Having a favorite item at Costco puts you at risk of being upset when that item goes away.
While the warehouse club does have some items it always stocks, like coffee, toothbrushes, paper towels, and breakfast cereal, the exact item you bought there last week may be gone from shelves just days later.
It’s part of the charm of the chain, but it can also be frustrating.
Costco rotates its merchandise and generally does not make any formal announcement when an item is being sold off and won’t be restocked. Some members, however, know to look for what many call the “Death Star,” or the star of death.
“When you stumble across a product you love, take a quick look at the shelf tag. If the large white price sign has a small asterisk in the upper-right corner, you’ve spotted what’s known as Costco’s ‘star of death,’” Food & Wine reported.
That tag has been spotted on a key Pepsi product that marked the brand’s entry into a whole new part of the soda market. It has not been confirmed by Costco, but the appearance of the fabled mark on the soda packaging suggests it’s being discontinued by the members-only shopping club.
Costco’s own employee orientation material says the asterisk indicates an item is pending deletion, recently discontinued, or inactive.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi both offer functional beverages
Sometimes called “functional beverages” or even “good for you” drinks, a new kind of soda has been growing in popularity, designed to be more than just a drink.
When Coca-Cola entered that space with its Simply Pop line in Feb. 2025, Fortune described the category as “an emerging but still niche category that analysts say has doubled in size over the past year but remains just 2% of the $42.4 billion U.S. soft drink market.”
“The size has more than doubled in the last year but remains relatively small,” Citi lead beverages analyst Filippo Falorni told Fortune.
While Coca-Cola has yet to introduce a functional version of any of its signature brands, Pepsi launched a prebiotic version of its namesake brand. The company described Pepsi Prebiotic Cola on its website, noting that it tastes like classic Pepsi.
“A balanced sweetness and bubbly carbonation highlight nostalgic cola notes, finishing clean and crisp. This category-defining prebiotic soda tastes like only Pepsi can and contains no artificial sweeteners, only 30 calories, 5g of sugar, and 3g of prebiotic fiber, offering people a prebiotic drink that blends functional ingredients with the best-tasting Pepsi flavor,” the company shared.
It comes in 12-ounce cans in both a classic and a Cherry Vanilla flavor.
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Costco appears to have dropped Pepsi Prebiotic Cola
Costco’s website shows Pepsi Prebiotic Cola as being out of stock in every warehouse I checked and not available for two-day delivery. I looked at stores all around Florida, as well as spot-checking my former zip codes in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
That follows social media reports of members finding the “Death Star” symbol on the remaining inventory of Pepsi Prebiotic Cola in their local stores.
SmashBrand shared a video on YouTube showing the soda boxes with the star of death/Death Star mark.
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“When you see an asterisk in the upper right-hand corner of a Costco tag, that means it’s done. They’re moving through it. It’s not coming back. It’s going to be discontinued. And in fact, it’s discontinued now. It is not going to return. You’re out,” she shared. “I’m not so sure that mainstream America wants prebiotic cola.”
Pepsi’s Product Locator page does not show Costco as a place that sells the prebiotic flavors.
Related: History of Costco: Company timeline and facts
Discontinued may not mean forever
Costco does use the Death Star code on seasonal items it intends to bring back. There are other situations where this may not be the final end for Pepsi Prebiotic Cola at the warehouse club.
“That doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be discontinued forever,” said David Schwartz, co-author of “The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z,” in an interview with Delish. “That could mean that it’s gonna be given a rest for three months, and then come back.”
Schwartz, who wrote the book with his wife Susan, also suggested one tactic that could help the item make a return.
“Costco strongly considers what customers want, so the best way to ensure that your favorite snacks return to warehouse shelves is to let them know. The Schwartzes suggest stocking up on products with Death Stars so the inventory reflects the demand and indicates that it shouldn’t be retired permanently,” they added.
The warehouse club does listen to its members, according to RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino.
“Costco’s willingness to actively solicit member feedback is part of why its loyalty is so difficult for competitors to replicate,” he told TheStreet.
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