Costco shoppers are in an uproar online following recent reports that the company removed a popular in-store feature at multiple locations.
Signs abruptly began popping up over the holidays detailing how communal coffee grinders will no longer be provided for those who wish to grind their coffee beans for free before heading back home.
Reddit user @phteven1989 revealed the displeasing news last week with a photo of a sign that read "Attention members: Coffee grinders will no longer be provided."
"Uh oh, I don’t know what happened … but we lost our grinder privileges," the Reddit user said in a post last Tuesday.
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Another Reddit user also confirmed the revelation in another thread when the shopper could not locate the service commonly found near the checkout station and food court.
"What happened to make them remove the grinders?" asked user @StinklePink.
Both Reddit posts were quickly flooded with comments from fellow disappointed shoppers.
FOX Business reached out to Costco for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
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While the membership perk was appreciated by many shoppers who used it to quickly grind a full two-pound bag of coffee beans in a minute or less, a Reddit user who said they previously worked at a Seattle location speculated that the free service was revoked due to poor customer usage.
"The grinders were broken at least once a week," the employee, who goes by @Storkman1007 on Reddit, said in a post. "Even with signs to not double grind, people would do it all day long and clog the burrs."
"Also we had paint brushes to wipe the grounds and keep the machines clean and people would drop the brushes and grind them into their coffee," the employee continued. "Those grinders cost a few thousand dollars each."
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Fellow Redditors also revealed that their local warehouses often had damaged coffee grinder machines.
"Someone put chocolate-covered coffee beans in the one at my local grocery store," one user commented on the Reddit thread.
"Double grinding, grinding nuts through, dropping brushes," another Redditor posted. "Members can't be trusted not to disrespect property they don't own, essentially."
One shopper commented on why their local store no longer carries the machines.
"Ours were next to the food court so naturally someone stuck a hot dog in one of them," said the consumer. "We do not have coffee grinders any more at the warehouse."
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While grinding beans at home is also an option, one shopper said buying whole beans isn’t worth the labor.
"I won’t be buying their whole bean coffee anymore," said the user. "It’s a good price, but grinding that amount at home takes forever. Not worth my time for the discount."
FOX Business' Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
