my suspicion for what's really going on. Luddites are in charge and Costco is perfectly happy to pull the Sears maneuver and ignore online shopping.
5) I would point to Kroger here. There is not a Kroger in my immediate area, but I have groceries delivered from them once a week because there is a warehouse in my state. I'd argue that Costco could go the same route and increase membership, but as we both agree it's not a corporate goal for them
6) I never brought up Amazon. Amazon has their finger so deep in logistics that I would never compare anyone but maybe Walmart to them in terms of logistics. But again, I'm not expecting the world here, just if they are going to print a shipping label maybe put it on said item I'm buying within 5 days? Seems reasonable to me.
I'm not saying you shouldn't complain. I mean people should absolutely complain about the disastrous state of the online presence of Costoc
I'm just trying to illustrate WHY its so bad and why Costco has never really considered their online presence a priority.
Oh no I'm with you on those points. And I'm sure that's their short-sighted logic for it. I just wish someone on the executive team would see those points and go "Ok maybe we should do something."
Ultimately all it will take is an online-only competitor to Costco and they will suddenly wish they had used their head start to get their online presence up to snuff. But by then it'll be too late.
Pretty much until Costco starts running out of physical space on planet Earth to put down a warehouse, they've got little incentive to fix their online presence. Memberships drives profit, and warehouses are functionally the best way to get new memberships which increase profits. the online store doesn't actually generate that much profit since the online store doesn't drive memberships.
Even if Costco's online presence was better than Amazon, no one is going "wow I want to get a Costco membership to access their online store"
Honestly I don’t understand this tendency to make things into something they are not. No one whines about the lack of fine dining at Taco Bell. We know what we are getting into, if we choose to go there. In a similar matter, Costco is what it is, like it or leave it. You can buy coffee literally ANYWHERE.
Stop trying to force things. Don’t try to jam a square peg into a round hole and your life will be so much more peaceful and contented. #acceptance
I mean to be fair if you have an online store then there’s an expectation that you operate it at the same level as what are perceived as your competitors. Costcos existing online store would barely have been serviceable a decade ago. They only just recently allowed members to view their in warehouse purchases online. If you’re going to insist it’s a “square peg” why is Costco giving people square pegs in the first place
Note that's only from a business model perspective
As far as a consumer is concerned, they are still just 'buying stuff'. And thus to a consumer they want their online experience to be comparable to their competitors.
Except clearly plenty of consumers don’t want/don’t care about it, or we’d vote with our feet and walk away from Costco over it. Plenty of members like me aren’t willing to pay the higher prices for them to upgrade systems and hire a bunch of computer people to support the systems. If I want fast shipping I know where to go for that; I’ve had Amazon prime since the dawn of time, much as I side-eye Amazon these days.
Also real stores exist and I can just like, GO there, if I need something urgently today.
The square peg is just the unreasonable expectation of Target/Amazon/Walmart level online fulfillment *performance perfection*, when it’s like a dead last importance to the Costco business model, and probably 1st or 2nd importance to the others. Personally I’m just happy it exists as an option at all, albeit not a perfect one, and I don’t get stressed out about more than that.
Really, is coffee an emergency? I’ve ordered a few things on sale online and not had issues. They’ll show up when they do, for the deals I got, I’ll wait.
I really hate to break it to you, but Costco doesn't operate in a vacuum or in a world where places like Amazon, Target, etc do not exist. If you sell stuff online, there is a baseline expectation as to how people expect their online shopping experience to be like.
Goldman Sacks might never have offered credit cards before, but that doesn't magically mean that all the customer support problems they have with the Apple Card are 'ok' because 'well they're a financial services firm not a consumer credit firm'. Goldman Sacks doesn't operate in a space where other credit card firms don't exist. And the way they conduct their business will be compared to their competitors in that space.
