Costco's Method Of Ordering Cakes Is So Archaic

Perhaps you're not much of a baker, or maybe you just don't feel like shelling out the big bucks for a cake from a local bakery. If you fall into either camp and find yourself in need of a cake, you'll likely decide to just order one from your nearest grocery store — or, if you need a cake that'll feed a crowd, Costco.

However, it's not as easy as whipping out your phone to place a quick online order or calling your local Costco bakery. Due to how the ordering process is set up, if you want to bring that budget-friendly Costco sheet cake to your upcoming bash, you need to actually go into a physical store a few days prior to your event.

As Costco's website confirms, the store doesn't allow customers to order cakes online, but rather insists that they place an order at the bakery itself. They also need a minimum of two days' notice, so if you require a custom cake, make sure not to leave things until the last minute.

The trade-off for the price of Costco sheet cakes is that you have limited customization options. As the form details, you can opt for either a white cake or chocolate cake, select one of the standard designs (or a seasonal option), and add whatever message you want piped atop the cake.

You might assume that Costco requires members to place their order at the bakery because they want them to actually enter a physical Costco location and stock up on a few other items while they're putting in their cake order. Surely they have some type of digital ordering system within the bakery once you get there, right? Well, not exactly.

As it turns out, cake-seeking customers have to fill out their request and place it in a box within the bakery. Then, they simply have to show up on their indicated pick-up date and hope everything has gone according to plan — the store doesn't send any type of confirmation. One Twitter user took to social media to complain about the system, deeming it "from the 1800s."

Ordered a cake from Costco and their system is from the 1800s, you write what you want on a piece of paper & put it in a box then nobody follows up and you just show up and hope they made it? I tried to call to confirm & they were like "if you put it in the box, it will be there"

— Lucy Huber (@clhubes) May 11, 2023

The viral tweet got a ton of responses from Costco cake fans who assured the original poster that based on their experiences, her worries were for naught and the cake would absolutely be there when it came time to pick it up.

It also seems like the store will follow your directions to the absolute letter, as one customer humorously found out. According to a Reddit post, they made a seemingly simple request of red frosting along the cake's perimeter, adding an illustration to communicate their vision. The decorators at the bakery piped a faithful replica of the illustration itself atop the cake. Reddit commenters were impressed by the accuracy — even if the instructions were misunderstood.