Costco customers generally can rely on the warehouse store’s food court to remain consistent. After all, the popular combination of a hot dog and fountain drink has been priced at $1.50 since the 1980s.
But while Costco senior vice president of finance and investor relations Robert Nelson said in May that the company has no plans to increase that iconic combo’s price, not every food-court item can stay at the same price forever.
Two items saw their prices hiked recently, according to social media posts plus local and national news reports this week.
Affected products
The first affected item is the food court’s chicken bake. Its price apparently went from $2.99 to $3.99 — an increase of about 33%.
The second reported price increase came on a more universal item: A 20-ounce soda went from 59 cents to 69 cents, an increase of about 17%.
Affected locations
A representative for Costco told Money Talks News the company had no comment on the reported price changes, and would not confirm whether the changes affected all Costco locations.
But the Los Angeles Times reported that it confirmed the price increases at various Costco stores throughout Los Angeles County.
And Business Insider confirmed the price change in person at a Costco in Rochester, New York, as well as through numerous phone calls to other Costco food courts, where workers said the increases were part of a nationwide change.
The good news
The dollar and 10-cent increases are not a lot of money overall, of course, and even though this is Costco, rising prices should come as no real surprise.
Grocery prices as a whole rose 11.9% between May 2021 and May 2022 — the largest 12-month increase 1979 — as we detail in “15 Groceries That Just Broke New Price Records.”
Overall, though, inflation has been significantly lower than that at Costco. Senior VP Robert Nelson estimated that price inflation at Costco was around 7% during the three-month period that ended May 8.
Plus, fan favorites like the hot-dog-and-drink combo and the rotisserie chicken appear to be immune to inflation.
An alternative
If you’re still upset about the price hikes by at least some Costco food courts, you might want to try the frozen chicken bakes from Kirkland Signature, which is Costco’s private-label brand. The box of six has an online price of $13.99, which works out to about $2.33 per chicken bake.
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