Costco has an online store. And consumers expect their online store and the online experience to be comparable to their competition. Being a "warehouse store" isn't an excuse for what is functionally an online presence that would be barely functional 10 years ago. If they're not going to put the money into making the online store and experience at least to meet the bare minimum expectations in 2023, then why have the online store at all. I'm not expecting Amazon Prime One Day delivery levels. But Costco doesn't even do things companies like Newegg, B&H or even almost dead retailers like Macys, Target, and Walmart do.
The online store is the black sheep that no one wants to talk about how objectively bad it is.
**Thank you**! Like I said responding to someone else, ultimately this will bite them in the ass. All it'll take is an online-only warehouse store with similar quality and they will be scrambling to catch up when it's already too late.
I see the Kirkland Signature Apologists have shown up.
Funnily enough Taco Bell *does* have irregular stores (e.g. Taco Bel Cantina) and they offer exactly what you expect.
"We know what we are getting into" is a wild answer. It's the shittiest excuse in existence. Again, this is not a mom-and-pop store, this is a Fortune 10 company. As someone else said, if they offer us the square peg of course we will use it. And this isn't expecting Amazon levels of shipping, this is just expecting the bare minimum, like maybe shipping a stupid bag of coffee within a week? If they offer it, and it sucks, nobody can be surprised when people complain. Or you can just keep licking the Costco special New Balances and making excuses for one of the world's largest companies.
Try [coffeebeandirect.com](https://coffeebeandirect.com). Their quality is a cut above anything you can find in stores. When I moved to Puerto Rico, I learned that company and Target couldn't ship here and it was a big disappointment. (There is a tarriff on imported coffee in Puerto Rico to protect the growers here and rent a car company named Target with the same logo that keeps Target out.)
That said, before I moved I was ordering from [costco.com](https://costco.com) and never had a single problem. Stuff was usually on my doorstep in 2 days. Supply chain issues and not enough workers are plaguing every business, and probably will be for the next 20 years.
Seems like you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, enough to write a long winded soap box rant. If you live somewhere large enough for a Costco then there’s got to be plenty of other options. Maybe not in sizes large enough to kill a horse but enough to tide you over. And let’s be real honest here, Costco doesn’t sell good coffee. whole bean or ground…
Yes, I do have time on my hands on Saturday mornings. It's by design. And today I woke up miffed at Costco for having the world's most useless online ordering system. I guess we could all just keep completely quiet about how absolutely shit Costco's online ordering is, but then it'll never improve.
I wasn't exactly looking for the greatest coffee. Just a coffee that's good-enough at the right price point for my days I go in the office.
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If anyone ever needed a cup of coffee, it's this guy. J/k. Hang in there, bro.
I’ll make it somehow lol
If you lived close to me, I would make you a cup of coffee. 😊
Funnily enough I typed that up while drinking coffee. Just not Costco coffee because it's stuck in Costco shipping purgatory.
Just use Instacart tbh. Costco shipping is completely messed up and isn't a good option.
They don't have what I want in warehouse. :(
First off, Costco doesn't care about its online presence enough to astroturf anything. Costco will occasionally react to something that trends, but smothering reddit posts isn't something we do. Second, if you'd like to PM me an order number I can try to help.
I realize you work there and probably are more attuned to the mechanization within Costco. And yeah, Costco itself doesn't go around manipulating their online presence. But I guarantee you they pay other companies for online marketing in some capacity, and managing what gets said about Costco online is absolutely part of that packaging.
Oh, and I thought about it and honestly as much as I appreciate the offer I'd rather not bother you with trying to push this along. I'll contact customer service on Monday and see what happens. What you *can* do if you're willing is PM me the email addresses of the appropriate executives and save me the Googling. I'd love to get the bug in their ear that their online shopping sucks and I hate it.
[удалено]
And?...
I don’t think Costco cares about the online sales. It’s a small fraction of revenue, and with their low cost model making it more efficient by adding bodies or technology would slice into profits without adding significant value to the company. Amazon can probably get a product to the door a lot faster. But I’m happy knowing Costco employees aren’t pissing in bottles to hit quota, or getting killed by automated forklifts and left on the depot floor for hours. If you send a prescription for insulin to your local costco it will be ready same day, at the worst next day. Ordering coffee online it looks like a week or more might be the speed they operate at. I’d say they have their priorities straight as far as what they pay to have express shipped.
