Every other Fortune 100 retailer spent 2025 quietly dismantling their DEI infrastructure. Walmart killed its racial equity center. Target axed its three-year DEI goals. Meta torched its diversity hiring quotas. McDonald's pulled out of the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. Even Amazon — yes, Amazon — scrubbed "inclusion and diversity" from its annual report.
Then there's Costco.
While the rest of corporate America was running for cover, Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) did something almost no other major retailer dared to do: it told the anti-DEI movement to pound sand. The board didn't just defend its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — it asked shareholders to formally reject any proposal that questioned them. And in January 2025, in the most lopsided governance vote of the year, 98% of Costco shareholders agreed.
That single vote tells you everything you need to know about why Costco Wholesale lands at 45/100 on the BuyWokeFree woke meter — a "woke" classification that most of its conservative-leaning members have absolutely no idea applies to their favorite warehouse club.
The Shareholder Vote Heard Around Wall Street
The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative think tank that has been a thorn in the side of woke corporations for years, filed Proposal #5 ahead of Costco's January 2025 annual meeting. The ask was straightforward: produce a report evaluating the financial, legal, and reputational risks of maintaining DEI programs.
Costco's board, led by CEO Ron Vachris and Chairman Hamilton "Tony" James, did not just oppose the proposal. They issued a public statement urging shareholders to vote it down, arguing that "our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary."
The result wasn't even close. Roughly 98% of Costco shares voted against the anti-DEI proposal. To put that in perspective: the same shareholders who own America's most patriotic-coded grocery chain — Kirkland Signature American flags, $1.50 hot dogs, gas pumps full of conservatives in lifted F-150s — overwhelmingly voted to keep funding the same DEI apparatus that Robby Starbuck has spent two years exposing at competitors.
The HRC Perfect Score Nobody Talks About
Costco currently holds a perfect 100/100 score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index (CEI) — the same scorecard that requires companies to demonstrate "inclusive benefits" for transgender employees, fund LGBTQ+ employee resource groups, and participate in public-facing Pride advocacy.
The HRC CEI isn't a passive ranking. To earn 100 points, a company has to actively:
- Include "gender identity" in non-discrimination policies for U.S. and global workforce
- Provide transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits, including surgical procedures
- Demonstrate at least three "LGBTQ+ corporate social responsibility" actions per year — typically Pride sponsorships, charitable contributions to advocacy groups, and external Pride marketing
- Sustain an LGBTQ+ employee resource group with executive sponsorship
Costco has hit all four buckets every year since 2015. Progressive Grocer reported a decade ago that Costco, Safeway, and Delhaize had earned "top marks for LGBT workplace equality" — and Costco never stopped paying for that ranking. While Mastercard, Lowe's, and even Anheuser-Busch (post-Bud Light) have started backing away from the CEI in 2026, Costco has kept its checkbook open.
$100,000 DEI Bonuses for Executives
Here's a detail that didn't make the front page: According to Costco's 2024 proxy statement, then-CEO Craig Jelinek received a $100,000 bonus in 2023 specifically tied to "environmental and DEI metrics." Fox Business broke the story after digging through the SEC filings. Jelinek wasn't alone — multiple Costco executives received six-figure bonuses linked to ESG and DEI performance goals.
This is the part that should infuriate every Costco member who pays $65 or $130 a year for the privilege of shopping there. When Costco's leadership tells you their warehouse prices are razor-thin and that's why a rotisserie chicken still costs $4.99, what they're not telling you is that they're cutting six-figure checks to executives for hitting diversity quotas — using your membership dues to do it.
Ron Vachris, who took the CEO chair on January 1, 2024, inherited that compensation structure. Costco's 2024 proxy continues to tie executive incentive pay to "human capital management" goals, which is the new SEC-friendly euphemism the company uses for DEI metrics. As of the 2026 reporting cycle, that structure has not changed.
The "Human Capital and Inclusion" Rebrand
Costco has not been completely tone-deaf to the political environment. Like JPMorgan Chase (which BuyWokeFree covered last week), Costco has quietly started rebranding its DEI initiatives under more legally defensible language. The 2025 corporate sustainability report shows "DEI" appearing fewer times than in 2023 — replaced by phrases like "human capital," "talent inclusion," and "supplier opportunity programs."
But the underlying programs are intact:
- Supplier diversity: Costco's supplier development program still prioritizes minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, and LGBTQ-owned businesses. The LGBTQ supplier track is certified through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).
- Mandatory training: Costco employees still complete annual "respectful workplace" training modules that include unconscious bias and gender identity components.
- Pride marketing: Costco continues to feature LGBTQ+ Pride Month merchandise — though noticeably less prominently in 2026 than in 2023, when its rainbow displays drew conservative criticism.
Political Donations: Where the Money Actually Goes
According to OpenSecrets, Costco's PAC and employee-affiliated political contributions have leaned Democratic in every cycle since 2018. In the 2024 cycle, Costco's federal contributions were split roughly 62% Democratic / 38% Republican, with the largest individual recipients including senators on the Senate Finance Committee — which has jurisdiction over trade and import duties critical to Costco's bulk-import model.
This isn't ideological purity from Costco's leadership. It's transactional politics from a company that imports Kirkland Signature goods from over 50 countries and lobbies hard against tariffs. But the dollar flow still ends up funding the same Democratic coalition that backs every piece of ESG and DEI legislation Costco's board claims to support on the merits.
The BuyWokeFree Verdict
Costco Wholesale earns a 45/100 woke score in the BuyWokeFree database — placing it firmly in the "woke" tier, but not at the bottom of the barrel. Why isn't it lower? Two reasons:
- Restraint in customer-facing marketing. Unlike Target, Costco has never gone full rainbow on its storefronts during Pride Month. Its woke commitments are mostly internal and shareholder-facing.
- The core business actually works. Costco still pays employees well, sells American-made Kirkland goods at honest prices, and hasn't sacrificed product quality for ideological signaling.
But make no mistake: every membership renewal at Costco is a vote of confidence in a corporate strategy that defied the largest anti-DEI shareholder revolt of the decade. The 98% vote in January 2025 wasn't a gun pointed at the board's head — it was the board's preferred outcome. Ron Vachris and Tony James asked their owners to bet on DEI, and 98% of capital said yes.
Conservative Alternatives to Consider
If Costco's DEI defiance is a bridge too far for your shopping conscience, the BWF database flags these warehouse and bulk-grocery alternatives:
- BJ's Wholesale Club — Lower woke profile, no shareholder DEI battles, more limited Pride marketing
- Sam's Club — Walmart's 2025 DEI rollback flowed downstream; current BWF score reflects that pullback
- Local Mennonite and Amish bulk grocers — Available in most rural and Mid-Atlantic markets; no corporate ESG infrastructure to fund
- PublicSquare-listed bulk and pantry brands — Marketplace of explicitly conservative-aligned suppliers
The hot dog is still $1.50. The rotisserie chicken is still $4.99. But you should know exactly what your $130 Executive Membership is paying for behind the scenes.
Check the full Costco brand profile and the latest scores on every major retailer at BuyWokeFree.com.