Costco members have spotted the retailer's infamous "star of death" asterisk on the price tags of dozens of popular items, from ground bison to Biscoff cookies, a quiet signal the warehouse giant is pulling them from shelves.
The small asterisk sits in the upper-right corner of Costco's large white shelf tags, easy to miss if you don't know to look. But veteran members treat it like a tombstone. When that mark appears, the product will not be restocked once current inventory sells through. In some cases, the item vanishes for good.
Consumer blogger Jeff Rossen flagged the symbol in a recent Facebook reel, pointing out that Carbone's Spicy Vodka Sauce, a fan favorite, currently carries the asterisk at Costco locations. A Costco shopping blogger on Instagram compiled a longer list of products now wearing the mark, The U.S. Sun reported. That list reads like a clearance-aisle eulogy: strawberry shortcake bites, Ghirardelli salted caramel dark chocolate, chocolatey cookies from Australia, Vietnamese coffee ice cream, an acrylic drinkware set, Nike sweatpants, anti-dandruff shampoo, and jalapeño lime tortilla chips.
Not every asterisk means a permanent goodbye. Costco stocks roughly 4,000 unique products at any given time, less than half the approximately 10,000 items a typical grocery store carries. That tight shelf space means the retailer constantly rotates seasonal and limited-run goods in and out. Carbone's Spicy Vodka Sauce, for instance, has not historically been stocked year-round, suggesting it may cycle back.
Other products won't be so lucky. Reddit users on the r/Costco forum reported spotting the asterisk on ground bison price tags. Store supervisors confirmed the item is being completely discontinued across Costco's entire store fleet, not a seasonal pause, but a permanent cut.
That distinction matters. Costco does not typically broadcast which products are rotating out temporarily and which are gone forever. The asterisk covers both scenarios, leaving shoppers to guess or ask a manager. The ground bison confirmation came only after members pressed supervisors directly.
For a retailer that inspires near-religious loyalty, with entire online communities dedicated to tracking deals, hauls, and product sightings, the asterisk carries outsized emotional weight. Members who built meal plans or pantry routines around a product can find it gone without warning.
The "star of death" entered the broader public vocabulary in 2023, when Costco shoppers noticed the asterisk on Bud Light price displays. That sighting landed during the consumer boycott over Anheuser-Busch's partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, and it signaled Costco might stop restocking the beer entirely. The New York Post reported that Bud Light sales had plunged 28.5 percent for the week ended July 1, 2023, slightly worse than the 27.9 percent decline the prior week. Modelo Especial, by contrast, jumped 11.4 percent during the same stretch.
The fallout spread beyond Bud Light itself. Sister brands took collateral damage: Michelob Ultra dropped 4.3 percent and Busch Light fell 8.5 percent. The Ardagh Group, a glass bottling company partnered with Anheuser-Busch, laid off roughly 645 employees at plants in Wilson, North Carolina, and Ruston, Louisiana, after reduced Bud Light bottle production gutted demand.
David Williams, a machine repair mechanic at one of the affected plants, put it plainly:
"Because of Budweiser no longer selling the bottles, they no longer needed our product."
A mid-May memo from the Wilson plant manager cited "slow sales with Anheuser InBev" as the reason two production lines would shut down, Breitbart reported.
Costco's business model depends on a curated, fast-moving product floor. Fewer items per warehouse means higher volume per item, which means lower prices for members. But the tradeoff is brutal for any brand or product that loses its slot. There is no aisle of slow-movers waiting for a second chance. When the asterisk appears, the clock is already ticking.
Costco has not issued any official statement about the current wave of asterisk sightings. The company has never publicly detailed its criteria for pulling the trigger on a product, whether the decision turns on sales velocity, supplier pricing, shelf-space competition, or something else. Members are left reading price tags like tea leaves.
Several open questions remain. Are all the products on the Instagram blogger's list confirmed as permanently discontinued, or are some simply rotating out for the season? Which regions or specific stores are affected? Costco has said nothing, and the social-media reports offer no geographic detail beyond "Costco."
For now, the advice from veteran Costco shoppers is simple: if you see something you love on the shelf, check the tag. If the asterisk is there, buy it today. Tomorrow it may be gone, and Costco won't send you a farewell card.
In a retail world drowning in choice, Costco built loyalty by offering less. The asterisk is just a reminder that "less" cuts both ways.