The Costco App Feature Reddit Hates The Most

In this day and age, nearly every grocery store has a mobile app, or at the very least a website. These online interfaces allow customers to check a store's item availability, place orders, and even earn rewards. Well, that's the theory, anyway.

Costco launched its app back in the summer of 2012. Even then, people weren't impressed with the app's quality or ease of use. According to Forbes, Costco's stock price didn't jump in response to the app, which promised to revamp the Costco "social experience."

Ironically, Costco officials seemed to know even in 2012 how the app would work (or not work) more than a decade down the road. In an interview with Retail Dive, the CEO of the app development company said that while a customer's shopping experience "can now begin on mobile, they still end in store." Today, this still rings as accurate, but not in the way anyone — Reddit in particular — would hope.

Although we could probably go on and on about things people dislike about the Costco app and website, nobody has time for that. Instead, let's just take a look at Reddit's least favorite features — namely, Costco's search function. According to one Reddit user, this feature is "amazingly bad" and "feels like it was designed by somebody who's never used a search bar before." Ouch.

Several Redditors suggested that this incompetence was intentional. One person theorized that the Costco website and app exist solely to keep up with other grocery chains, and strategically keeping the quality low would force customers to shop in-store. And once you're in the warehouse, Costco has trick you into spending more money.

Unfortunately, we don't have a solution to the Costco search bar issue, but we do have a little hack for checking item availability. Simply find your Costco on Instacart, and search away. Plus, you don't even have to have a Costco membership to peruse the store's stock or have groceries delivered.