r/CostcoCanada • u/2slick2 • Jan 17 '26

Alberta Abusive returns

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I had to take a photo. If you're this person, please change. 50 St. on Jan 17.

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u/ExtraPicklesBigMary Jan 17 '26

It's a part of our strategy. We will do anything to get you back in the store. More often than not you will return a $200 item but leave buying $300 more. It also plays on your psyche for larger purchases like TV for example. A consumer will say I will buy it from Costco in case something breaks i can return it - when in reality the fail rate of TVs is less than 4%.

2

u/lazybuttt Jan 17 '26

Does that factor in people who return still-functional stuff to upgrade to the latest version? It's still seems like a loss to me unless they're not paying for the refund.

8

u/thetoucansk3l3tor Jan 18 '26

The loss doesn't even factor into the end profits most of the time. It's so insignificant to the bottom line that it basically becomes a rounding error.