Instagrammer Meaghan O’Donnell (@flo_donnell) came up with an elaborate way to throw her fiancé a surprise birthday party. She secretly invited his friends to Costco, then brought him along for what he thought was a normal shopping trip. As they made their way through the store, he kept “randomly” running into people he knew without realizing they were all there for his birthday.
There are easier ways to pull off a surprise party. You can lure someone to a restaurant where everyone is waiting or hide a crowd of people in the living room, hoping nobody parked somewhere obvious and gave it away. O’Donnell’s version let the party slowly form up around her fiancé, and the Instagram video shows how spectacularly it worked.
The typical Costco run that was anything but ordinary
Costco was already one of her fiancé’s favorite places to shop, so suggesting a trip there wasn’t likely to tip him off.
She’d seen someone try a similar surprise on Instagram and thought Costco would be the perfect place to give it a shot.
“He likes the Kirkland brand and there are less options so it’s easier to shop,” O’Donnell told Upworthy.
As the couple walks through the aisles, friends begin to appear. Each chance encounter seems plausible enough. Bumping into someone you know while running errands isn’t exactly impossible.
But then it happens again.
And again.
Images used with permission @flo_donnell
Familiar faces start popping up in the aisles
The fun of the video is watching his reaction change as these little coincidences add up. His friends commit to the bit, acting as though they have a perfectly good reason for being there.
One friend has her excuse ready, saying, “I had to get some laundry soap for work.”
Perfectly normal Costco behavior. Nothing to see here.
He tries to laugh it off, but he’s clearly starting to wonder what’s going on. The captions describe him “starting to get freaked out” in the short video.
At some point, even the world’s most believable chance meetings start to look suspicious. Her fiancé catches on enough to ask if she’d planned it.
Unfortunately for the man trying to figure out why half his social circle seemed to be shopping at Costco at the same time, O’Donnell had an unexpected advantage.
“I’m a terrible liar so when he would ask if I planned it and I said no he believed me.”
Apparently, having absolutely no poker face can occasionally pay off.
His friends still had to be convincing. Some of those supposedly random encounters required a lot more effort than he realized.
“We had friends drive from 2 hours away to be there, so he was truly shocked and freaked out,” O’Donnell explained. “But everybody had such good excuses and played along with it so well.”
Photo used with permission @flo_donnell
“Did you throw me a surprise party at Costco?”
There are only so many friends you can randomly run into before you have to start asking direct questions.
“Did you throw me a surprise party at Costco?” he finally asks.
Yes, she did.
The surprise party has been a hit on Instagram, with over 515k likes and 3,400 comments in a little over a day after the video was posted.
One commenter enthusiastically approved of the logistics, saying the daytime outing, knocking out groceries, pizza, and being home by 3 made it a “Perfect example of an adult birthday.”
Another considered the potential damage to O’Donnell’s wallet, exclaiming, “A trip to Costco…the most expensive birthday ever”
Someone else looked ahead to the possible long-term consequences, warning, “This is like the dog that finds a hotdog in the bushes once and now will always check that bush. Everytime he goes to Costco he’s going to be expecting friends hahah”
There was even one commenter who had been on the receiving end of the same trick.
“My wife did this for me. It was the greatest day of my life. I was so confused how everyone was at costco”
The Costco surprise parties are more of a thing than you might expect. In 2024, ABC News reported on Emma and Clint Blevins, who secretly invited friends and family to her husband’s favorite Costco for his 27th birthday. Just like O’Donnell’s fiancé, he walked through the store “randomly” running into people he knew before realizing they were all there for him.
Photo used with permission @flo_donnell
Hiding a surprise party in plain sight
Costco just might be the perfect place to hide a surprise party in plain sight. Everyone has a reason to be there, crossing paths with a friend doesn’t seem all that strange, and even seeing several familiar faces isn’t enough to immediately give the game away.
Of course, it probably helps when your friends are willing to drive two hours just to pretend they needed something from Costco. And once her fiancé realized why everyone kept showing up, there was no doubt the effort was worth it.
“He was so stoked and happy afterwards that our friends showed up,” O’Donnell said.