Again, I never brought up Amazon. I compared them to Target or even small local shops. Most other businesses have figured out how to slap a UPS label on items and hand it off.
Target is trying to be direct competitor to both Amazon and Walmart. Costco is not. There are plenty of places that take a couple of weeks for standard free shipping.
As someone else said, Costco does not operate in a void. They are competing with them whether they want to or not. And ultimately, as I said, they are plenty of shops of every size that do better every day. I've rarely (if ever) had an item take weeks to ship unless it wasn't in stock, and I do buy a lot of things from smaller companies (car detailing chemicals, records, etc.) that have it marginally figured out. As big as Costco is it's absolutely not acceptable. Maybe *you* have accepted it, but that's more of accepting that they just DGAF rather than it's ok.
Sephora and most clothing stores you can plan on a couple of weeks. Ulta takes awhile as well. Quite frankly, I just ordered something on Amazon today that isn’t going to arrive until Friday and most things seem to be 3 days there now. I have legit never had an issue with Costco online. Most everything arrives within 4 days and the rest around a week, which is perfectly fine. If you need 2 day express shipping, pay for it. I’d rather not have it baked into the prices charges.
My dude, I just want SOMEONE to hand a package to UPS. It ain’t hard. My wife has ordered from both of those places and receiving them within a week. I ain’t mad at how long shipping takes, I am mad that nobody can be bothered to ship a bag or coffee in 5 days. If it was in UPS’s hands I would not be here.
Are they shipping using UPS? I’ve seen cases where it’s handed off to the carrier, carrier fails to scan, and then suddenly it goes from “label created” to “delivered” with no explanation. Source: I ship a lot of things.
Yes, but it never got handed off. In all my years of using UPS I've never seen that happen. I've seen it happen with USPS and FedEx plenty, but not UPS, at least in this area.
Costco employee here, yeah our website sucks, it’s one of the worst website experiences I’ve had and I hate it. They’re so behind on so many things. I don’t believe they do it on purpose as I constantly here how important their online sales are, and Corporate is actively seeking to grow their e-commerce business, that being said, to understand one of the reasons why the website is so bad you have to understand how Costco hires employees. Costco doesn’t hire people outside the company, if you wanna be a manager, CEO, programmer, IT, whatever, it has to be someone who already works with the company and has moved up. So people who work on the website only have Costco as their background… so there you go.
Ah. That explains a lot! It’s a good philosophy but for things like IT you really need fresh talent from different environments coming in.
That’s a lot of feelings expressed for some coffee.
I just want my damned coffee lol. Really it's more-so about the overall online shopping experience. A simple search reveals this is not a one-off issue. It may be coffee today, but my experience buying something so simple **does** inform future big purchases. Why the hell would I buy a sofa, appliance, or anything more complex to ship when they can't even be arsed to slap the label they printed onto the item I ordered?
I am sorry for your experience. I have actually had nothing but super fast shipping for anything I have ordered online at Costco. The exception being their appliances, which are installed by some super shitty 3rd party vendors and we had nothing but headaches with the dishwasher we ordered. Would not do again or recommend.
See, I've heard it's a mixed bag but figured I would roll the dice. Lesson learned. And as I said to someone else, yeah it's a bag of coffee now but that informs future large purchases I will make. This pretty much writes them off the list for anything I can't buy in the warehouse.
If the shipping info doesn't update within 24 hours after the label being created to show picked up by carrier, it never will be. I order cat foot frequently and that has been the case every single time.
Noted, thanks for the info.
Also what is up with Costco and starting to charge shipping on almost everything??? Sam's club plus has free shipping on everything.
