Why Costco Shoppers Are Convinced This Staple Item Has Seriously Gone Downhill

Costco has somewhat of a cult following. People love items from the brand's Kirkland Signature line, and its larger products at wholesale prices are perfect for families. But even Costco lovers have admitted that one product — the brand's paper towels — have seemingly gone downhill.

Paper towels are expensive. This is mostly due to supply chain issues; after all, this household necessity is a product derived from trees. As a result, some brands might be lessening the thickness and strength of their paper towels in order to produce more of them, and Costco shoppers have noticed this with Kirkland, suggesting they're not as absorbent as they used to be. "I think their quality has gone way down," one user wrote in a Reddit thread, also adding that they started buying Bounty paper towels instead due to Kirkland's paper towels tearing too easily. Bounty is regularly considered one of the best paper towel brands, and it seems competitor brands aren't keeping up with quality.

It seems Costco has stopped selling individually wrapped paper towel rolls and now only sells them in batches, which some complained makes storage more difficult. One Reddit user said they had both older Kirkland paper towels and newer ones in their home, and they did a comparison of each. "There very definitely is a quality difference," they wrote. People are most likely disappointed because the quality difference has not resulted in a lower price. And when you have lower-quality paper towels, it's hard to make them last longer, meaning you ultimately spend more per year on the same-priced product. "One roll used to last us [an] eternity, but now we go through one a week," someone else wrote. On Costco's website, customers had similar thoughts. "The quality has gone down," someone wrote in a 2025 review, adding "the pattern, absorbency and packaging has been all over the place." Another reviewer said the brand's quality "has tanked so drastically." 

Others have noted that it isn't just Kirkland paper towels that have gone downhill. Over the last few years, customers have noticed declining quality on a number of Kirkland Signature items, from paper towels to toilet paper and prepared foods. However, this isn't unique to Costco. Consumers have complained all over the place that grocery items are not worth the money they once were and that "shrinkflation" (the idea of keeping prices the same but offering less of the product) has also been an ongoing problem.