Of all the craveable snacks you can score at Costco, the Kirkland Signature Peanut Butter Filled Pretzel Nuggets are one of the most famous and beloved. Some customers find the sweet and savory morsels so addicting that they’ve even likened them to the devil in the past. But in an abrupt turn of events, these popular pretzels have reportedly disappeared from Costco’s shelves in recent weeks—and some alleged employees say it’s because of a “quality issue.”
A Costco customer shared on Reddit this week that an employee refused to sell the pretzels to their spouse because they had purportedly been recalled. But after checking Costco’s recall page and another recall site, the customer didn’t find any notices that applied to the peanut butter pretzels.
“Do y’all know anything? Are you able to purchase these are your location?” the customer asked.
As it turns out, other customers haven’t even seen the pretzels lately, let alone purchased them.
“My local Costco doesn’t have [them] either. It’s been a while,” a shopper commented on the post.
“I went two weeks ago, and they were nowhere to be found in my club (Eastern PA). My mom went last week to her club (Henderson NV), and there none. I assumed there was something up,” another wrote.
Several self-identified Costco employees confirmed that they recently had to pull the peanut butter pretzels from shelves. One of these alleged employees said the decision came down to a “quality issue” with the pretzels.
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“We got a pull and hold notice at my Costco because the seals aren’t holding on the jars, so they are showing up stale,” they wrote.
Another Redditor also speculated that a quality or packaging issue might be to blame for the sudden absence of the pretzels.
“It’s a pull and hold, when it’s not an immediate recall it’s usually something to do with the packaging that’s wrong or it doesn’t meet Costco’s quality standards,” they wrote.
Of course, shoppers should take these claims with a grain of salt. Costco hasn’t recalled the pretzels or notified shoppers about any quality issues with the snacks—at least for now. The retailer did not immediately respond to our queries for confirmation and more details on the reported pretzel quality issues.
This isn’t the only popular Costco product that has come under scrutiny in recent months. Back in July, hundreds of Costco shoppers started complaining about a strange taste and smell in newer bottles of the Kirkland Signature American Vodka. Costco eventually sent out a notice acknowledging that the vodka didn’t meet its “quality expectations” and offered refunds to customers who purchased it.
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Zoe Strozewski
Zoe Strozewski is a News Writer for Eat This, Not That! A Chicago native who now lives in New Jersey, she graduated from Kean University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Read more about Zoe
