The Big Brand That Replaced Costco's Kirkland Signature Chocolate Chips

When Costco warehouses stock new products, members everywhere get excited to try and review the items themselves, curious to see if they'll become household staples. After all, Costco is the go-to for everyday items due to the large quantities they offer — saving customers repeated trips to the store — and their killer prices — saving customers money, of course. Because their member base is so loyal to their products, uproars can occur when Costco discontinues certain items. This was the case with their beloved Kirkland Signature Chocolate Chips. The giant bags of chocolate morsels were pulled from the shelves in August 2024 and replaced with none other than Nestle brand chocolate chips.

Costco attributed the switch to Nestle being able to guarantee a better value (for a similar quality) than Kirkland Signature would be able to with current rising cocoa prices. Kirkland Signature offered two varieties of chocolate chips; the 4.5-lbs red bag of semi-sweet chips, and the 51% cacao blue bag of the same size. The latter was also dairy-free, so allergen-friendly bakers and chocolate lovers were extra sad to see it go. Though the Nestle replacement is similar — same size and semi-sweet variety — customers complained about the longer ingredient list, lower quality, and poor taste. All things said, if value is your top priority, Costco is still the place to go for your chocolate chips needs.

Nestle is Ina Garten's favorite brand of chocolate chips, if that's any consolation to broken-hearted Costco members. They're going to do just fine in your ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe or any other go-to use for chips. If quality is of utmost importance to you, head to a store that sells Guittard chocolate; it's simply the best chocolate chip brand.

But don't lose all hope (or cancel your membership)! The Nestle replacement will likely be available until at least August of 2025 (one year from the date of the switch), but Costco hopes to bring back the Kirkland Signature Chocolate Chips in the future, when the cocoa market calms down. When that day comes, we recommend stocking up in case there's ever a repeat of the incident; chocolate chips can be stored in the freezer, so you can use the giant bags leisurely one at a time, while the extras chill until they're needed.