10 Costco Kirkland Signature Items That Have Severely Dropped In Quality

There's a reason you'll walk into Costco with a two-item shopping list and walk out several shopping mistakes later lugging a grocery load that needs a haul truck to get home. The wholesale giant has been pushing the envelope on cost savings versus quality since its first storefront opened in the '80s. And if you've ever wondered how it manages pricing feats like selling a whole rotisserie chicken for just under $5 without going out of business, take a moment to scan the products next time you roam Costco's unlabeled aisles. You'll notice one label dominating the rest: Kirkland Signature, Costco's in-house brand. By bypassing brand premiums like ad campaigns and sponsorships, having an in-house brand allows Costco to keep its price points ridiculously low without bleeding profits.

But while most Kirkland Signature products outmatch name brands on cost, they're not always quality-guaranteed... otherwise, those awful Everything Bagels wouldn't have seen the light of day. What's strange is that most Kirkland flops don't start out that way. A lot of them even launch as runaway hits then inexplicably lose their luster; some almost overnight and others in a slow crawl that makes you wonder if it's all in your head. Whether due to subtle recipe tweaks or overnight overhauls, a lot of Costco staples have met this fate. Here's a roundup of some of the worst slumps.

Rare are those tranquil mornings when making breakfast from scratch is something even remotely achievable. That's where grab-and-go breakfasts come in, and if you're a Costco loyalist, nothing fits the bill quite like the Kirkland Signature Breakfast Sandwich. Frozen, individually wrapped, and toting egg, cheese, and bacon on a croissant bun; they're basically Costco's answer to Starbucks' Double-Smoked Bacon, Egg & Cheddar Croissant; only cheaper, shelf-stable, and sold in bulk.

And while there was a time when these sandwiches seemed poised to corner the grab-n-go market, recent times might have taken the fight out of them, at least if you ask Reddit. For one, Costco's been skimping hard on the bacon. "They are different and the bacon is about 20% of what you used to get," noted one user. The egg's also seen a cutback. "The egg seems smaller, too. It used to be that it could [hardly] to get your mouth around the first bite. Now, it's disappointedly slimmer," another chimed in. The croissant's also lost quite a bit of its puff. "The croissant tasted more like dense bread than an actual flaky croissant," one user complained on a separate thread.

As it turns out, the sandwiches have been trimmed down so aggressively, they've even shrunk in size altogether. "The sandwich is smaller, so small that my air fryer now blows the two halves around," another Redditor pointed out. Not everything's gone downhill, though. The price point is still at a rock steady $15.99; go figure.

Smoky and savory is descriptive of plenty of meats out there. Cured meats like prosciutto and guanciale are definitely on the higher end of the spectrum of fanciness in this respect, but have they been to the moon? No. Do they predate Shakespeare? Also no. Bacon has and does, though, which means it automatically outranks all else. This is why narrowing down on a brand that consistently delivers on bacon is extremely important. And for a time, the Kirkland Signature Sliced Bacon was right up there with the best of them: slices of bacon thick enough not to burn on contact with the skillet and just fatty enough not to give you a greasy mouth right out of bed.

But, according to Reddit, those days are long gone. For one, the Kirkland Signature Sliced Bacon you'll get at Costco these days really puts the 'slice' in sliced bacon. "So paper thin I can't even hold it up without it falling apart. And this is with me being very, very careful when removing it from the package," one frustrated Redditor wrote.

Now, thin slices of bacon aren't necessarily a dealbreaker. In fact, depending on your sensibilities, you might find them preferable. But that's if the meat and fat are evenly balanced so they crisp up nicely on the pan without leaving a goopy fat residue. But according to a separate Reddit thread, Kirkland Signature Sliced Bacon falls flat here, too. "The fat content is ridiculous. You can't even separate them sometimes because the fat just sticks and then separates onto the other piece," one unhappy shopper wrote. And if you're thinking paying premium for the thick cut might give you a bit of a work around, no such luck. "Even the thick cut has gone downhill. I've also noticed they'll bookend the bad sides together, so that the visible ends look good," another user chimed in.

It's always a tense time when Costco drops a new food item. There's no telling if loyalists will greet it with unqualified enthusiasm, as seen with the Tiramisu Cheesecake (a nod to classic Italian cake) or the borderline ruthless disapproval that met the Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad. However, rolling out new food items is just one of those things Costco will never stop doing. And in the tail end of 2023, the store chanced it yet again and hit a rare home run with Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks. Fans said they could easily be mistaken for Chick-fil-A nuggets, high praise considering those nuggets have decades of cult classic status behind them.

