Here's Why Everyone Is Going to Costco and Why You Might Want to Go Too!

Membership-based brand warehouse club Costco has been packed with shoppers as February 2025 kicks off. The lines have been so long that folks have been flooding TikTok with videos of crowded aisles and checkout queues.

In the comments, people are saying they’re ready to get their own Costco memberships — some are even claiming they'd be swapping out their Target runs for Costco hauls. Honestly, ditching Target for Costco is a bold move, so there has to be a really good reason behind it, right? So, what’s with the sudden Costco craze? We did some digging — and let’s just say, I might be signing up for a membership, too!

Everyone seems to be flocking to Costco in support of the company’s decision to stand by its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies — despite President Donald Trump issuing an executive order on Jan. 21, 2025, calling for the end of DEI programs. Trump claims these initiatives promote "dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences."

At the end of January 2025, Costco shareholders voted to reject an anti-DEI proposal presented by the National Center for Public Policy Research, an activist shareholder group. The proposal would have required Costco to provide a report outlining the risks associated with its DEI policies, per Fox Business.

Now, people are showing their support for Costco’s commitment to maintaining an inclusive and diverse workplace by shopping there instead of other grocery stores.

Trump’s executive order scales back DEI policies, which were originally designed to prevent workplace discrimination and ensure equal opportunities for disadvantaged groups. He argues that DEI initiatives undermine merit-based hiring and violate the principle of equal treatment under the law. However, DEI policies date back to the mid-1960s, when the U.S. was moving away from segregation and toward more inclusive hiring practices.

So, it seems Trump is trying to roll back policies meant to reduce discrimination — ironically, the same ones that were created to prevent it in the first place.

At the end of January 2025, Kevin O'Leary, known as Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank, shared his thoughts on Costco's resistance to scaling back its DEI policies during an appearance on Fox's The Big Money Show.

He stated, "They're nuts if they think I want them fighting the federal government on policy." He added that hiring based on merit can result in diversity, even without the DEI policies in place: "[If] you just hire on merit as we do, you get tremendous diversity." But do you, really?

Kevin also argued that Costco's refusal to end its DEI policies would be "bad for business."

However, it seems Costco’s stance is doing quite the opposite. The video shared above highlights how busy Costco is while maintaining its DEI measures, which has been shared over 30,000 times, with the majority of comments expressing support for the company, thanking it and its employees for standing up for people.

Meanwhile, companies like McDonald's, Target, and Walmart have already started scaling back their policies, prompting many to consider switching their shopping habits from Target to Costco.