Costco Workers Say Company Isn’t Adding Staff to Support Early Opening

Some Costco employees are worried early opening plans could be headed for a rocky start.

The wholesale club confirmed in a Wednesday email to members that it will begin opening its doors at 9 a.m. for Executive members. Workers on social media say they’re not looking forward to the changes.

One front-end manager told Business Insider he’s heading into the June 30 schedule change with a smaller payroll budget than he had to work with a year ago. The worker requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with the media about the business.

“Instead of throwing more people at the problem, they’re expecting more work out of the people,” he said. “There’s a point where that’s really fair, and there’s a point where it’s just cheap.”

The early shopping hours for Executive members mark the return of a perk Costco previously offered years ago, before it was phased out.

By offering the chance for members to beat the crowds — or be the first in line to get their hands on an in-demand item like eggs — the warehouse club could convert more of its $65-per-year Gold Star members into $130-per-year Executive members. Executive members account for more than 73% of the company’s total sales.

“Our Executive Members are our most loyal members, and we want to reward them for their commitment to Costco,” the email said.

Costco did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Several commenters online said they work at stores that are not adding new hours to workers’ shifts, and instead shifting some morning restocking assignments to nighttime. However, it’s unclear if this is widespread across warehouses.

“I remember when we used to open early for business members, but back then we had almost an extra dozen employees on morning crew, in these last couple of decades they have eliminated a bunch of employee positions and now expect two people to do the work that 4 or 5 people used to do,” one commenter wrote.

The hours before opening are typically a very busy time at a warehouse, multiple workers have previously told BI, with a ballet of forklifts and merchandisers getting inventory in place to be sold.

Workers at some locations arrive as early as 4 a.m. in order to prepare for a 10 a.m. open.

On a good day, when things are running smoothly, some Costco warehouses are able to open a few minutes early — hence the lines of shoppers waiting in front of the doors in the morning.

Other commenters say their warehouses already struggle to open at the existing start time.

Shortening the pre-opening time will likely lead to some cleaning tasks going unfinished or merchandise brought back to the loading dock to make space for shoppers, the front end manager said.

“It’s going to be an absolute nightmare. It’s going to be dirty. It’s going to be filthy. They’re not done yet,” he said. “They want them to do the same job in less time, and I can tell you right now, it’s always the struggle every day.”