Costco does drug test new hires. Its own Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy says every final applicant must pass a test before getting an unconditional offer, and part-time and seasonal jobs are covered.
That makes Costco stricter at the door than Walmart, which screens only certain roles; the Walmart drug test breakdown shows the difference. What the policy doesn’t settle is how your warehouse runs it. Will you get a swab or a urine test? How soon after the interview? Does THC still count? Applicants in 2025 and 2026 describe each of those differently.
The test comes at the end of a long hiring marathon. The Costco interview questions guide covers the rounds you’ll sit through first, and Costco starting pay, about $20 to $21 an hour, shows what a pass is worth to you.
What Costco’s Written Policy Requires
The policy is a PDF Costco hosts on costco.com. Its file name carries a March 2013 date, so it works best as the company’s published baseline, not a promise about every state or store. Costco says it will follow state law wherever the two conflict, and that clause is the likeliest source of the local variation you’ll read about below.
The document itself is specific. Here is what Costco’s Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy says about you as an applicant:
- Who: if you’re a final applicant, you must pass before an unconditional offer or a first shift, and rehires are included. The exceptions are regular layoffs rehired inside 180 days and seasonal workers rehired inside 60 days.
- What for: marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and phencyclidine (PCP), plus other controlled substances where circumstances call for it. Cutoff levels follow the federal 49 CFR Part 40 standard.
- How: you sign a written consent, go to a company-designated collection site, and a certified lab runs the test. A medical review officer (MRO) checks every positive before Costco hears about it.
- If you fail or refuse: you aren’t hired and must wait one year to reapply. Walking out of the collection site early or handing over an altered sample counts as a refusal.
If you live in a legal-cannabis state, one line matters most: the policy says marijuana use, even where state law permits it, won’t be accepted by Costco or its MRO as a legitimate medical explanation for a positive result.
Does Costco Use a Mouth Swab or a Urine Test?
Most applicants in 2025 and 2026 describe a mouth swab, often right after the final interview, while urine tests turn up in Oregon and a few other places. The policy never names a method, and the accounts follow geography more than job title.
The clearest picture of the swab version came from an r/Costco thread in August 2025, where an applicant asked what to expect:
“No just the mouth swab. AFAIK pee tests aren’t used at all unless necessary( suspicion of drug use while working). But the test happens like right there in the office after the interview so plan for that.”
– r/Costco, August 2025 (7 upvotes)
Another commenter in the same thread said the opposite: a urine test, with a trip to get it right away, about a year earlier. So is the swab universal? No. Swab accounts come from Miami, Minnesota, California, Missouri and Houston, while Indeed answers from September 2025 in Portland and July 2025 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina describe urine.
Two Texas replies in a September 2025 r/CostcoEmployee thread disagree with each other, so you can’t count on your region matching a neighbor’s story.
Timing is steadier. Applicants describe the test as the step after the last interview, so plan on it the same day.
If you’re sent to a lab, you may get a tight window: in an r/Costco thread from July 2023 that drew more than 100 comments, the poster said the interviewing manager booked the appointment and gave them about 30 minutes to check in. A Miami commenter in August 2026 put the order plainly: test after the interviews, before the background check. Two October 2025 posts describe swab results in minutes. The jobs that hire felons rundown explains how that background check weighs a record.
The pre-employment screen is drug-only: the policy’s hiring section mentions just a drug test. An r/CostcoWholesale applicant in June 2026 wrote that theirs was an OralTox 10-panel. Alcohol, they added, gets checked only after an accident or suspected on-site use.
Does Costco Drug Test for Weed?
Costco’s written policy counts marijuana as a positive even where state law allows it, and a medical card isn’t accepted as an explanation. Store-level accounts split: some applicants in legal states describe firm zero tolerance, while others say their warehouse stopped screening for THC.
The strict side is easy to document. Rather-Be-Shopping’s Costco drug test guide, updated in September 2025, says Costco tests for marijuana regardless of state and ignores medical cards, which matches the policy text.
In a September 2025 r/CostcoEmployee thread about Oregon, a commenter who described the hiring side said applicants who fail for weed don’t get the job and that it happens “a lot.” An Albuquerque commenter said a seasonal application about five years earlier ended once they mentioned a valid medical card.
The loose side is harder to pin down. The best-received version came from an employee in April 2026:
“Thankfully around three years ago everyone at my store got an updated “addendum” basically saying “we know weed is legal now, and we don’t drug test for it anymore, please do it on your own time and not at work”.”
