Not every Kirkland buy is a win—some taste bad, aren't actually a good deal, or ride short-lived TikTok hype straight back to the returns desk
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Kirkland Signature Toilet Paper
I’m on the Costco subreddit (of course, I am), and if I had to pick one Kirkland product that is the most controversial, it’s their toilet paper. It comes up over and over again, and while it does have its defenders, more people hate it with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. And I am one of them. So is Jessica Randhawa, a home organization expert and professional chef. In my experience, the paper shreds too easily, yet doesn’t tear where it should, and even though it’s not terribly thin, I end up using more toilet paper than I normally need. (Well, there’s a sentence I never thought I’d put on the internet.) Other people say it’s prone to clogging their toilets and septic tanks. And sure, Kirkland’s recycled tissue makes environmental sense for some, but if every swipe feels like a poop gamble, that’s not a trade-off I’m willing to make.
What to buy instead: Randhawa and I both go for the Charmin. “The Charmin is much softer, thicker and doesn’t fall apart as easily,” she says. Hey, if you’re going to sit on a throne, go first-class.
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Kirkland Signature Diapers
Once upon a time, Kirkland diapers were like Huggies in disguise—reliable, absorbent, stretchy—and I used them for all of my babies. Then, in January 2025, Costco switched suppliers (from Kimberly‑Clark to First Quality), and—according to outraged parents—they became disastrously thin. My kids are all past the diaper stage, thank heavens, but parents online have called them “paper-thin” and reported leaks, less stretch, and kids waking in soggy PJs. As a mom, I can tell you that nothing is worse than picking up your baby out of their crib and having them “squish”.) Scathing reviews flooded in.
“The amount of blowback we’ve gotten in the store over these diapers is crazy,” says Mike P. a Costco supervisor. Indeed, one Costco tried damage control with a sign by the diapers explaining the new design was thinner but more eco-friendly. But when parents see puddles, “eco-friendly” kind of comes across like “sorry… not sorry.”
“I get it. I won’t buy them anymore either. My wife and I have switched to Huggies.” Mike says.
What to buy instead: If you can still find leftover inventory of the old Costco diapers, stock up fast. If not, consider sticking with Huggies or Pampers—yes, pricier—but baby stays dry, you’ll do less laundry and morning moods stay happier.
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Kirkland deli tacos
As a busy mom, I love Costco’s deli dinner kits, and we’ve tried them all. Of these, my kids love the street tacos, but while they are delicious, the packaging is basically a boobytrap in clamshell form. I’ve dropped more than one unloading it from my car and was devastated until I discovered I’m not just a klutz, this is a thing that’s happening to tons of people. The oversized plastic container is basically all lid, which is loosely attached to a plastic tray containing the food. and it has an annoying habit of popping open at random—in the car, in the cart, or, worst of all, in the parking lot where gravity is undefeated.
And while we’re here: the new Kirkland birria taco kit may sound trendy, but the price tag is steep for what you get. One reviewer did the math and found that each taco only contains two ounces of filling. The rest of the weight was the tortillas, consommé (broth for dipping), Spanish-style rice and two lime wedges. For her package, it ended up being roughly $11.50 for 8 small tacos plus $13 for broth, rice, and citrus. At $6.49 a pound, that’s hardly a deal. Chef Donovan DeLoach sums it up perfectly: “If I’m paying restaurant prices, I want restaurant quality tacos—and honestly tacos are not hard to make.”
What to buy instead: Grab fresh tortillas and a rotisserie chicken from Costco (one of their actual cult classics) and build your own tacos at home. It’s cheaper, tastier and won’t explode in your trunk.
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Kirkland Signature Coffee Beans
For some, like Randhawa, coffee is life. “I am addicted to coffee. I drink twice every day, or I get a headache. So I make sure I get good coffee to enjoy the experience and stay productive,” she says, adding that she knows the Kirkland coffee is very popular, as she sees people buying it every time she goes in. So when she says, “I find Kirkland coffee beans are flat and highly acidic,” it stings like your mouth after too many whitening strips trying to get the coffee stains off your teeth. It’s not just her. One review complained they’d noticed Kirkland Colombian Supremo recently tasting “bitter and acidic,” and no longer “full-bodied as before.” It’s also not just that one type of coffee. A different reviewer called the French Roast “by far, the blandest, most underwhelming coffee that can only be described as bitter.”
