A Tennessee woman racked up over 11 million views on her TikTok video, which showed her surprising her husband with a birthday party at Costco.
The video charts their trip from entering the store and bumping into friends to her husband realizing it’s a surprise party. It ends with a birthday party in the food court: guests are gathered around a Costco birthday cake, and a clown is even shown making balloon animals.
The woman invited around 30 family and friends to her husband’s surprise 27th birthday party on May 5 at Costco, she told People magazine.
“We love to be silly and so it was the perfect plan,” she told the outlet. Adding that her husband is a big Costco fan: “If I’m out of town or having a girls’ night, you know Clint is at Costco.”
The party was hosted at the Fort Oglethorpe Costco warehouse in Ringgold, Georgia, a store worker confirmed to Business Insider.
The store worker told BI that Costco doesn’t host birthday parties as a habit and doesn’t make any exceptions from the typical store rules. Therefore, those on the guest list must be members of the store or come along as guests of members.
But this isn’t the only Costco fan to throw a birthday party at the store; several other Costco birthday party TikToks have gone viral recently.
To distinguish the birthday trip from any other day, Costco members have tried new tricks to build on the surprises.
Scatter friends and family throughout the store as a surprise
Another viral TikTok, with over two million views, showed a Costco superfan being surprised with a birthday party at a Costco store organized by his wife.
The husband is seen bumping into his friends and relatives around the store in April, seemingly by coincidence.
He didn’t clock the surprise until all the guests gathered in the food court singing happy birthday to him, his wife, @katscollections, wrote on text overlay on the TikTok.
His wife set up a Facebook group to invite his friends and relatives to the Kansas City Costco store, she explained in another TikTok.
Be careful about inviting non-members
One commenter expressed how lucky the couple was that all their guests were members.
“If friends and family didn’t have a membership, they just met us in the food court, “@katscollections explained in a follow-up video.
However, Costco has started cracking down recently on non-members visiting the food court.
A storeworker at a Costco in Manhattan told BI they would prevent large groups from entering the store, and non-members wouldn’t be able to use the food court — even for a birthday party.
It can be a cheap alternative for a birthday party
Last year, a TikToker went viral for her budget-friendly Costco birthday. Madison Stimmel’s TikTok got 3.5 million views, explaining how she spent her birthday in-store and spent just $30.88 on her birthday dinner for seven people.
She and her family donned “Costco wholesale” hoodies, bought hot dog-and-soda combos, and even got a free birthday cake, per the TikTok video.
“Costco is definitely one of my happy places, and I love how my birthday brought so much joy to other people,” Stimmel previously told BI.
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