Visitors typing in Costco Next’s web address this month do not reach a storefront. They reach a single line of text: “Access to Costco Next storefronts is no longer available.” Below it sits a list of outside vendors and their customer-service numbers, with no note explaining why the marketplace that carried the Costco Next name for nearly a decade is gone. Costco has not said what happened, and as of this week, it still has not.
A Storefront Replaced by a List of Vendor Phone Numbers
The company’s own on-site message is now the only public record of the shutdown. It reads, in full: “Access to Costco Next storefronts is no longer available. Please refer to the list below for contact information for vendors with active return policies. For eligible returns and warranty inquiries, contact the vendor directly.” What follows is a directory of outside brand names and phone numbers, not a working store.
Costco Next launched in 2017 as a members-only marketplace layered onto the warehouse chain’s own website, connecting shoppers with roughly 80 outside vendors selling camping gear, luggage, electronics, and home goods at discounts of up to 40 percent, Fox Business reported on September 3, the day the closure surfaced publicly. Shoppers who clicked an offer were redirected to a branded storefront on the vendor’s own site to complete checkout, a structure closer to a curated referral network than a marketplace Costco ran directly. Some members first noticed the storefronts were gone around September 1.
The Growth Story Costco Was Telling Three Months Earlier
The shutdown is hard to square with what Costco’s own leadership was saying about the platform earlier this year. On the company’s third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call on May 29, 2025, Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip told analysts that “Costco Next, our curated marketplace, also continues to show healthy year-over-year growth,” adding that quarterly sales on the platform had already equaled the marketplace’s total sales for all of fiscal year 2022, according to a transcript cited by TheStreet. Millerchip said Costco was “excited about the pipeline of new vendors and development for future rollout.”
Costco Next’s own merchandising team was making similar claims. General Merchandise Manager Cheryl Smeby had described the platform as showcasing “products from some of Costco’s suppliers that have been selected for the quality of their merchandise and their exceptional customer service,” giving members “a discount that is available only to Costco members.” None of that messaging has been walked back, retracted, or explained since the platform disappeared.
No Comment From the Company That Collects the Membership Fee
Reporters have tried and failed to get Costco to say why. Fox Business said it “reached out to Costco for more information” and had not received a response as of publication. TheStreet reported that “a request made via the Costco media request form was not immediately answered by the company,” and noted that a local outlet, the Press Democrat, independently confirmed the same sudden closure.
Costco has not said whether the shutdown is permanent, whether it plans to relaunch the platform under a different name, or whether the roughly 80 vendor partners were given advance notice before their storefronts went dark. Nothing on Costco’s investor relations site or newsroom addresses Costco Next at all; the company’s most recent public disclosures deal with sales results and store openings, not the marketplace’s closure.
Returns and Warranties Now Run Through Vendors, Not Costco
For members who bought something through Costco Next before the shutdown, the practical effect shows up at the return counter, or rather, the absence of one. Costco’s message tells shoppers to contact each vendor directly for “eligible returns and warranty inquiries,” a departure from the return desk at any Costco warehouse, where the retailer itself typically stands behind purchases. Members now need to track down a separate customer-service line for each of dozens of vendors, from electronics maker Anker to bicycle brand Priority, rather than relying on Costco’s own name to back the purchase.
That shift matters most for anyone who bought a higher-cost item, an appliance, a bicycle, an electronics bundle, through Costco Next in the past year and later needs a warranty claim honored. The retailer’s own return policy, one of the most member-friendly in retail, does not appear to extend to Costco Next purchases now that the platform is gone.
What a Silent Cut Is Worth Against a $65 or $130 Membership Fee
Costco’s Gold Star membership costs $65 a year and its Executive tier costs $130, according to NBC News’s membership guide, updated in March. Members weigh that annual charge against a running list of perks: warehouse prices, gas discounts, travel bookings, and, until this month, an additional marketplace offering discounts unavailable anywhere else with a Costco card. Removing one of those perks without comment leaves members unable to weigh whether the fee still buys what it did a year ago.
Costco has not said the change was a cost-cutting move, a vendor dispute, a technical problem, or a strategic pivot away from third-party marketplaces. Until it does, the only verified fact is the one sitting on Costco Next’s own web page: access is no longer available, and the company that built a business on member trust has offered nothing else to go on.
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