In June 2026, social media users shared an image allegedly showing a 200-foot lazy river pool system sold by the U.S. outdoor equipment brand Coleman.
According to the rumor, Costco and Walmart were selling the lazy river, with the former supposedly offering it for $999.99. Snopes readers searched our website to confirm whether the lazy river system was a real product sold by retailers.
On June 6, an Instagram user posted a purported image of the product at Costco. The box described the lazy river system as part of the "Yard Vista Series" and "The Backyard Vacation." Its tagline read, "200 feet of absolutely nothing to do. Just float. All day. Every day." The packaging also listed various alleged components, including a "comfy river tube," a filter pump with hoses and connectors, and a chlorine dispenser.
(@jacobcarbreslin accessed via Instagram)
That post also displayed a second image supposedly offering a closer look at the Coleman product assembled in a backyard.
(@jacobcarbreslin accessed via Instagram)
In short, the images were fake. One or more users likely used artificial intelligence to create them. As of this writing, Coleman.com did not list a lazy river pool system for purchase, nor did the Costco or Walmart websites.
Snopes contacted Coleman to ask if the company wished to comment on the rumor and will update this article if we receive a response.
Researching the rumor
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo, as well as social media platforms, returned results for users promoting the image of the Coleman lazy river supposedly sold at Costco on Facebook (archived), Reddit (archived), X (archived) and YouTube (archived).
(@jacobcarbreslin accessed via Instagram)
That image displayed nonsense text — one of many signs of AI generation — including phrases on a green backdrop in the lower-middle that read "Perfect Fun," "Tress-free Warriors" and "Weekend Accouting."
Reverse image searches located an earlier version of the product image not in a Costco store, which showed that the text originally read "Perfect For," "Weekend Warriors," and "Avoiding Adulting." Also, "(1) Comfy River Tube" originally read "10 Comfy Inner Tubes." The text discrepancies suggest a user prompted an AI tool to place an existing AI-generated product box inside a Costco store, resulting in illegible text.
The May or June 2026 spike in interest for a backyard lazy river spawned other fake-looking images and videos.
One of the fake videos (archived) featured inauthentic visuals of a man standing next to the alleged Coleman lazy river box, followed by footage of a backyard lazy river without visible Coleman branding.
The origin of the post that set off a wave of interest in the fictional product remained unclear at the time of publication.
Scans with Google's SynthID Detector indicated users did not use the company's tools to create the fake images. We have not yet identified the exact AI platform used to generate the inauthentic Coleman lazy river product box images.
For further reading, we previously investigated another matter involving AI-generated images, specifically regarding McDonald's signage allegedly informing drive-thru customers of a new $1 fee.