But it didn't take long after the hype died down for these nuggets to fall behind the competition. Complaints started rolling in as early as months after the much-raved-about launch. One Reddit thread kicks off with a user griping about the nuggets straying so far from juicy and tender as to be considered hard and rubbery. Others confessed they'd already jumped ship to Just Bare; a pretty damning sign of poor quality, since Just Bare costs about four bucks more per bag.

A separate thread had users raging about downsizing. "The 'chunks' are getting smaller and narrower. Some of the pieces are so tiny and just resemble breading whereas before just about every piece in the bag was all chunks of a good size," one user pointed out. Perhaps the most unsettling complaint came from a user who reported purchasing a pack that had noticeably par-cooked nuggets. "I've gotten two pieces in this bag that were completely raw on the inside but golden brown on the outside," they wrote.

Whether you're whipping up a run-of-the-mill batch of cookies or experimenting with butter sauces like hollandaise or beurre noir, good butter is an absolute must-have. And let's face it, most people don't have the wherewithal (or the elbow grease) to churn their own from scratch or the budget to splurge on something fancy like Animal Farm. And while there are plenty of grocery store butters that get the job done, not many can hold a candle to Kirkland Signature... at least not when it comes to balancing cost with quality.

But according to Reddit, Costco butter might not be quite as unassailable as it was at rollout. One discussion had users griping about inconsistent baking results. "We use butter for our pie crust recipe and that crust would not hold up! 2 batches just crumbly and could not get it to roll," one user wrote. The flavor's also taken a dip, according to a separate Reddit thread. "I describe it as always tasting "a bit refrigerator" now... like it's a package that got forgotten in the very back of the fridge for six months and has faintly absorbed all those odors," another user wrote.

And while shoppers can sometimes forgive small quality dips if the price is not too brutal, Kirkland butter seems to have slipped so far down the grocery-store-butter pecking order that even the price advantage won't save it. Some people even flat out admitted to deflecting to Kerrygold. "Note to self, don't let husband buy Costco butter for Christmas. Kerrygold for life," someone wrote.

Costco might already be your go-to for bulking up on frozen baked goods, but did you know you can score one heck of a deal on road trip essentials there, too? Quite a number of them even have raving reviews from loyalists to back them up, like Kirkland Signature Tortilla Chips, selling at about a quarter of a buck per ounce, and so fantastic they don't even require dip. "You don't even need a dip or salsa or guac... just the freaking chips are so good!" one Reddit user raved back in 2023.

But as it turns out, even such glittering reviews couldn't fortify these chips against the test of time. In recent months, Reddit discussions have taken an entirely different turn. "They went from being more soft, large, salted, and flavorful of corn — to now being brittle, tiny, barely any salt, and mostly flavorless," one user complained.

A separate thread had users pointing to a change in supplier as the likeliest culprit. "New bag looks identical but no longer says it's manufactured by Mission. Sadly these aren't as good." And while it remains unclear whether Costco has swapped out suppliers, there's no doubt been a recipe tweak, however subtle, that's turned these chips a bit so-so, so you might want to look the other way next time you come across them on your next Costco run.

If you're looking to avoid a visit to the butcher (or can't be bothered to find one), Costco's a great place to shop for meat. But while there are a few cuts of meat you should absolutely pick up at Costco, some are really not worth the bargain. Take the Kirkland Signature Beef Ribeye Steaks; so lacking in marbling, Reddit says they're completely not worth the under-$25 price point. "My Costco is selling capless ribeyes for $23.99/pound which I think is criminal. I didn't buy them, went to Whole Foods and found this gem for just about the same price," one user complained.

The lack of marbling isn't the only gripe Reddit has with Costco steaks. "As far as the steaks go... we had been buying them every week. But one of the last packs we got went bad before the sell-by date and we had to call Costco to get a refund," another frustrated shopper pointed out.

And it isn't just the steaks that have taken a hit. Some users claim Costco meat has dropped off across the board, all the while offering little or no price advantage. "Their meat used to be much better as it was good quality and cheaper. Now it's barely better quality and the same price or more expensive," one user wrote.

Costco's Kirkland Signature line has been through its share of shake-ups; fan favorites vanishing without a trace, surprise comebacks, and the occasional quiet recipe tweaks. Some changes have been runaway hits, like the triumphant return of the Hot Turkey and Provolone Sandwich or the Kirkland Signature Enchilada Bake. Others... not so much. Case in point: Kirkland Signature Muffins. They're so beloved some people even bought memberships just to get a taste, and a huge bargain at $4.99 for a 35-ounce six-pack.

Until Costco inexplicably swapped out original flavors for a line-up meant to be more elevated, but fell completely flat with shoppers. "I've tried the blueberry and chocolate ones, and I didn't enjoy either. I could not finish eating the rest of the pack of blueberry ones I tried. Luckily I got the chocolate one given to me, but I was equally disappointed in that," one Reddit user complained.

