The Costco Label That Leaves Shoppers Confused

There is a lot to appreciate about Costco — the bulk retailer is wholly more affordable than most regular grocery stores, and you can get cheap eats at the food court, like the $9.95 whole pizza, which comes out to just 82 cents per slice. On the other hand, however, there are some parts of the shopping experience that can overwhelm and disappoint Costco shoppers, like its lack of app functionality – Sam's Club really has Costco beat there. Some shoppers even find the product labels to be confusing at times, namely those that tout an item as both Kirkland Signature branded, in addition to a name brand in the same description.

As one user pointed out on a recent Reddit post under the r/Costco thread, the juice bottle from Costco featured the Kirkland Signature logo at the top, as well as the Ocean Spray logo right underneath it. "Whoah, that is just weird," one commenter on the thread said. More respondents on the thread joined in after noticing this odd occurrence, with one posting an image of Kirkland Signature tortilla strips, showing off the Mission logo on the bottom half of the bag. This inspired others in the comments to mention items where they have seen this occur, like Reynold's aluminum foil, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and Sunsweet dried plums. The next time you take a close look at the items at your local Costco, you might notice that your favorite go-to Kirkland Signature products also give away the original manufacturer. 

Speculation was ripe on the r/Costco thread about why exactly the double branding occurs on some store packaging and not others. First, it's important to note that Costco doesn't actually produce or manufacture any of the goods that it sells; there are no Kirkland Signature factories churning out thousands of items. Everything comes from a supplier, and some items get branded with Kirkland Signature alone and sold at a discount when compared to name brands.

As for why name brands might appear with Kirkland Signature, "Some brands just like having their name on the package and negotiate the contract that way," one Reddit user suggested. Another said, "Depends on how valuable your brand is and how much pain it would cause your primary brand when people find out they can get the same thing much cheaper from Kirkland."

The top commenter on this thread, though, posited that it could also have to do with the size of the item, like if it's a Costco-specific size, or even the quality. Costco has stringent quality requirements for the items on its shelves, from the fruits and vegetables in its produce departments, to the backpacks it sells in its sports and fitness section. If a name brand has to tweak its recipe to align with Costco's quality provision, then the Kirkland Signature logo might signify that.