A Costco warehouse is a different animal from a normal store: bare concrete floors, pallets of product at ground level, flatbed carts in every aisle, and sample stations that leave crumbs and liquid where hundreds of members walk each hour. Add a food-court soda spill near the exit and it is not hard to see how falls happen — and when they do, Costco documents them.
If you fell at Costco, an employee almost certainly completed a member incident report before you left the building. That report and the warehouse camera footage are the core evidence in your case, and neither will be volunteered to you. Here is how to go after both while they still exist.
- Entry & membership check — All cart traffic funnels through one doorway, and tracked-in rain sits on polished concrete that gives no warning.
- Refrigerated & freezer rooms — Walk-in thresholds collect condensation and melt, and the floor texture changes right at the door.
- Bulk pallet floor — Pallet jacks and forklifts operate during shopping hours; banding, shrink wrap, and dropped stock end up underfoot.
- Food court — Drinks, ice, and condiments on hard floor with heavy traffic and few clear sightlines from staff to the floor.
- Checkout lanes — Leaking bulk liquids and crushed produce, in lanes long enough that a spill travels before anyone sees it.
- Parking lot & cart corrals — Oversized lots with heavy flatbed-cart traffic, wheel stops, and drainage grates.
What happens after you report a fall at Costco
A supervisor or manager will usually respond quickly, check whether you need medical help, and fill out an incident report — often on a tablet or a standard form — recording where you fell, what was on the floor, and which employees were nearby. Because you are a member, Costco can tie the report to your membership account, which actually helps later: there is a clear record that you, specifically, reported a fall on a specific date.
Like most large national chains, Costco routes injury claims into a corporate claims process rather than leaving them with the warehouse. Expect contact from a claims representative rather than the manager you spoke with. From that point, everything about your claim runs through people whose job is to evaluate and limit Costco's exposure — polite, professional, and not on your side.
Why Costco won't just hand you the report — or the footage
The incident report is Costco's internal record, created partly in anticipation of a claim, and warehouses are not in the habit of printing copies for members. The surveillance video sits behind even more process: cameras cover the entrances, registers, and much of the floor, but the recordings cycle and get overwritten — often days to a few weeks, depending on the system. A busy warehouse has no reason to save the segment showing your fall unless someone makes them, in writing, before the system records over it.
What a preservation-of-evidence letter does
A preservation-of-evidence letter puts Costco on formal notice to retain the incident report, all video covering your fall and the period before it, floor-walk and inspection logs, and records about the hazard — a leaking freezer case, a sample station, a broken pallet. Once Costco receives it, quietly letting that evidence disappear becomes a serious problem for the company in litigation. To be clear about what this service does: we do not possess Costco's records, and no one outside Costco does. We help you demand their preservation, request copies, and pursue them through the proper channels.
What to do right now
Get examined by a doctor and keep every receipt and record. Write down the warehouse location, the date and time, the aisle or department, and what the floor looked like — grease, liquid, a grape from the produce section, a broken sample cup. Keep your membership number handy, since the incident will be linked to it, and keep the shoes you fell in.
California's general deadline for injury claims is two years, but that is a trap if it makes you feel unhurried: the footage question gets decided within weeks of your fall, one way or the other. Send the preservation letter now, then work on the incident report and the claim. If you want help drafting and sending it, that is exactly what this service is for.
Who answers a Costco claim — and the one record you already control
Warehouse claims have an unusual feature: because entry and checkout are tied to your membership, you may be able to prove exactly when you were there without asking anyone's permission.
- Insurance posture
- Self-insured for injury claims.
- Who adjusts the claim
- Costco has used outside adjusters rather than handling everything in-house, with Gallagher Bassett Services reported as its third-party administrator. Confirm who is actually assigned to your claim — administrators change.
- Store format
- Member-only warehouses, corporate-operated rather than franchised.
- Evidence you can pull yourself
- Your membership scan and receipt tie you to a specific warehouse at a specific time. Members can view in-warehouse purchase history through the Costco website going back roughly two years — pull yours today and save it, before anyone disputes whether you were in the building.
The third-party administrator noted here comes from published reporting that may be out of date; treat it as a starting point, not a confirmed fact about your claim.
Sources for company and claims details
Checked August 14, 2026. Processes can change; confirm the recipient before sending correspondence.
Fell here? Start your request now — the sooner the preservation letter goes out, the better the chance the footage still exists.
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