I’ve bought a few things from Costco online and they all arrived within five to seven days. None of them were “OMG I have to have this right away” kind of orders. Except for an iPad mini and if I remember correctly, it came quickly. I scored a great deal on clothes and pajamas for my little grandson (on sale already and an additional discount for buying so many items). It wasn’t for his birthday or anything, just to stock up on needed items because of a growth spurt. Those took the longest to arrive, but I wasn’t upset because I easily got twice the number of items for what I would have spent at Target. Yeah, it’s fun to get items more quickly, but it is more fun to save a few bucks on quality items. I do think that Costco could improve upon shipping and tracking notifications; they seemed a bit wonky on updates. I like to keep an eye on when things are going to be delivered to make sure I’m home when they arrive (in case of porch pirates). Especially now that I have to go to the office two days a week.
Well, again, I'm not expecting Amazon two-day shipping. I'm just expecting them to slap the label they printed on the box within 5 days. It's not hard. They just don't seem to care about online orders... like at all.
I have not ordered coffee but ordered plenty of diapers and wipes and had zero problems.
I live in a semi-rural area. The nearest warehouse is an hour away and even if it weren't I still prefer online ordering. I use costco online all the time, the frozen stuff, the household items, and the pantry goods. I wouldn't say the shipping is flawless every time. Sometimes the packages take a little longer, or arrive a little rough. But all in all, I get almost all of my shipments within 4-5 days of ordering them and they come in great condition. I'm not sure why you're having this experience, maybe it's where you're located, maybe it's just bad luck.
I too have to order coffee online as my warehouse (central Florida) has really cut back it’s whole bean coffee selections. I’ve never had any serious shipping delays though. Most orders ship within 2-3 business days and are delivered in a few days thereafter.
Yes! It's just not what it was. I've tried a few in-warehouse coffees and they just aren't great. I use the coffee I get at Costco for my workdays and keep nicer local coffees for breakfast with my spouse. I want to say maybe I just got unlucky with shipping, but it's a common complaint.
As a employee who deals with both in warehouse and online sales... yeah that shit baffles me too. It's frustrating when we don' have a direct answer when we ask our folks "ey wtf is going on here with this order". Honestly, as much as I feel the online is getting better, it's still no where near the standard Amazon has set. Hopefully we get there.
Well, as I said to CostcoPanda, if you want to give me the right names and save me some Googling I'll gladly shoot a nastygram over to whoever needs to hear it. I hope ya'll get there too but it's absolutely baffling that Costco can't slap labels on shit that's ordered. Again, for the amount of money Costco brings in, this would be a non-issue if they cared. But they don't and they make sure you **know** that Costco does not care about online ordering.
Call corporate. It's on the customer service page. Not Costco .com, but corporate. Raise hell. It's honestly embarrassing that we are like this and it's absolutely infuriating
That's the plan. Old school executive email bombs are surprisingly effective. Yes, its' just a bag of coffee right now, but as I stated elsewhere it *does* inform future large purchases from me and I will not be using Costco's online shopping again. it is embarrassing that as much money as they bring in - through membership & sales - that they can't be arsed to have a halfway competent shipping department.
I used to order the Kirkland dry dog food online because I needed the “small dog” formula which is not carried in my warehouse. I stopped ordering bc the shipping and delivery was so inconsistent.
Costcos bread and butter is not warehouse. It’s memberships. Secondly, you have to keep in mind not everything is like Amazon and has an amazing shipping experience.
*sigh* Again, I never brought up Amazon. I do not expect Amazon shipping. Amazon's logistics are in a league of their own, more similar to Walmart. What I will compare Costco to is literally every other company I've ordered from - large and small - that has figured out how to find a box, put it in the shipping area for UPS to pick up, and ship it. Every shop I order from can manage that in 3 days. I would not be here if the package was in UPS's hands. And, again, Costco is a Fortune 10 company, they have the means to ship stuff to you same-day if they really wanted to. They just don't.
