Customers Have One Big Complaint About Costco's Bakery Items (Hint: It's Not Mold)

From Costco's bakery department come all the things that warm your heart, give you comfort, or enable you to celebrate your biggest life moments, like weddings or birthdays. Need an anniversary cake that feeds a crowd? Hosting a baby shower and want to make dozens of chicken salad sandwiches on flaky croissants? Or just want to bring home something a little special, like the luxurious year-round tuxedo cake, to treat yourself and your family? Costco can help you make that happen. Unfortunately, though, customers are noticing a troubling trend that doesn't involve molding or staling. According to their complaints, the warehouse's bakery items are gradually but distinctly suffering from a loss of quality.

On Reddit, one user remarked, "It's like they've forgotten what real, fresh bakery items are supposed to taste like," before going on to describe the muffins as resembling "cardboard soaked in artificial flavoring." Furthermore, while some folks praise the muffins' size, others blame shrinkflation for their frequent returns.

Another Redditor shared that the term "cloyingly sweet" is their "go-to description for almost anything in the bakery now." This is further reflected in a variety of comments stating that the bakery items just don't taste good anymore or don't have the same texture, with one Redditor calling them downright "awful."

It does seem like, these days, everything is getting worse and more expensive at the same time. And perhaps because of its sterling reputation as an employer and the fact that it hasn't thus far raised the price of its signature food court hot dog and soda combo, Costco seemed like it would be immune to those degradations.

However, a Costco bakery employee on Reddit described how, during their three-year tenure, the company gradually switched from scratch-made items to "frozen items that we would just toss in the oven." Another user who identified themselves as a Costco cake decorator shared that while "most items come in frozen," even the baked goods that do get made in-store tend to come from a mix. This contrasts with the account of yet another employee who claimed that when they worked there previously, many of the sweets and breads were indeed made from scratch, though they admitted that "things change fast."

Still, it seems the drop-off in quality is a matter of opinion, not fact. For example, one Reddit user wrote that their bakery "is still really good." Another user claimed theirs was "better than it has any right to be," with plenty of other commenters joining them in their praise.