FRESH FROM the oven
How Costco Bakery serves up quality baked goods BY JEN MADERA AND ALEXANDRA GRZESIK
W alk by the Costco Bakery department in your local warehouse and you’ ll get a sense of how great the products are. Specifically, you’ ll smell them— warm baked goods, fresh from the oven. Pick up a muffin, biscuit or loaf of bread and taste the quality of the ingredients and the recipes behind them. Here’ s a look at how this department whips up all its winners.
How do they bake it all?
When the first Costco Bakery opened in 1987 in Tukwila, Washington, it looked a little different than today.“ We introduced about 75 items on opening day, and those were all [ made from ] scratch, hand-done,” says Krista Whitney, Bakery Buyer for Costco US.“ It was more like a traditional bakery.”
Today, Costco Bakery has become a staple department with 30 core items in warehouses across Australia.
Since opening, the volume this department sells daily has risen significantly. To keep up with demand, the bakery prepares a combination of madefrom-scratch and frozen items.“ Cakes, muffins and cheesecake— those are all done in-house every day,” Krista says.
Other items, like the cookies and biscuits, arrive at the warehouse unbaked and frozen to maintain freshness.“ We work with [ the supplier ] to formulate a cookie that’ s unique to Costco,” Krista explains.“ Then we’ re able to bake them in our locations and put them out. So instead of having to do that labour and mixing every day in the buildings, we’ ve developed a formula they can commercialise for us.”
WHAT’ S NEW IN THE BAKERY?
Fans of Costco’ s specialty cakes should keep an eye out for a delicious new item available now: the Dulce de Leche and Pecan Gateau. Made using a soft sponge cake, this sweet treat is filled and topped with decadent dulce de leche cream, then its sides are coated in crunchy pecans. Created in response to current trends, this cake is new to Costco Australia and available for a limited time only.
18 | MAR / APR 2026 COSTCO CONNECTION