Costco shopper reveals three Kirkland products you should avoid and he has a good reasons for it

Politics is the last thing that comes to a person's mind while buying groceries, but at the same time, policies affect people in the form of inflation and cost of living, as well as the quality of products. Recently, a TikTok creator who goes by @thewokeginger listed three Costco products that people must avoid based on their political awareness and leanings. The list includes some of the most popular items from the store's signature brand, Kirkland.

In his video, the creator listed "Kirkland Adult Dog Food" as the first item. The creator claimed that its manufacturer, Diamon Pet Food has never given a dime to any Democratic leader in the past fifteen years. The second item on the list was 'Kirkland Toilet Paper and Paper Towels' as they are manufactured by Koch Industries. The creator claimed that the conglomerate was one of the biggest contributors to the Republican Party, and they donated nearly $50 million to the party in 2024. The last item on the list was Kirkland's bottled water, which is manufactured by Niagara Bottling, a California-based company. The creator noted that while Niagara doesn't directly contribute to the Republican Party, their senior management and leaders are extremely Republican.

There is another reason why Costco shoppers may want to avoid Kirkland's bottled water, especially the 'Ionized Alkaline' offering. Previously, a TikTok creator accused the brand of tricking people with fake alkaline water. The Costco shopper named @vanht05 claimed that Kirkland's Alkaline Water had a pH level of less than 7 despite the label claiming it is 9.5 pH. The creator claimed to have exposed the brand as she compared the results to those of tap water and purified water.

In the video, the creator shared her experience with Kirkland's Alkaline water before performing the test. She shared that she and her boyfriend regularly bought the product as it claimed to have a pH level of 9.5. For context, as per various sources on the internet, water usually has a neutral pH of 7, and any water with a pH lower than 7 is deemed acidic. In contrast, water with a pH close to 8 and above is regarded as alkaline. Some health experts claim that Alkaline water can be a better alternative as it may help with a few health issues.

In her video, the creator shared that they had recently bought a water purifier and wanted to test and compare the pH levels of its water to the Alkaline water.

She then showed her viewers three different cups with water from the three sources. She placed a test strip on each cup and revealed that the Costco water wasn't what it claimed to be. She then noted that this may be why the Kirkland Bottle had the disclaimer that says the pH level was 9.5 "at the time of bottling". 

She then claimed that the water from the other sources wasn't off by a lot, so there wasn't much difference. In the end, the text overlay on her video read, “Is Costco lying?!” and the caption added, "Read the fine print. I guess." 

However, one user, @prprado7, claimed that there is no such thing as alkaline water. "Something about when you open it, it’s no longer at the same pH, and it’s all alkaline water, not just Costco… It’s pretty much a gimmick," the user wrote. 

For more updates and interesting videos, follow @thewokeginger on TikTok