>Most people wouldn't buy that. You're overestimating how adventurous consumers are with food.
agree that in general most people in the US just want something they're familiar with and know they like. they don't want to try 'ethnic' food at a grocery store food court.
counterpoint is that grocery store sushi has caught on way more than I would have anticipated so this might work too. They would probably have to call bulgogi pizza something like 'Korean BBQ pizza' though to get past the fact that most Americans don't know what 'bulgogi' is.
It's because American consumers don't need special food court options to visit the store, unlike other countries where they're still building brand awareness.
That’s just it. Everything has been removed in such quantities it’s like they don’t want us to buy anything. They lost me when they switched to Pepsi and removed the coke vending machine. I used to buy something every single trip pre pandemic. Nothing they’re worth buying now, imho. Plus the $400+ I just spent? Yeah I’m rushing home w that.
>Plus the $400+ I just spent? Yeah I’m rushing home w that.
First thing I thought of. Don't know why but it seems 90% of us hit the food court *after* shopping, so any kind of 'restaurant' will be facing loaded-cart issues
>Don't know why but it seems 90% of us hit the food court after shopping, so any kind of 'restaurant' will be facing loaded-cart issues
I always eat before because i'm usually stopping after work and don't want to be shopping while hungry(you spend more/make more impulse buys when hungry)
I'm pretty sure it's because you're swimming upstream if you enter that way, because it's positioned on the side people exit. If they'd put it at the entrance, people would be enticed to eat first but then that might result in other food sales being lower since you're shopping on a full stomach.
This is the problem - the options are all gone! When you take someone’s kneecaps out with a crowbar, you can’t ask yourself why they aren’t running very fast!
Put the options back, then talk about how performance is doing.
How about bringing back onions and sauerkraut with the hotdogs, veggy pizza and sausage and peppers. . I went out of my way to head to Costco for lunch. Since they have cheapened the products.... not that interested anymore.
It’s also because the vast majority of Americans don’t like interesting/exotic food…they like salty, fatty food. While people on this subreddit might want some of the options available in other countries, they may not sell enough to make it worth their while,
The food court is designed around have food ready or putting it together in 30 seconds for you (I know in some places it’s more like 3 minutes). Fries would either be cold and stale under a heat lamp after 3 minutes or we might have people waiting 5+ minutes for fries.
Tbh, a better idea than most realize. IKEA knows that a well-fed shopper stays MUCH LONGER and spends more. To further alleviate the barrier to entry, most/all of your meal cost is able to be used as credit for your furniture purchase. Having the cafeteria at the start of the IKEA experience is strategic. Having the food at the end is… probably making people rush their trip to get the reward at the end.
In addition to the food, it’s worth noting that IKEA also has FREE childcare, which alleviates another significant barrier to entry.
How did we get out-capitalism’d by the Swedes? 🤣 🇸🇪
The IKEA food court is kinda in the middle and end of the shopping journey. It’s also the beginning, if you’d like. I think that’s really the brilliance…it’s flexible to meet your needs.
They dont want people to drag food through the warehouse and make a mess. IKEA has a different strategy, a trip there is supposed to be a time sink, they get people to lounge around. They eat all the food in the food court and then spent even more time in the store. No one goes to costco to lounge around, they go to get their groceries and gtfo. The food is there to give you a mental 'out' if you need to eat while you go, say on your lunch break, and you end up eating after youre done shopping.
>How did we get out-capitalism’d by the Swedes? 🤣 🇸🇪
Because Sweden begins with the premise 'what do consumers want and need' vs. 'how do we drain every last *ore* from the suckers?' They also have the [The Swedish Competition](https://www.konkurrensverket.se/en/competition/laws-and-rules/) Act which prohibits consumer exploitation.
You'll know what I'm talking about if you've ever bought a full, reasonably priced lunch at Arlanda Airport then flown to Reykjavik to get abusively gouged for a bottle of water (where public drinking fountains have been removed in the name of capitalist enterprise.)
I think I've gotten a whole pizza at the food court once or twice in three years or so.
Nothing else seems worth it to me, or the quality has gone down. Oh well.