DeLoach adds that the ground coffee is a separate problem as “ground beans go rancid quickly and as soon as you open it, and unless there are a lot of heavy coffee drinkers in your home, it’s unlikely you’ll finish it before it goes bad.”
What to buy instead: Randhawa’s pick: Trader Joe’s Bolivian blend—medium body, low acidity, caramel notes and fair trade—is still very affordably priced. Or, DeLoach says to shell out just a few bucks more for fresh medium roast beans from your local roastery, with mucho flavor and smaller bags so they won’t go rancid.
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Kirkland Signature Paper Towels
Paper towels need to hit that sweet spot between disposable and durable—and these are a big miss, Randhawa says. Use too few, and you’re soaking everything. Use too many, and you’re finding clingy confetti in your sink. “Being a chef, I am constantly in the kitchen, and I have a lot of recipe messes to clean up. I do try to use kitchen towels as much as possible to be more eco-friendly, but I do use paper towels often,” she says. “And while Kirkland Paper towels work, they just are not as efficient or good at cleaning up spills as some other brands.”
What to buy instead: She swears by Bounty, which you can find on the pallet right next to the Kirkland paper towels. “Bounty’s towels absorb a lot more spills than Kirkland’s, making less waste, which is a plus in my book.”
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Kirkland Signature Burnt Ends Brisket
These have been so regularly panned on the Costco subreddit that when I saw them in the cold foods section, I decided to try them because…masochism? I should have listened. Burnt ends should be one of the best parts of barbecue—tender, smoky, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of brisket. Costco’s version? Meat cosplaying as barbecue. They sound promising until you try to cook them. As one Redditor put it: “Not great, if you cook with enough moisture to tenderize, then you lose the smokiness flavor. If you prepare like the instructions say, it’s like chewing on a shoe lol.” At home, one of my sons said, “These feel like punishment for being hungry.” Yikes.
One commenter admitted that if you slow-cook them all day, they can turn out decent, but at that point, you’ve basically made your own brisket from scratch. And isn’t the point of the “prepared foods” section that you don’t have to prepare them? (Side note: I hate cooking.)
What to buy instead: If you have the time, Deloach says to skip the shortcut, grab a raw brisket from Costco’s meat section (their unprepared cuts are actually solid quality) and do it yourself. Or just let your local BBQ joint handle the burnt ends and eat out. Either way, your jaw won’t feel like it just chewed through a work boot.
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Kirkland Signature Protein Bars
As a gym junkie, I’m addicted to protein bars, and I’ve tried them all. And I’ll say that when it comes to something being healthy and a quick source of protein, I will tolerate a lot of bad-tasting things. But even I couldn’t choke these down. On paper, these bars should be a win: high protein, low sugar, bulk-priced. In reality, I think they taste like someone blended drywall paste with old Tootsie Rolls and dared me to chew it.
Another issue beyond flavor is that they’re sweetened with erythritol, a sugar alcohol that’s been raising eyebrows in nutrition research. A 2023 study linked higher blood levels of erythritol to increased clotting risk and cardiovascular events. Not to mention the short-term misery: sugar alcohols like erythritol can cause bloating, gas, and stomach cramps.
“While erythritol is considered generally safe, it can cause problems in higher doses, especially when consumed daily in products like protein bars,” says Jessica Plowman, RDN, a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist. She adds that “the ‘sugar-free’ label can also be deceiving—people often end up eating the same amount of calories, if not more, because these products don’t satisfy cravings in the same way as real sugar. It’s not just about calories, it’s about nutrient density.”
What to buy instead: Opt for whole-food protein sources that won’t sabotage your taste buds—or your gut. Plowman recommends Greek yogurt with fruit, a scoop of clean whey powder in a smoothie, or, if you want a bar, look for ones with simple ingredients and natural sweeteners like honey or dates.
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Kirkland Signature Contact Lens Solution
Sure, it’s cheap. But when it comes to your eyeballs, a bargain can backfire. I’ve learned that personally with the contact lens solution. At first, I thought it was just me, and perhaps I was developing dry eye, until I saw all the Reddit threads hating on this product. One summed it up well: “I’m disappointed in the Costco brand solution, it’s super irritating and uncomfortable… much lower quality than Opti-Free or Biotrue.” And for me, that’s been true; as soon as I switched to Biotrue, my dry eye problem resolved.
Adding official context, a consumer report submitted to the FDA in December 2024 described the Kirkland multi-purpose solution causing repeated styes. On the clinical side, an anonymous Costco Eye Doctor cautions against it, saying that store-brand solutions often rely on older preservatives that can irritate the eye—sometimes subtly, until discomfort becomes daily.
