8 Common Costco Bakery Complaints From Customers

Costco is an extremely well known wholesale warehouse that sells everything from electronics to home goods to groceries. In fact, according to YouGov, nearly 70% of people enjoy the store, making it the most popular department store in the nation. While the company is famous for it's member-only food court and $1.50 hot dog deal, not everyone talks about the bakery as fondly as they once did. That's not to say the baked goods department isn't still popular, because it definitely is. In 2025, the bakery set a new Costco record in the 72 hours prior to Thanksgiving, selling 4.5 million pies, according to News Nation.

Clearly, the bakery is doing something right. However, many people still question the products for reasons ranging from how quickly some items mold and the rising costs to how some products' quality seems to be decreasing. There's also the issue of some fan favorite items being discontinued, such as the famous All-American Chocolate Cake (but you can find several duplicates for it if you'd like).

There are also other ways to get around common customer problems. Hacks and tips for the baked goods, like freezing the products made without preservatives or knowing which items are made from scratch, can help ensure you get the best quality and flavor without letting the treats go bad. So, here's a list of the most common customer complaints about Costco's bakery. We hope this will help you avoid some of the pitfalls others have encountered.

Costco's bakery has legions of loyal fans, and the cakes the department makes are a big part of that. Not only can customers walk in and find a decorated dessert for pre-designed for many occasions, but they can also have one specially made with decorations done to the customer's specification. Those who tried the cakes loved them, with one Facebook user even thanking their friends for their feedback on how and what to order. The only problem people had with this was the old fashioned system they had to use to do it.

Customers had to go into a physical store and fill out a paper form they would then drop in a box in the bakery to order their cakes. This was hard for many people to do since it meant making a separate trip to Costco to order the cake and then another trip to pick it up. With many shoppers busy schedules, the extra step was causing them to go elsewhere. The company listened to people's complaints, however, and in January 2026, the massive retailer began rolling out online ordering through its mobile app. While not every Costco is active on the app yet, every warehouse is expected to be online by the end of 2026. Hopefully, that will do away with one common complaint completely.

Buying fresh bread is a pleasure. There's something about the smell and softness of a new loaf that sets off a primal part of the brain. While not every item is made fresh in-house, Costco's bakery does  make many of the loaves, muffins, and bagels that are baked in-store without preservatives. This is great for flavor but can lead to premature molding. In fact, the bagels are often returned to the store because of mold. That's one reason you won't find most of the breads hot out of the oven here. If they aren't cooled before going into a bag, steam builds up and can promote mold growth.

Customers have complained about the products molding before being able to eat them for years. Some people would divide the items, saving some to eat within a few days and freezing the others. While the practical strategy worked for many, for those without much freezer space, it wasn't as helpful. Costco decided to stop selling things like the bagels in two six-packs, instead reducing the size from 12 to eight. This could help some shoppers, but the fact that the company increased the price for less food didn't go over well (more on that in a moment).

Inflation is driving food prices up across the country. In the past year alone, the cost of cereals and baked goods has increased by nearly 3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even with this general rise, individual companies are contributing to increasing prices by leaning into shrinkflation and by changing recipes to include lower-priced, lower quality ingredients to drive up the profit margin. Costco customers say both are happening and because of that, they say many of its items are now overpriced.

Things like the Cherry Berry Sourdough is priced at $9.99 at many locations, and while lots of customers enjoy the bread, others balk at paying $10 for a single loaf. Kirkland Signature products are also getting some heat from shoppers who call some of the products prohibitively expensive. This has prompted Costco to lower the prices of at least four of the items, although the company hasn't revealed which ones it's reducing yet.

A baked good's quality is one of the primary factors that bring customers back to an in-store bakery again and again, along with price and overall value. An item's freshness and quality affect its nutritional value, which is another factor shoppers look at when deciding on an indulgent treat or sandwich bread. So when Costco customers repeatedly express concern over what they perceive as the bakery's declining quality, it's a big deal.

