Costco is eliminating free coffee grinding services across multiple locations

Costco shoppers have caused an uproar online after recent reports that the company has removed a popular in-store feature at multiple locations.

Signs suddenly began appearing over the holidays detailing how communal coffee grinders would no longer be made available to those who wanted to grind coffee beans for free before returning home.

Reddit user @phteven1989 revealed the disturbing news last week with a photo of a banner that read, “Attention members: Coffee grinders will no longer be available.”

“Uh, I don’t know what happened…but we lost our mill privileges,” the Reddit user said in a post last Tuesday.

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Another Reddit user also confirmed this revelation in another thread when a shopper was unable to locate the popular service near the payment terminal and food court.

“What happened to make them remove the mills?” asked user @StinklePink.

The Reddit post was quickly filled with comments from fellow frustrated shoppers.

Fox Business I contacted Costco for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

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While the organic feature was appreciated by many shoppers who used it to quickly grind an entire two-pound bag Coffee beans Within a minute or less, one Reddit user, who said he previously worked at one of the Seattle locations, speculated that the free service had been canceled due to customer abuse.

“The grinders were broken at least once a week,” the employee, who goes by @Storkman1007 on Reddit, said in a post. “Even with signs not to double grind, people will do it all day and clog the burrs.”

“We also had paint brushes to mop the floor and keep the machines clean, and people would drop the brushes and grind them into their coffee,” the employee continued. “These mills cost a few thousand dollars each.”

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Fellow Redditors also revealed that their local warehouse often damaged coffee grinding machines.

“Someone dropped chocolate covered coffee beans at my local grocery store,” one user commented on the Reddit thread.

“Double grinding, grinding nuts, and dropping brushes,” another Redditor posted. “Members cannot be trusted to disrespect property they do not own, essentially.”

tape	protection	last	It changes	% changes
It costs	Costco Wholesale Company	924.39	+3.02	+0.33%

One shopper commented on why their local store stopped selling the machines.

“Our restaurant was next to the food court, so naturally someone would comment sausage “In one of them,” the consumer said. “We no longer have coffee grinders in the warehouse.”

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While grinding beans at home is also an option, one shopper said buying whole beans isn’t worth the effort.

“I will no longer buy whole bean coffee,” the user said. “It’s a good price, but grinding that much at home takes a long time. It’s not worth my time to get the discount.”

FOX Business’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report.