Indeed, Toyota, Meta, Walmart, Ford and others have scaled back or ditched DEI altogether, and the center contended that while Costco rebranded its equity program, “sticking a new label on discriminatory practices does not protect Costco and its shareholders from these risks.”

“With 310,000 employees, Costco likely has at least 200,000 employees who are potentially victims of this type of illegal discrimination because they are white, Asian, male or straight,” the think tank argued in its proposal. “Accordingly, even if only a fraction of those employees were to file suit, and only some of those prove successful, the cost to Costco could be tens of billions of dollars.”