Fear not, hot dog fans: Costco doesn’t plan to raise the price of its beloved franks anytime soon.
The retailer has been hawking its hot-dog-and-soda combo for a smooth $1.50 since it first hit menus in the mid-1980s.
The price tag has held steady over the years despite inflation — otherwise it would be closer to $4.40 these days.
Speculation that the cost of the famed combo might be changing began to heat up in March after Richard Galanti, the company’s then-chief financial officer, told Bloomberg that it’s “probably safe for a while” — not necessarily the guarantee that every hungry Costco member wanted to hear.
His successor, Gary Millerchip, cleared things up in his first quarterly earnings call on Thursday.
“To clear up some recent media speculation, I also want to confirm the $1.50 hot dog price is safe,” Millerchip said.
That sound bite has since made the rounds on social media, providing welcome relief to the chain’s many hot dog devotees.
Loftus says, "It's a good PR move for Costco to not change this price," adding that it has a humanizing effect on the company. (...)
The lore of the hot dog combo, explained
The company said earlier this year that it sold nearly 200 million hot-dog-and-soda combos in the 2023 fiscal year alone.
The low cost of Costco’s quarter-pound dogs — as well as the chain’s oft-discussed commitment to keeping it that way — has earned them a cult following over the decades, spawning memes and fan-made merch.
The tale of the Costco dog dates back to around 1984, when Hebrew National — Costco’s original hot dog supplier — sold hot dogs from a cart outside one of its stores in San Diego. (The company began operating its own hot dog factories in 2008, to cut down on supply chain costs.) (...)
Witcher says that this part of the experience has basically enabled Costco to establish its own form of consumer culture.
“No one is buying that hot dog and soda and putting it in with their grocery bags to eat tomorrow,” he said. “The quick-serve restaurant is part of the culture of adventure that Costco has created, much like you'd buy food and a drink at a movie theater, an amusement park, or a concert.”
He doesn’t see a reason why Costco would risk losing customers who partake in that tradition by “removing that cultural connection simply to make an extra fifty cents.”
by Rachel Treisman, NPR | Read more:
Image: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
[ed. See also: Everything You Need To Know About Costco Hot Dogs (Delish - first excerpt, below); and, In Costco We Trust (Dirt - second excerpt):]
The $1.50 Combo Is To Die For—Literally
The inflation-defying price point for Costco's hot dog combo was first set in 1985 by the vendor who started selling them out of a cart in Portland, Oregon. And since then, the prices haven't changed at all. Costco is committed to keeping their inventory affordable in general, but especially when it comes to the hot dog.
In fact, the price of the food court hot dog is a literal life and death situation. When W. Craig Jelinek joined the leadership team in 2010, he complained to Costco co-founder and CEO, Jim Sinegal, that the combo was losing the company money. Sinegal's response was one for the history books: "If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out."
[ed. See also: Everything You Need To Know About Costco Hot Dogs (Delish - first excerpt, below); and, In Costco We Trust (Dirt - second excerpt):]
The $1.50 Combo Is To Die For—Literally
The inflation-defying price point for Costco's hot dog combo was first set in 1985 by the vendor who started selling them out of a cart in Portland, Oregon. And since then, the prices haven't changed at all. Costco is committed to keeping their inventory affordable in general, but especially when it comes to the hot dog.
In fact, the price of the food court hot dog is a literal life and death situation. When W. Craig Jelinek joined the leadership team in 2010, he complained to Costco co-founder and CEO, Jim Sinegal, that the combo was losing the company money. Sinegal's response was one for the history books: "If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out."
The Portion Sizes Used To Be Smaller
According to the warehouse's magazine, The Costco Connection, Kirkland hot dogs are 10% heavier and longer than the original quarter pound franks. They're also made from 100 percent beef that's exclusively USDA Choice or better. And on top of that, Costco has also increased the portion size of their soda from a 12 ounce can to a 20 ounce fountain drink with free refills. ~ Everything You Need To Know About Costco Hot Dogs
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"Recently, I asked my dad why Costco still appeals to him after decades of shopping there. It would be more convenient to shop at the Safeway down the street. He likes the fact that it’s a no-frills operation: With Costco, what you see is what you get. The store subverts the carefully manicured “supermarket aesthetic”—a term used by the scholar Andrew G. Christensen in a paper on Don Delillo’s White Noise—where store environments are engineered with displays, lighting, and “cheery exteriors” complete with music. A trademark of the supermarket aesthetic is “a certain ambiguity that the viewer (or target market) may perceive as psychological manipulation—something almost sinister behind the cheery exterior.” Costco’s lack of decor leaves the products to speak for themselves. The boxes the shipments come in line its industrial shelves. The hum in the store comes from conversations and movement, instead of speakers. (...)Lange described Costco as the pinnacle of American consumerism—a big-box store that’s keeping customers satisfied. Forbes reported that Costco’s total sales in 2022 hit a record high of $227 billion, a 17 percent increase from 2021. “With the reputation that it has for how it treats its employees and the quality of what it’s achieved—to do that at the scale that it’s done is almost unthinkable in any other model,” Lange said. “Capitalism and consumerism produce a lot of crap, or a lot of luxury. But to find something in the middle that has the mass appeal that Costco has, and to do it as well as Costco has done it, few people walk away from that experience unhappy.” ~ In Costco We Trust
