RELATED: If You Bought This at Costco, Get Rid of It Immediately, FDA Says. If you go to Costco next month, you’ll notice the return of an old favorite: the free food samples that were a staple the wholesale chain pre-pandemic. Richard Galanti, Costco’s chief financial officer, announced on a May 27 earnings call that around 170 U.S. Costco locations will bring back free food samples in the first week of June, per CNN. And by the end of June, most of the remaining locations (the company has 560 U.S. warehouses) will have reinstated free samples as well. According to CNN, free samples had been banned by the company for about 14 months during the pandemic. According to CNN, Costco is planning to implement some safety measures to its free samples since COVID is still lingering, especially in certain parts of the country. Galanti said that part of the “increased safety protocols” they’re putting in place will include samples being prepared behind plexiglass, made in smaller batches, and distributed to customers only one at time.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. Along with its ban of free samples, Costco also shut down its food courts at the beginning of the pandemic. And while they reopened in May, the beloved Costco food courts have only been offering a limited menu with no seating. However, Galanti said that indoor seating will be back at most of Costco’s U.S. locations next month, just with “more physical separation” than before the pandemic, CNN reports. This means that tables will seat four instead of six or eight and Costco will allow “half the seating capacity as we had before,” Galanti said. Some stores will also have outdoor food court seating options. Costco also updated its face mask policy on May 14, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said fully vaccinated individuals no longer needed to wear masks under most circumstances. In U.S. locations with no state or local mask requirements—which is the large majority of places—Costco started allowing members who are fully vaccinated to enter the store without a mask. They also do not require proof of vaccination. However, if your Costco is located somewhere that does have a state or local mask mandate, you must still wear a face covering at your local Costco, regardless of your vaccination status. RELATED: Target Just Banned the Purchase of This One Thing at All Its Stores.
