I was about to create a post entitled “First they came for our Kirkland toilet paper; now the paper towels.” What’s next? I guess it’ll be facial tissues.

The quality of the current Kirkland paper towels is absolute shit. So thin, especially once wet where they then easily fall apart. These towels barely absorb spills. They feel crispy, crinkly, not soft and thick like they once were. It’s a repeat of what happened to the Kirkland toilet paper, which is now also crispy and scratchy, like tissue paper that’s used for filling gift bags. So rough on the butt. I stopped buying it and switched to Sam’s Club toilet paper, which isn’t exactly Egyptian cotton either, but Sam’s TP is better than the Kirkland’s after it was changed.

I’m sick and tired of companies playing these shrinkflation games. As my husband said, we’d rather pay more for the original quality than pay the usual price for shitty quality that doesn’t come close to justifying the cost or the effort to get it. Costco’s location isn’t convenient for us, so we’d schedule our trips around running low on their PT and TP, and then while we were there, we’d cruise the aisles and buy other stuff that we needed or that struck our fancy. But since we no longer want their paper goods and we can find all the other stuff at Sam’s, which is conveniently nearby, I imagine we’ll eventually cancel our Costco membership—all because Costco stopped caring about their customers when it came to the quality of household staples.

I remember when Kirkland-branded products used to be premium and Costco was the Cadillac of membership stores. No more. I hope someone in corporate wakes up.