Costco is one of the most renowned retail giants that takes care of all your needs and requirements, from grocery items to furniture to rotisserie chicken to replacement tires. It also offers many different services for your vehicles and provides an array of lubricants and motor oils from premium quality brands.
Costco has quite an outstanding opportunity for excellent quality and affordability. Still, its presence in the auto industry often raises a question amongst many individuals. Does Costco do oil changes? This question does seem pretty reasonable, given their provision of auto services and auto maintenance.
Indeed, oil changes are among the most common types of maintenance necessary for all kinds of vehicles. Still, there seems to be some uncertainty about whether Costco changes your oil or not. We have put up this article for you to provide you the answer to your question and a lot more information with it.
Does Costco Provide Oil Changes?
The short and straightforward answer is no! Costco does not provide oil changing services any longer. Costco’s official site has verified this and many consumer magazines, including the Costco outlets in Canada and the United States. However, it is still unknown which year Costco stopped doing oil changes.
The warehouses in Markham Road in Canada offered oil changing services up to the 3rd quarter of 2017, after which it stopped. According to some sources, a few Canadian outlets of Costco continued providing oil change services until 2019. Other sources verified that the oil change services stopped for all the Costco branches worldwide as of 2016.
At present, the vehicle services offered in this retail giant’s warehouses are only confined to tire replacements and installations, balancing and rotating tires, and services. Fortunately, Costco continues to offer enticing discounts for its customers on a vast range of truck and auto accessories.
This includes tires, motor oil, and many other products associated with vans and trucks. The Costco stores sell regular motor oil from numerous brands like Castrol, Mobil, and Kirkland, along with a wide array of automotive products.
Reasons Why Costco Stopped Providing Oil Change Services
While there is nothing the general public can do besides wonder, there can be several possible reasons why Costco must have decided to discontinue its oil change services. Some of these reasons include:
- The business model of Costco revolves around selling products in bulk or at wholesale rates. It does not focus on providing highly personalized services like oil changing is.
- The Costco Tire Centers was where the oil changing services were carried out previously. However, despite the Costco Tire Centers being a good option, the service was met with many mixed reviews.
- The level of inconsistency in customer experience across the different outlets of Costco must have annoyed the customers.
- There is inadequate shop space for the warehouses.
Costco is a company that is well aware of its core strengths and weaknesses. This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why they do not provide oil change services, as it is just not their forte. Moreover, there have been numerous conversations across Costco communities and various forums regarding the said inconsistencies.
Some branches require you to make bookings for tire swaps, whereas other Costco branches cater to customers on FCFS (first-come-first-serve) basis. Hence, this usually leads to long lines outside the Costco stores from 8:00 am onwards. Also, the Costco staff members were often reported for being rude and abrupt to customers.
Ever since Costco has been established, it has completely revolutionized its customers’ shopping experience, both in-store and online. By all means, it has hoped to apply the same technique for its other services, but in vain.
Whether Costco thought about the lack of adequate space for oil and tire change services or simply did not want to take up an additional burden on itself by getting rid of excessive toxic waste for discontinuing this service, the truth remains unknown.
Even though it is quite unfortunate that Costco does not do oil changes anymore, this is clearly some good news for the other competitors in the industry.