A Costco store exterior.

There’s A Little-Known Policy At Costco For Forgotten Items

NEWS

By ANN MEYER

A shopper unloading their shopping cart in Costco parking lot.
Leaving an item behind in the Costco parking lot is more common than you might think and Costco has a decades-old system for returning forgotten purchases to their rightful member.
Costco shoppers talking to a crew member.
Any items that are left in the parking lot and brought back in, either by employees or courteous passersby, are logged at Costco’s membership services.
A Costco employee working the cash register.
Individuals on Reddit who have made this shopping faux pas refer to a special “lost in lot” folder with details about which products were retrieved and on what date.
A Costco storefront.
If you’ve forgotten an item, Costco employees can check the log to see if and when it was turned in and verify that it’s yours by looking at your receipt or purchase history.
A shopper with loaded shopping carts in a parking lot.
However, Costco is also often willing to replace the item even if it hasn’t been returned. “It’s a cheap way to keep a customer happy,” one Reddit user noted.