What to buy instead: If your eyes are protesting—or you just like comfort—consider switching to newer multi-purpose solutions like BioTrue or Opti-Free. Better yet? Ask your doctor about peroxide-based systems like Clear Care, which are preservative-free and often more soothing (though they do require a bit of extra handling). Until then, maybe leave your eyeballs off the bargain rack.
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Kirkland Signature Mixed Nuts
Costco’s nuts are legitimately good—roasted, salted just right, and packed with protein and healthy fats. The problem? They come in tubs roughly the size of a toddler, and suddenly you’ve “just had a handful” that turns out to be 800 calories deep. I discovered this firsthand recently when I sat down to watch K-Pop Demon Hunters (for the 4th time) with a bag of mixed nuts and dried figs, and by the time the credits rolled, so much was gone I was basically human trail mix.
Plowman notes that while nuts are heart-healthy, they’re also calorie-dense. A quarter-cup serving of mixed nuts clocks in at about 200 calories. And who eats a quarter cup? That’s like two sad spoonfuls. “Large bulk packaging can trick people into eating more than they realize, because the visual cue of an endless tub overrides satiety signals,” Plowman says. Translation: Costco nuts are designed to make your willpower cry.
What to buy instead: The nuts themselves are great, so Plowman says the trick is portioning them into snack-size bags right when you get home. Better yet, grab Kirkland’s individual nut packs, which exist specifically to protect you from yourself.
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Kirkland branded clothing
For a brief, glorious moment, Kirkland-branded joggers, hoodies, and hats were TikTok’s fashion darlings—stylish, affordable, and posing as luxe loungewear. It was so sought after that some locations sold out. (Can confirm: My teenage daughter desperately wanted in on this, but we couldn’t find a single item left except a few hats.) But let’s be real: Costco doesn’t offer changing rooms. You buy based on visual vibes and hope. So it’s no surprise that once the trend cooled, a mountain of returns followed, especially considering some shoppers load up on multiple sizes just to try them on at home.
“Clothing in general is our most returned item,” Mike says, confirming that his location did see an uptick in returned Kirkland-branded clothes. “It’s not because they’re bad, they’re actually pretty good quality, but our return policy is so generous that we’ll take anything back even if it’s just because it’s not cool anymore.”
What to buy instead: If you’re chasing that TikTok look, try pieces you can actually try on—either in-store at traditional retailers or via online sellers with free returns. Stick to wardrobe basics that aren’t screaming “Costco logo” (unless ironic dadcore is your style). That way, you avoid return-line regrets.
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Sources:
- The Wall Street Journal: “How Costco’s Kirkland Signature Brand Became a Powerhouse”
- Bryan Quoc Le, PhD, food scientist, food industry consultant and author of 150 Food Science Questions Answered and Founder and Principal Food Consultant at Mendocino Food Consulting; phone interview Aug 17, 2025.
- Jessica Randhawa, professional chef and the creator of The Forked Spoon; email interview Aug. 17, 2025.
- Mike P., a current supervisor at a Costco in Colorado; phone interview Aug. 19, 2025.
- Donovan DeLoach, a private chef in Boulder, Colorado, nutritionist, and personal trainer; in-person interview Aug. 17, 2025.
- Jessica Plowman, RDN, a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist practicing in Denver, Colorado; In-person interview Aug. 19, 2025.
- Tasting Table: “5 Kirkland Signature Whole-Bean Coffees, Ranked Worst To Best”
- Fortune: “Costco switched its Kirkland diapers and parents aren’t happy”
- PNAS: “Rapid single-particle chemical imaging of nanoplastics by SRS microscopy”
- Frontiers in Endocrinology: “A Review of Human Exposure to Microplastics and Insights Into Microplastics as Obesogens”
- Nature: “The artificial sweetener erythritol and cardiovascular event risk”
- Reddit: “Has anyone tried Kirkland’s Burnt Ends Brisket ?”
- Reddit: “How good is Kirkland lens solution compared to BioTrue? Been a BioTrue user for awhile but Kirkland stuff is cheaper and curious to know if anyone has opinions here?”
- FDA: “MAUDE Adverse Event Report: KIRKLAND MULTI-PURPOSE DISINFECTING SOLUTION; ACCESSORIES, SOFT LENS PRODUCTS”
- Costco Eye Doctor: “Soft Contact Lens Solutions”
