I saw something on YouTube today that there may be rice shortages coming. Apparently India is a big producer, and, IIRC, they’re halting exports on everything that isn’t basmati, in an effort to protect their supply availability at home.
Whether Costco’s rice change has any ties to this (directly or indirectly) I do not know.
I didn't understand the drama myself, until I realized the toes of the boots are empty- just looking at them, you can see they're essentially deflated.