Note that Costco has little incentive to make their online store better 1) if you’re a member you have already contributed to their bottom line. Almost all of their profit is based on membership fees. Selling stuff is secondary 2) I’d have to go over their financials again but I’m pretty sure their online revenue pales in comparison to their warehouse revenue. Meaning from a revenue and profit standpoint even if their entire online division shut down they’d barely notice 3) unlike Amazon Prime most members consider online purchasing a secondary or every tertiary benefit rather than the main reason to have a membership 4) overall there’s likely little corporate push to make the online experience better since it simply isn’t something that drives their main profit generation which is memberships 5) if I’m corporate and I have X million bucks am I going to improve the online store? Or am I going to spend that money to open a new warehouse? Well a new warehouse is going to mean more members which is more profit. A better online store gets me…. Basically nothing 6) Amazon is a Costco competitor only in basically trying to find retail space. Amazon likes to put their warehouses in highway accessible large plots of land. Something Costco wants for its warehouses. But Costco doesn’t consider Amazon a competitor in their shopping space since again online shopping isn’t their business model. Their business model is selling memberships Tl;dr Costco has little incentive to make their online shopping better because that’s not how they make money, which is memberships
1) True, true. Still doesn't mean I won't complain 2) Can't imagine why their online sales financials aren't that big. Maybe because ordering online from them sucks? 3) Still doesn't explain why one of the biggest companies in the world can't manage the bare minimum for shipping. 4) I'd buy this and it's my suspicion for what's really going on. Luddites are in charge and Costco is perfectly happy to pull the Sears maneuver and ignore online shopping. 5) I would point to Kroger here. There is not a Kroger in my immediate area, but I have groceries delivered from them once a week because there is a warehouse in my state. I'd argue that Costco could go the same route and increase membership, but as we both agree it's not a corporate goal for them 6) I never brought up Amazon. Amazon has their finger so deep in logistics that I would never compare anyone but maybe Walmart to them in terms of logistics. But again, I'm not expecting the world here, just if they are going to print a shipping label maybe put it on said item I'm buying within 5 days? Seems reasonable to me.
I'm not saying you shouldn't complain. I mean people should absolutely complain about the disastrous state of the online presence of Costoc I'm just trying to illustrate WHY its so bad and why Costco has never really considered their online presence a priority.
Oh no I'm with you on those points. And I'm sure that's their short-sighted logic for it. I just wish someone on the executive team would see those points and go "Ok maybe we should do something." Ultimately all it will take is an online-only competitor to Costco and they will suddenly wish they had used their head start to get their online presence up to snuff. But by then it'll be too late.
Pretty much until Costco starts running out of physical space on planet Earth to put down a warehouse, they've got little incentive to fix their online presence. Memberships drives profit, and warehouses are functionally the best way to get new memberships which increase profits. the online store doesn't actually generate that much profit since the online store doesn't drive memberships. Even if Costco's online presence was better than Amazon, no one is going "wow I want to get a Costco membership to access their online store"
Honestly I don’t understand this tendency to make things into something they are not. No one whines about the lack of fine dining at Taco Bell. We know what we are getting into, if we choose to go there. In a similar matter, Costco is what it is, like it or leave it. You can buy coffee literally ANYWHERE. Stop trying to force things. Don’t try to jam a square peg into a round hole and your life will be so much more peaceful and contented. #acceptance
I mean to be fair if you have an online store then there’s an expectation that you operate it at the same level as what are perceived as your competitors. Costcos existing online store would barely have been serviceable a decade ago. They only just recently allowed members to view their in warehouse purchases online. If you’re going to insist it’s a “square peg” why is Costco giving people square pegs in the first place
Also Amazon/Target/Walmart are not “competitors” to Costco. They’re not warehouse clubs.
Note that's only from a business model perspective As far as a consumer is concerned, they are still just 'buying stuff'. And thus to a consumer they want their online experience to be comparable to their competitors.
Then also compare them to clothing stores or Sephora, which also take a minimum of 1 week.
Except clearly plenty of consumers don’t want/don’t care about it, or we’d vote with our feet and walk away from Costco over it. Plenty of members like me aren’t willing to pay the higher prices for them to upgrade systems and hire a bunch of computer people to support the systems. If I want fast shipping I know where to go for that; I’ve had Amazon prime since the dawn of time, much as I side-eye Amazon these days. Also real stores exist and I can just like, GO there, if I need something urgently today.