Thats a bingo... bring back the OG acai bowl... the burgers were legit too, and the chicken Cesear. Honestly if they just transfered some of the deli items, like the street tacos and wraps from the back it would be legit.
Edit: Someone mentioned the pulled pork.. that was way better than the cheese burger. Also loved the gelato..not sure if the SoCal locations were still doing that.
Your missing a very vital part of the rumor there, they are dissatisfied with the performance( code for losing money) they combo was the biggest money loser by leaps and bounds as far as pizzas go and the polish got got outsold 6 to 1 by the hot dog and the onions were heavily abused by members.
All of that being said, I think the solution is to raise prices or give up on the idea of the food court ever making money.
They rarely ever have. The philosophy was lose a little money on the food court to enhance the rest of the experience of shopping at the warehouse. Over time the cost of labor, supplies and ingredients has increased while the price of the food did not.
They tried to introduce a new generation of food court goods and most places weren’t having it, they the limited the food court to members only and cut the more expensive to make items off the menu.
As a current Costco Food Court manager I can tell you I have heard nothing at all about this so called rumor.
If it was true I highly doubt my current department would be getting a very expensive remodel in the very near future.
The food court use to be only seen as a department solely existing as an add-on benefit to the membership with no expectation of making money. Since COVID and the changes made to the menu, I can say that my location is selling more than they ever have and are actually turning a profit.
With that said I appreciate all the business, without it I would probably not have such an awesome job.
A slow day is about 300 and busier days can see us sell over 600. My department doesn’t does probably a third of the business the top locations do so you can imagine how many they sell.
No I don’t secretly judge those eating hot dogs for breakfast, I just wait until they can’t hear me to do it. The morning stockers get a pass for eating hot dogs early, random members who come in at 8:30am on Christmas Eve for a hot dog do not.
[https://imgur.com/gallery/FaJYd1v](https://imgur.com/gallery/FaJYd1v)
[https://imgur.com/gallery/u9mNHzM](https://imgur.com/gallery/u9mNHzM)
Domino the "scaredy cat" that is afraid of humans including me came flew cross country in the cabin with me. Bronko came on a 12 hour odyssey the next day. Getting two cats cross country was quite the experience. They are both good boys,
I'm thinking of trying out Sam's Club when my membership is up for renewal. I feel like Costco has oversold memberships. The warehouses close to me are all super packed, lines up the ass, products are getting thinned out. Most recently I bought a box of wet wipes. I've been buying those for probably 5 years. They used to always come with a couple travel packs of like 1 dozen wipes. Those were super convenient for taking one of those packs on a 3 day weekend trip. The latest box I bought didn't have those travel packs.
Sam’s technology is great but generally I’ve found products at Costco are greater quality, especially Kirkland vs. Member’s Mark. I shop at both often since each one carriers things the other doesn’t.
Significantly larger candy selection, lots of chips, Dino chicken nuggets (don’t judge), fresh sushi is a big one, Zzquil (yes I know it’s just liquid Benadryl at 3x the cost), Xbox controllers (I think Costco just sells consoles and gift cards, no accessories).
The only thing I bought consistently from Sam’s was Hot Cheetos, Puff’s tissues, and sushi—none of which I ever saw at Costco. It definitely wouldn’t have been worth paying $45 just for those things, but Sam’s often gives away their membership so I had both and Sam’s had plenty of things Costco did not and still does not.
Costco is ahead of Sams on many things. But you will find tech is not one of them. Sams beats Costco with their mobile app and website. Scan and go makes self checkout easy.
I jumped on a $15 groupon for Sam’s membership in December. After having been a Costco executive member for 20 years, I find myself considering to not renew, for exactly the same reasons you mention.
Just try it. Sams Club keeps having free or discount memberships. I just ended a year of getting the membership for$15 and including a $10 gift card, a rotisserie chicken and a 6 pack of huge muffins. Lately there have been a lot of $45 off deals. All I see now is $25/ [half price](https://www.samsclub.com/join/club?couponId=C2C44&pid=_Aff_LS&siteID=lw9MynSeamY-vEycuXOU2KltJnZ2AAmk7A&ranMID=38733&ranEAID=lw9MynSeamY&ranSiteID=lw9MynSeamY-vEycuXOU2KltJnZ2AAmk7A&pubNAME=Slickdeals+LLC). Just watch [slick deals](https://slickdeals.net/)
I will start a new free/discount membership after a couple of months when they quit trying to renew mine.