– r/CostcoEmployee, April 2026 (11 upvotes)
Nobody has posted the addendum itself. Other claims follow the same pattern: in an October 2024 r/Costco thread about Washington, one commenter said Costco no longer tests for THC to hire as of January 1, another said Minnesota stores don’t screen for it, and a February 2025 commenter pointed to California law. Each is a single unsourced comment, though the pattern fits the policy’s promise to follow state law.
Why does the swab-versus-urine question matter so much here? Oral-fluid tests are generally described as reflecting more recent use than urine tests, which is why people in legal states keep asking which one their warehouse runs. Costco’s policy doesn’t say, so if THC is your worry, ask your hiring manager what to expect before test day.
This isn’t legal advice, and your state’s current statute on off-duty cannabis beats any forum thread.
Which Costco Jobs Carry Extra Testing Rules
The policy sets no job-based exemption, so the differences below come from after-hire triggers and federal rules, not from who gets tested at the door. Which row sounds like your job?
- Warehouse floor, front end, food court, membership, part-time: the pre-employment test applies to final applicants for every one of these. The policy names part-time and seasonal work directly.
- Forklift, Goat and sled operators, tire center: employees in March and April 2026 r/CostcoEmployee threads named these as the jobs where testing comes up, because heavy equipment is where the accident trigger below gets pulled.
- Pharmacy and optical: the policy lists no separate test for either. A March 2026 r/CostcoEmployee commenter asked which test pharmacy applicants get and never got a confirmed answer.
- CDL drivers: 49 CFR Part 382 requires pre-employment, random, post-accident and reasonable-suspicion testing for commercial drivers, and state cannabis laws don’t change that. One commenter in a March 2026 thread said CDL drivers are the only Costco employees who face truly random selection.
Testing After You’re Hired
The policy lists four situations: pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, post-accident, and return-to-duty or follow-up testing. Random testing for non-driving staff isn’t among them. An employee with 25 years at Costco wrote in March 2026 that every test they’d seen followed an injury, an accident or suspicion.
Post-accident testing applies when Costco reasonably concludes that an employee caused or contributed to an accident that damages Costco property or equipment, or injures someone badly enough to need off-site medical treatment. Reasonable suspicion needs specific facts a manager can point to. If it happens to you, you go off work without pay until results arrive and get back pay if the test is clean. Refusing a test means termination.
Alcohol follows its own scale. A screen under .02 passes, and .04 or higher is a positive. A result between .02 and .0399 isn’t a positive, but you’d be sent home for the rest of the shift and could use sick, personal or vacation time to cover it.
The policy also points to the Care Network, Costco’s confidential assistance program. If you ask for help before you’re selected for testing, you won’t be disciplined for asking. Asking after a violation, or after you’ve been told about a test, doesn’t erase discipline.
If a Result Comes Back Positive or Unclear
A positive screen doesn’t end the process on the spot. What happens next? The lab confirms it with a second analysis, then the MRO phones you to ask about prescriptions and anything else that might explain the result. If the MRO finds a legitimate medical explanation, Costco hears “negative.” Invalid results are canceled and may lead to retesting.
That’s why one of the most useful threads on this topic has nothing to do with weed. In July 2023, an r/Costco applicant described two saliva tests marked inconclusive, a same-day trip to a lab, and a promised phone call about a week later, with two prescriptions that might have flagged.
The top reply, at 417 upvotes, said every oral test its author had taken popped positive for amphetamines because of a Vyvanse prescription. Other replies told applicants to bring their prescriptions along. The policy backs that up: you can disclose over-the-counter and prescribed medications at collection and again in the MRO interview.
Collection-site staff and the MRO handle that conversation, not your hiring manager, and one commenter in the thread said their manager told them not to mention medications to him at all.
Costco Drug Test FAQ
Does Costco drug test before hiring?
Yes, Costco’s written policy requires every final applicant to pass a drug test before an unconditional offer. Applicants in 2025 and 2026 describe taking it right after their last interview, and a failed or refused test means a one-year wait before you can reapply.
What kind of drug test does Costco use?
Most 2025 and 2026 applicant accounts describe a mouth swab, with urine reported in Oregon and some other regions. Costco’s policy doesn’t specify a method, so the type depends on where you apply, and it’s fair to ask your hiring manager which one to expect.
Does Costco drug test for weed?
Costco’s policy treats marijuana as a positive result even where state law allows it, and a medical card isn’t accepted as an explanation. Store-level accounts differ by state, with some employees saying their warehouse dropped THC from the screen and others describing firm zero tolerance.
Does Costco drug test part-time employees?
Yes, the policy names part-time and seasonal hires, along with rehires, and lists only two exceptions: regular layoffs rehired inside 180 days and seasonal workers rehired inside 60 days.