Costco shopper warns after noticing what was inside the box of crackers: 'Had one eaten...'

Costco is among the most popular retailers that are trusted to deliver good quality at lower prices. It is this popularity and credibility that encourages people to pay for memberships, just to enter a Costco store. But now, these members have raised concerns over the quality of products, with one customer exposing half-eaten items on the shelves. The shopper who goes by the username @mdpilam on Reddit shared a post on the retailer's unofficial forum complaining about two different boxes of crackers, which someone had eaten out of.

In the post, the shopper shared that in the last two Costco trips, his wife came home with "a box of crackers and fruit pouches"  that weren't up to satisfactory standards. "The crackers had an opened bag (of 2) with a rubber band around it and the pouches had one eaten with the empty pouch still in it," he wrote. The Costco member further asked if the store was putting returned items back on the shelves without checking or if people were stealing food from the boxes.

While there were no pictures included in the post, other Redditors claimed that there was truth in the allegations. Many shared similar experiences where they found tampered items. "We bought a container of the peanut M&M's that had been opened and snacked upon. We returned with no issue and I grabbed a new one, checking the seal. Now, anything with a lid and seal is something I check before buying," @mrsg1012 revealed.

Some added that the issue wasn't limited to grocery items and snacks, and had happened with items like pizzas as well. "That’s so weird, every time I go pick up pizza, when I get home and we open the box there’s always a piece missing! It’s so annoying. It’s always my pizza too, not the one my husband likes. 😢," @Zewlington lamented.

Some raised concerns over the store's practices, suggesting that Costco needed to do better with their seals. "I’m surprised that Costco doesn’t even put minimal seals on the plastic clamshell packs of bakery and deli items. A simple paper label or tape across the front seam would do it. Other stores figured this out long ago to show evidence of opening or tampering," @Explorer4820 suggested.

On the other hand, defenders of Costco found the incident to be rather odd. "Yep, just happened to pick the two opened boxes in one trip, while I've been 100 times and still haven't got 1," @ImposterMe418 mentioned. Another user questioned why the user was buying unsealed packages. To this, the Redditor admitted that the seal on the box was removed, but the packets inside didn't have a seal on them.

Another user claimed that it may not be possible at all for the store to put returned items back on the shelves. "I strongly doubt that Costco puts any returned food items back in stock because of a lack of documentable chain of custody. If the boxes are sealed then they had to come that way from the manufacturer," @noncongruent wrote.