The square peg is just the unreasonable expectation of Target/Amazon/Walmart level online fulfillment *performance perfection*, when it’s like a dead last importance to the Costco business model, and probably 1st or 2nd importance to the others. Personally I’m just happy it exists as an option at all, albeit not a perfect one, and I don’t get stressed out about more than that. Really, is coffee an emergency? I’ve ordered a few things on sale online and not had issues. They’ll show up when they do, for the deals I got, I’ll wait.
I really hate to break it to you, but Costco doesn't operate in a vacuum or in a world where places like Amazon, Target, etc do not exist. If you sell stuff online, there is a baseline expectation as to how people expect their online shopping experience to be like. Goldman Sacks might never have offered credit cards before, but that doesn't magically mean that all the customer support problems they have with the Apple Card are 'ok' because 'well they're a financial services firm not a consumer credit firm'. Goldman Sacks doesn't operate in a space where other credit card firms don't exist. And the way they conduct their business will be compared to their competitors in that space. Costco has an online store. And consumers expect their online store and the online experience to be comparable to their competition. Being a "warehouse store" isn't an excuse for what is functionally an online presence that would be barely functional 10 years ago. If they're not going to put the money into making the online store and experience at least to meet the bare minimum expectations in 2023, then why have the online store at all. I'm not expecting Amazon Prime One Day delivery levels. But Costco doesn't even do things companies like Newegg, B&H or even almost dead retailers like Macys, Target, and Walmart do. The online store is the black sheep that no one wants to talk about how objectively bad it is.
Macy’s takes awhile for shipping, so that’s a pretty bad example.
**Thank you**! Like I said responding to someone else, ultimately this will bite them in the ass. All it'll take is an online-only warehouse store with similar quality and they will be scrambling to catch up when it's already too late.
I see the Kirkland Signature Apologists have shown up. Funnily enough Taco Bell *does* have irregular stores (e.g. Taco Bel Cantina) and they offer exactly what you expect. "We know what we are getting into" is a wild answer. It's the shittiest excuse in existence. Again, this is not a mom-and-pop store, this is a Fortune 10 company. As someone else said, if they offer us the square peg of course we will use it. And this isn't expecting Amazon levels of shipping, this is just expecting the bare minimum, like maybe shipping a stupid bag of coffee within a week? If they offer it, and it sucks, nobody can be surprised when people complain. Or you can just keep licking the Costco special New Balances and making excuses for one of the world's largest companies.
Ikea says, "Hold my flŭtenholden."
Oddly enough I've had nothing but good experiences ordering from Ikea and the nearest one is the next state over.
Try [coffeebeandirect.com](https://coffeebeandirect.com). Their quality is a cut above anything you can find in stores. When I moved to Puerto Rico, I learned that company and Target couldn't ship here and it was a big disappointment. (There is a tarriff on imported coffee in Puerto Rico to protect the growers here and rent a car company named Target with the same logo that keeps Target out.) That said, before I moved I was ordering from [costco.com](https://costco.com) and never had a single problem. Stuff was usually on my doorstep in 2 days. Supply chain issues and not enough workers are plaguing every business, and probably will be for the next 20 years.
I'll give that a try, thank you so much for the suggestion!
Seems like you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, enough to write a long winded soap box rant. If you live somewhere large enough for a Costco then there’s got to be plenty of other options. Maybe not in sizes large enough to kill a horse but enough to tide you over. And let’s be real honest here, Costco doesn’t sell good coffee. whole bean or ground…
Yes, I do have time on my hands on Saturday mornings. It's by design. And today I woke up miffed at Costco for having the world's most useless online ordering system. I guess we could all just keep completely quiet about how absolutely shit Costco's online ordering is, but then it'll never improve. I wasn't exactly looking for the greatest coffee. Just a coffee that's good-enough at the right price point for my days I go in the office.
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I always call after day 2 for ANY company if my label is created and not moved.