Costco is unique in its food court prices, they must be heavy into loss leader territory at this point. It was a really good deal back before covid, and these days it’s basically daylight robbery compared to anywhere else.
Not only that, but the food kiosks (at my local location, anyway) don’t scan your costco membership either, so you can just walk in the exit and get some food without signing up.
I think it could make sense not to scan for memberships and allow nonmembers to buy the food even through it’s a loss leader. If people are coming in for the good deal, especially if they’re coming regularly, there’s a chance they’ll buy a membership and start shopping there
They always get me on higher end frozen food items I end up wanting to try, even though they’re not really a better deal than what I could get at Safeway.
I’d love to see how that works out for their higher end memberships, where you get money back for buying shit.
I think you have to spend something like $6000 over a year to make back the total cost of the membership… but that’s not completely unreasonable if you get quite a few things there regularly.
(This is in Germany) My upper middle class Family of six spends around $250 a week on groceries, which comes out to over 15k a year, so that would definitely be reasonable for families etc.
The pizza slices haven’t been that cheap around me since ever. That’s the price of the hotdog combo. Everything else is $3+ with the chicken bake being the most expensive at almost $5. I’d kill for $1.50 Costco pizza 🤤
Actually I just checked. The pizza slice is $2. I was thinking of the hotdog and soda combo, which is $1.50. Costco prices have always been consistent for me regardless of location. Even across two different states. Here’s the full menu that I found online, although they don’t usually have all of these options. I’m still bummed out that they stopped offering onions for the hotdogs.
A few years ago I read that Costco loses twenty million dollars per year on their rotisserie chickens. They sell them at a loss, and put them in the back of the store, hoping you’ll buy some other shit while you’re there.
And all of that is around $5-6!
If true, that explains a lot. Where I’m from the pizza slice alone costs that much.
Costco is unique in its food court prices, they must be heavy into loss leader territory at this point. It was a really good deal back before covid, and these days it’s basically daylight robbery compared to anywhere else.
Not only that, but the food kiosks (at my local location, anyway) don’t scan your costco membership either, so you can just walk in the exit and get some food without signing up.
I think it could make sense not to scan for memberships and allow nonmembers to buy the food even through it’s a loss leader. If people are coming in for the good deal, especially if they’re coming regularly, there’s a chance they’ll buy a membership and start shopping there
Costco’s business model is wild if you look into it. Pretty much every item they sell is a loss-leader for their actual money maker - memberships.
They always get me on higher end frozen food items I end up wanting to try, even though they’re not really a better deal than what I could get at Safeway.
I’d love to see how that works out for their higher end memberships, where you get money back for buying shit.
I think you have to spend something like $6000 over a year to make back the total cost of the membership… but that’s not completely unreasonable if you get quite a few things there regularly.
(This is in Germany) My upper middle class Family of six spends around $250 a week on groceries, which comes out to over 15k a year, so that would definitely be reasonable for families etc.
:laughs in several hundred dollar Costco bill:
Not even that. Their pizza slices are $1.50 and their soda is 0.69¢. idk how much the ice cream costs.
Edit: pizza slices are $2, I just checked. It’s the hotdog and soda combo that is $1.50.
Where?
The pizza slices haven’t been that cheap around me since ever. That’s the price of the hotdog combo. Everything else is $3+ with the chicken bake being the most expensive at almost $5. I’d kill for $1.50 Costco pizza 🤤
The pizza slices are about $2, the whole pizza is only $10
Actually I just checked. The pizza slice is $2. I was thinking of the hotdog and soda combo, which is $1.50. Costco prices have always been consistent for me regardless of location. Even across two different states. Here’s the full menu that I found online, although they don’t usually have all of these options. I’m still bummed out that they stopped offering onions for the hotdogs.
A few years ago I read that Costco loses twenty million dollars per year on their rotisserie chickens. They sell them at a loss, and put them in the back of the store, hoping you’ll buy some other shit while you’re there.
$2 pizza and $3 ice cream/ smoothies here, YMMV.