Products across the bakery department are being called out for poor quality by shoppers who say they can taste noticeable differences in things like the croissants, chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, and ciabatta bread. Kirkland brand items, including the bagels, muffins, and morning buns, have customers reporting changes in consistency, texture, and even the ingredient used in them. One shopper was especially disappointed in the croissants, saying they had no flavor whatsoever. Another person lamented the bakery's drop-off, calling for the company to return to its prior quality standards and bring back the mix-and-match deals that have been eliminated.

Costco's baked goods are so beloved that any change can set off waves of concern among fans. Unfortunately for those who loved the brand's lineup of oversized muffins, the changes made in 2024 were not for the better. First off, the company changed the size of the muffins. The treats went from 5.5 ounces per unit to around 3.85 ounces, while reducing from two six-packs to a pack of eight. The price also went up, turning the cost from around $0.75 per portion to $0.87 cents a muffin. That's not a huge jump, but the fact that you can't mix-and-match flavors anymore means that if you like the chocolate but your family likes the lemon raspberry, you're ultimately spending more to buy two eight packs.

And then there's the switch up with the flavors. Some older favorites were retired as the brand introduced new varieties onto the retail floor. The texture was modified, as well, with multiple shoppers comparing the new options to pound cake instead of a regular quick bread. The general ire against the new muffins has led many to declare they won't be buying the treats anymore. Others are simply returning them to the store for a refund.

One thing many customers loved at Costco was technically two items. The bakery department offered two one-pound loves of bread in a single bag. The most famous was the French Country loaves, but there were also multi-grain and the Franz gluten-free double pack.

The French Country bread was replaced by a 2-pound loaf of rustic Italian, which shoppers haven't exactly been pleased with. The could easily freeze one of the Country loaves, but halving or slicing the Italian and freezing it can compromise the texture and flavor if not done properly. Luckily, the Barefoot Contessa herself has a hack that keeps the loaves from getting freezer burn.

So people were truly upset by the two-packs, and the French Country bread, being discontinued. One Redditor declared those were the only loaves they bought at the store, and others said they would miss the bread as it had been a staple on their table. A few people noted that the rosemary bread was tasty, even if it was a bit pricey. While not traditionally a sandwich bread, the Kirkland Signature Cranberry Walnut loaves are also popular, partly thanks to its hybrid-sourdough base.

Costco's smaller muffin sizes and number per pack were mentioned earlier. Those changes are some of the most obvious cases of shrinkflation in the baked goods department, but they're far from the only ones. Over the past few years, customers have noticed items like the croissants have been getting smaller as prices creep up. Shoppers aren't happy about the differences they see in products such as the bagels and some cookie flavors, either.

As discussed before, the bagels have gone from two six-packs to a single bag of eight items. If that wasn't enough, the company also changed from using Einstein Bros. to Kirkland Signature as the bagel distributor, leading to changes in quality and smaller sizes. The Brown Butter Sugar Cookies that were introduced in 2025 also took fans by surprise. Instead of being in the company's usual package of 24, there were only 21 in the box.

There's generally a bit of confusion around the difference in "best by" and "sell by" dates. According to the USDA, a best by date isn't a safety date. Instead, it's to indicate when the product is at its highest quality or will taste the best. A sell by date, on the other hand, tells store employees when to remove the product from the retail floor. It's also used to show when the quality of the item is best and doesn't mean the product is unsafe if you eat it a few days afterwards.

But for Costco customers, sometimes the sell by date doesn't match how long the baked goods are actually edible for. Many shoppers are disappointed to find items molding before the sell by date has passed, leading to wasted money and hungry stomachs. To prevent that from happening, some people suggest freezing the items as soon as possible and just removing however many you'd like when it's time to eat. You can thaw and warm the treat in an air fryer. Or you can wrap it in a damp paper towel before putting it in the microwave to remove any staleness, in case you decided to store it in the fridge.

To decide which complaints were most common about Costco bakeries, I began by doing general searches to find the main problems customers were upset about. Things like declining quality, higher costs, and "shrinkflation" began emerging from those searches.

I then combed through social media posts, comment threads, professional reviews, and user review sites to find the most common specific complaints. The themes that were most prevalent across those platforms were explored on this list.

Static Media owns and operates Food Republic and Tasting Table.