3 Discontinued Costco Items That Used To Come With Your Membership

Costco sells a wide variety of items, including electronics, clothing, groceries, kitchen items, furniture, jewelry, and much more. Part of the appeal of shopping at Costco is the retailer’s offering of bulk items that make weekly essentials, especially for a large family, less expensive. However, the best way to take advantage of Costco discounts is to sign up for a membership. But, of course, you can still shop at Costco without a membership. However, Costco offers many useful benefits to its members, such as special savings on big-ticket items and an excellent return policy. While all these benefits are amazing, the seller used to have other benefits that are nothing but a memory these days.

If you think the current benefits of a Costco membership are the best, wait until you hear about the different benefits that have been discontinued. While big box retailers may try to make their memberships more fun by adding benefits, that’s not always the case. The seller has shown that he is not shy about removing or limiting certain benefits. Here are some tech-related membership benefits that Costco used to offer but have discontinued.

Currently, Costco offers an attractive return policy on electronic products, which allows you to return any items that do not meet your expectations. Costco’s returns are limited to 90 days from the date of purchase, which is great compared to other retailers like Walmart and Amazon that offer much smaller return windows. For example, Amazon offers a 30-day return window on most items. Costco’s 90-day window may sound impressive today, but this is a more limited version of its previous return policy. Previously, Costco allowed its members to freely return electronics without a time limit.

So if you bought a TV from a retailer and it failed you, or you weren’t happy with it after months or years of use, you can return it and Costco will give you a refund. That also meant you could upgrade your gadget at any time by simply returning the old one and using the refund to get a new model. That was an amazing benefit, but unfortunately, some people seem to be abusing it, leading Costco to limit the return window to just 90 days, which is still generous compared to other retailers and reason enough to always shop your tech at Costco.

Another Costco benefit that was previously part of the membership was access to the retailer’s physical and online photo centers. Costco used to have in-store photo centers that you could access to print your photos or create personalized items using your photos, such as calendars. It also offers passport photo prints and canvas prints at pocket-friendly prices. Similar to in-store photo centers, the online version also allows you to print photos or use them to create unique personalized items such as Christmas cards.

However, Costco closed its in-store photo centers in 2021, possibly because it wasn’t the best use of space in its stores due to the advent of camera phones and social media, which led to a sharp decline in the demand for photo printing. Its online photo centers survived for nearly two years after the store centers closed. However, the retailer eventually pulled the plug on its online photo center in 2023 and redirected its members to another one.

Costco members also used to enjoy an extended warranty on items. The extended warranty was one of the benefits of using Citi Costco credit cards, which automatically offer 24 months of payment on purchases in addition to the manufacturer’s warranty, with a total protection limit of up to seven years. This benefit basically means that you can return any problematic items to the seller, even if the manufacturer’s warranty has expired, and you can get a free replacement or repair. Extended coverage has been a big plus for Costco members because while many items come with a warranty, some offer shorter periods.

The Citi Costco credit card’s 24-month warranty means that, no matter how short the manufacturer’s installation period, the merchant has your back for a long time. Alternatively, if you see that the item you were looking for has a short warranty period, you can simply use the card to get longer coverage. Unfortunately, this benefit was phased out in 2023, and Citi notified affected users in November 2022. As a result, you can’t get an extended warranty on new purchases with the card, although it still offers other benefits like cash back on purchases at Costco.