Costco Members Can No Longer Enjoy This Free Perk With Their Membership

Costco members have been enjoying fewer and fewer membership perks, and one recent announcement has taken away yet another benefit for its members.

Reader’s Digest reported that free public in-store coffee grinders will no longer be available to members. Your neighborhood Costco may already have eliminated its machines.

According to a Reddit user, a sign that reads, “Attention Members: Coffee grinders will no longer be provided ” has replaced the coffee grinder that was previously present at a business. Another Reddit user shared a similar notice, and both times, users quickly voiced their dismay in the comments section.

What happened to make them remove the grinders?
byu/StinklePink inCostco

Uh oh, I don’t know what happened… but we lost our grinder privileges
byu/phteven1989 inCostco

Although Costco has not formally addressed the reason behind the coffee grinders’ removal, a user claiming to be a former employee offered their thoughts on Reddit. The Reddit poster, who goes by the name @Storkman1007, stated that the grinders were frequently broken. “People would double grind all day long and clog the burrs despite signs warning against it,” the user wrote.

The expensive grinders, each costing several thousand dollars, were not designed to be used so frequently. The outcome? Extremely costly, broken grinders — at least according to the information at hand. The few customers who didn’t use the grinders correctly may be responsible for having them removed, even though the majority of members probably used them well.

Costco Offering Affordable Housing in Los Angeles

Amidst the increasingly deadly and damaging effects of the Los Angeles fires, Costco is extending its product line in a novel and engaging way by collaborating with Thrive Living to provide affordable housing in Los Angeles.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a Los Angeles real estate developer is experimenting with a low-cost housing plan that entails piling homes on top of a Costco. In early 2025, Thrive Living plans to begin construction of an 800-unit affordable housing project in Baldwin Village, South Los Angeles, featuring the megastore on the first floor. 184 apartments for low-income families would be part of the project, along with a rooftop pool and exercise center.

The location would be Costco’s first residential complex in the U.S. According to Thrive founder Ben Shaoul, the rent that the popular retailer pays Thrive allows the developer to rely less on government subsidies for affordable housing.