Theory: As the factory line fills the bags, the nuts that fall out of the shells go through a grate to another line. Those are used to fill bags of deshelled pistachios.
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2026
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Costco is a huge market so it has many suppliers. I bought a bag a month ago that matched this post: a noticeable amount of empty shells. The next bags were fine. Probably just a wave of product from one supplier.
I got two more servings... Then it will be the next bag.
Hmm ok one time is a statistical coincidence.... But here, no matter how many you pick:
I wanna see you daily pictures till the end of the month.
Seems like a consistent ratio at this point. I would go buy them in bulk myself to prevent this...
I've got a whole new bag for today lol.
Thank I will!
Not a single free floating pistachio bean anywhere. But empties galore! WTF!
I mean if I want to buy shells I'll do that.
Starting to think they throw 15%-20% in there on purpose...
Maybe it was a bad batch?
Ouf! That's quite bad yeah...
I found it! Behold! The pistachio that fell out of the shell!
XD
As a sidenote: you go through those everyday!? Is that good for you? I'm worried the real problem here might not be the pistachio ration inside the bag.
I'm vegan and those are unsalted. It's my source of protein. It's either that or beans. It's the good cholesterol too.
Makes sense!
Many places recommend 1oz. That's around 50 pistachios.
On the other hand, last I checked, they were SO much cheaper at costco than the grocery store that I wouldn't complain about some empties.
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MY TIME HAS COME!!!!!
At Costco you can buy the big 3 lb bag of in-shell pistachios for 19.99 or the one and a half pound bag of pre-shelled pistachios for 20.99, implying that the pre-shell the pistachios are just over twice as expensive.
HOWEVER!!! I, the crazy persistent stubborn AuDHD person that I am, decided that I wanted to know for sure just how much better a deal the 3 lb in shell bag was, SO I SHELLED ALL THREE LBS IN ONE SITTING, EATING NONE UNTIL I WAS FINISHED!!! Crazy? Maybe. But I learned THE TRUTH which is that when you weigh the pistachios alone without the shell you get ALMOST EXACTLY one and a half lbs of nuts!
Also, sometimes the nuts were bad inside the shell, I got probably a quarter cup of pistachios that were the dark nasty looking bitter ones out of the whole bag. That's not many but I feel like I get fewer than that when I get the pre-shelled ones.
IN CONCLUSION!!!: when you buy the 3 lb bag all you are doing is paying for the privilege of shelling your own pistachios! You do not get any more nuts!!! If you like the salt and pepper nuts you still have to buy the ones in Shell, if the point for you is to have something that you have to open and eat slowly so you can have a snack that takes you a long time but isn't double fisting handfuls of nuts into your mouth all at once, that's fine, do you do you and go in peace.
But!!! if you just wanted the nuts and you do not give a shit about the shell and you were buying the in shell ones because you thought they were cheaper, I SET YOU FREE!!!!!
I absolutely buy the ones in-shell to slow myself down. Nuts are delicious but super high calorie and I'm a fiend!
And addictive.
Valid! Totally valid reason to get the inshell ones. 😁
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That's nuts!
I think I must have got your loose ones because I had about that many extra.
This is why I always remove the shells at the store before they weigh the bag!
i peel my bananas first for the same reason 🤠
I'm not sure where you buy pistachios but Costco and many other stores in America seal them at set weights.
Bulkbarn in Canada, maybe? But that's weird to do imo.
If I saw someone handling every single pistachio and setting some back after getting their booger hooks on them I would complain to the store.
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Welcome to Costco, I love you
Did they fall out and the nuts are at the bottom of the bag?
Nope! No delicious bottom!
Don't sell yourself short
I see I'm being summoned...
But the empty ones are fun to snap closed! I see this as a win
Ok, you are not wrong.
i always wanted a warranty for my pistachios, especially if they don't open
Never realized the incentives these ghouls have to add empty shells to the mix to bulk the bag.... Diabolical. If it isn't intentional, venture capital is watching and it's certainly now their next rock to squeeze blood from.
I'm all for a good conspiracy theory, but I can practically guarantee you that no one is inspecting every singe nut looking for empty shells to bulk up the bag.
Other than a certain amount of each batch that is kept aside for quality control testing, the bags are filled by machines on a conveyor belt. I doubt a human even looks at them until they're at the final stage and ready for the last quality control test.
It's completely random how many empties there will be in a bag. OP was just unlucky this time.
See my other response, it's very much not random. Every processed product in the modern world is hyper optimized for profit. At the least , they know the average weight of shell with nut and without in grams or something smaller. Also likely a hopper with high speed cameras to count yield per bag to maintain exact profit margins. There could be, and likely is, a scale at the end of line that weighs and would five a fairly faithful estimate of empty percentage per bag. And all that is automated.
Problem is that infrastructure likely exists more or less and they have just turned up the acceptable percentage of empties probably. Like anything else, VC pushes those lines quarter after quarter until people might revolt (or in another time, an administration regulates an acceptable amount of "defective" product).
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Pistachio market is getting squeezed by drought in California, and the second largest exporter, Iran, is having a bit of trouble getting product out of the country.
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