Costco Is Missing These 2 Perks That Most Other Grocery Stores Have

Costco reigns supreme as the king of wholesale clubs, but it's also the second-biggest grocery chain in the U.S. (with only Walmart ahead of it, in case you're wondering). And yet, for a major food retailer that sells everything from kitchen cleaners and fresh produce to surprisingly affordable gourmet steaks, Costco is missing two features that shoppers have long been accustomed to at other grocery stores: A deli counter and a butcher counter. You won't find Costco employees slicing lunch meat to order, custom-cutting steaks, trimming roasts, or preparing specialty seafood behind a glass display. Instead, just about everything is packaged in advance and ready to go into those extra-large shopping carts.

The decision is a deliberate part of the company's business model — at least according to speculating customers on Reddit. While Costco has issued no formal statement as of July 2026 as to why it doesn't have full-service deli and butcher options in its stores, the company's business tactics have been well-publicized over the years. In short, Costco relies on large-volume bulk sales to make a profit. Slicing down cheese and meat to order would simply work against this. And, while some Redditors have also pointed out the fact that a full-service Costco deli would get backed up and chaotic, similar to the food court, there's also the issue of space. As one Redditor put it, "A deli would require a lot of square footage in an already full retail space. What merchandise would you be willing to forgo to buy a ham sandwich?"

Your average grocery store offers a variety of meat and deli items from different brands, but that's just not the case at Costco. As massive as they are, Costco's warehouse stores generally have a much smaller selection of products than most grocery stores. Whereas your typical supermarket may carry over 30,000 items, Costco stocks only about 4,000 active products in a warehouse at any given time. That limited assortment allows the company to negotiate lower prices with its suppliers, simplify inventory management, and turn products over more quickly. Adding a full-service deli or butcher operation would likely introduce hundreds of additional products and, needless to say, complicate things quite a bit.

Costco likewise has a carefully curated meat selection that it maintains close control over. The company has oversight into how its meat products are processed, including mechanically tenderizing its own steaks. Costco also actually owns its own chicken farm in Nebraska and sources poultry from there. So basically, by the time these items reach the refrigerator bins in the store deli section, they're already exactly how the company wants them prepared and sold.

Rest assured, though — you can still buy sliced deli meat and cheese at your local Costco. It just already comes pre-packaged and is more limited in selection than what you may be used to elsewhere. But if you're finding that Costco just doesn't quite cut it (literally) for meat and other common deli options, there's always your local traditional grocery store to the rescue.