Some shoppers took issue with everything, from size to taste, texture, and even wrapping. "They're tiny, expensive, overly-thick, dry, and have an off-putting taste to them. The wrappers are annoying too. It hardly even tastes like real chocolate," one user wrote.

Shoppers were also miffed that the price point had changed to $6.99 for a 31-ounce eight pack. A person even did the math, working it out to a 58% price hike. So aggravating was the swap, some shoppers took any and every opportunity to air their grievances. "The muffins are another example of how things have changed. You used to get two trays of jumbo muffins and now you get [eight] average sized muffins," one person complained on a thread discussing Costco beef.

Though the idea of orange juice as a breakfast staple has fallen off in recent times, there's something about having a jug of the stuff prominently displayed at the breakfast table that just screams breakfast. And for a little over $15, you can grab yourself two packs of 59-ounce Kirkland Signature Organic Orange Juice to last you, well, forever. It's a pretty great deal; at least it used to be.

According to Reddit, this bulk buy's quality has dropped off so much it's just not worth the bargain price. "Now Kirkland OJ tastes like the cheap stuff they give you at hotel breakfast buffets. $15 for two 59 oz containers is way too much for crappy oj," one user griped. Sure, pedestrian flavor isn't enough to nail a bargain drink on the cross. But some shoppers have found even graver issues with Kirkland Signature Orange Juice. "The color/consistency is fine, but it smells and tastes moldy. We took it back yesterday and exchanged for new bottles. Those bottles have the same issue," another frustrated person pointed out on a separate thread.

To be fair, it's not just Costco. Orange juice quality has been declining across the board. Crop yields in both local and international orange hubs have been hammered hard by citrus greening disease and extreme weather, so much so that the FDA has even lowered its baseline sugar threshold for orange juice. Ensuing supply shortfalls and price hikes may have forced producers to lean on artificial flavor packs or blend local and imported orange varieties, with drastic implications on quality.

Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken: Right up there with those food court hot dogs in the lineup of Costco items so marked down Costco might as well be handing them out for free. And if walking out of a store with such a huge hunk of meat for under $5 doesn't quite sit right with you, then you might be on to something.

Costco rotisserie chickens have long drawn criticism for being loaded with sodium, about 460 milligrams per serving, which tallies up to almost a quarter of the recommended daily threshold. And sure, shoppers might and have given Costco a bit of latitude in nutritional value as long as the taste holds. But according to Reddit, even that's dropped off a cliff. "The chicken has a chemical taste to it. I'm guessing someone didn't clean well enough after using the cleaning chemicals or something," a user said.

Some shoppers even admitted they'd be perfectly fine with a price hike if the quality went back to what it once was, which is really emblematic of the sad state of affairs, considering how viscerally Costco loyalists react to price hikes of any kind. "I don't buy them nearly as often as I feel the quality has dropped significantly the last few years and I end up throwing them away sometimes. I'd rather they just raise the prices than drop the quality of such a convenient and reasonably healthy dinner," one Redditor wrote.

Buying chicken from the grocery store can be a pretty trying experience. Organic, pasture raised, free range, heritage; it's all a lot to take in, especially if you have no idea how much of a bearing those labels will have on what ends up on your dinner plate. But for a time, Costco's organic chicken was a pretty safe bet; raised on non-GMO feed, free of antibiotics and synthetic pesticides, and edging closer to pasture-raised in terms of outdoor access.

Though, according to Reddit, Costco's organic chicken breasts might have fallen victim to one of the most common ails of mass-produced poultry: woody chicken. It's a muscle disorder that comes about when birds bulk up breast muscle too quickly, outpacing oxygen supply and creating enough metabolic stress to leave some parts with scar-like fibrous tissue. "The woody breast issue with their chicken has gotten so terrible I won't even bother sous viding and shredding for salads. Even when it's torn to bits the texture is awful. I now only buy Springer or Bell & Evan's," one user wrote.

To be fair, woody chicken is now pretty much an industry-wide problem. After all, most — if not all — grocery stores rely on fast-growing breeds to meet demand and keep inventory flowing. But it's not the only reason Costco chicken is falling out of favor. "We stopped buying the Costco organic chicken a few years ago after having too many bags with a bad smell and texture. Some straight up smelled rotten," another user chimed in.

And, as it turns out, the foul smell isn't just limited to the organic variety. "Why does their prepackaged chicken smell so foul? I tried the breast and the tenders, both regular and organic and it all stinks. Tried different batches over the months and it's awful," one user griped on a separate thread.