In mid-2026, social media users posted an image online purportedly showing Muslim families shopping at a Costco in Texas. The posts often featured racist or Islamophobic messaging.
For example, the earliest iteration (archived) we found was from May 4, 2026. It had amassed more than 1.6 million views as of this writing. The caption read:
This is a photo a Texas resident took while shopping at their local Costco in Texas
From "Don't mess with Texas" to Costcos transformed into Mosqos
This is how we lose our country
(X)
In short, the image was generated using artificial intelligence software. Despite this, many people appeared to believe the image authentically depicted only Muslim customers shopping at Costco, while some commenters pointed out it was not real.
There are numerous indicators the image was AI-generated. For example, OpenAI — the artificial intelligence company that created ChatGPT — detected its own SynthID watermark on the image, meaning its creator used OpenAI tools to generate the image.
(openai.com)
There are also visual clues, such as one woman's arms appearing unnaturally uneven and one of the customer's cart wires looking abnormally arranged.
(X user @WallStreetApes, Canva annotation.)
One sign in the background of the image that appears to be advertising online shopping on the Costco phone application looks similar to an authentic depiction of the same sign; however, there are crucial differences. The "C" in the Costco logo looks more like a "G" in the fake image and the pictures of products are poorly rendered and pixilated. The word "Installation" also appears to read as "Selection" in the AI-generated version.
(Images courtesy of TikTok user @usacostcolovers (left) and X user @WallStreetApes (right).)
In sum, we know the image purportedly showing Muslim customers at a Texas Costco is fake because visual evidence indicates it was AI-generated and OpenAI also detected its own SynthID watermark.
For further reading, we have fact-checked other similarly AI-generated images, including one of a 200-foot lazy river for sale at Costco.