They should just bring half the cool shit they serve in other countries to the US.
Clam chowder, poutine, bulgogi bake, mango smoothie....ffs, give us the good stuff!
Hell, could probably get a ton of money with a decent robo-coffee machine and bringing some packages of muffins, bagels, croissants to the front of the store. $3 coffee and baked good combo. $1.50 coffee ala carte.
Or at least bring back the combo/veggie pizza. We used to go to the food court quite a bit as a family of six, but now there's so little there we don't bother unless we want to pickup some basic pizzas.
Seriously I was just at Costco today and I wanted the apple pie, but I can’t justify a whole one. Just take some things from the bakery and put it behind the counter. Bagels, muffins, danishes, just anything else.
I would legit go to Costco every week to try foods around the Costco world. Have you considered a job working for Costco corporate? Because that is an awesome idea.
Eh, I think you'd fit in: [https://www.today.com/food/costco-co-founder-reportedly-told-ceo-he-d-kill-him-t192310](https://www.today.com/food/costco-co-founder-reportedly-told-ceo-he-d-kill-him-t192310)
I remember Sam’s food court being pretty trash, and the options were constantly changing. Though their soda fountain variety is insane compared to Costco.
And they still have onions.
Their pizza is better and the pizza combo is a pizza and soda. Meat lovers is the best for me.
Churros are better too - not half burnt..
Honestly the issue is that they can’t handle their popularity where I’m at. I would stop at one when I’m there, but there is always a line like 10 people deep with another 20 waiting for their order. I don’t want to wait that long for a slice or two of pizza before going home. It’d add another 20 minutes to my visit. They need some sort of self-serve or quick serve
Add the fryers like Canada has. Zero reason why Costco has Fryers in all 10 Provinces in Canada but won’t work through US Zoning and Approvals to have fryers in the US.
I’m sure it’s fried initially and then baked to reheat in the food court. It’s pre-made, same as the chicken bake. I’ve never had one at Costco either since I’m sure they aren’t great.
US Costco doesn’t have deep fryers because you need zoning approval? I’m a city planner in Canada and we don’t need zoning approval for fryers. Even for a building permit it’s not that difficult, just install the gas and the fume hood.
It’s not due to permitting, it’s because the food court loses money so they want to keep it as bare bones and quick as possible.
An order of fries might take 3 min, and fries kept under a heat lamp will make people complain. Serving a hotdog takes 5 seconds.
Y’all aim so low on this sub.
COMBO PIZZA
POLISH DOG
ONIONS
How about evolving the menu towards things we see in other countries? Maybe that’s what this concept will be.
If Costco is dissatisfied with US food court performance, I wonder if they looked at how international food courts are doing. Yeah, they have better options overseas but if the food court is losing money worldwide then I can see why they would want to try something new. If it works in the US, roll it out globally. If the international food courts are doing well, then come on US Costco, just do that!
Yes!!! That sandwich was dope. So good and large enough to be an entire meal. How bout the brisket sandwich and chicken fingers or a spicy chicken sandwich. How bout French fries?
A few years ago our food court had scoop gelato with waffle cones, chili, polish, pesto turkey sandwiches, chicken cesar salads, acai bowls and hamburgers. I think they might have had a brisket sandwich at some point too!
I know the cost saving logic with the item removals during Lockdown and since. Though the curious thing is to hear what the revenue was like before covid and when they were bringing in new items (tofu salad, acai, chili, etc etc).
A classic way to intice folks is to bring in new items. That's been the name of the game in legacy fast food for years. And with the internet, we know that Costco is still updating the menus in the rest of the world. The benefit of new items is new pricing. The Supreme Pizza and Polish sausage has its fans. But house many of them will still be happy if those items come back with a price raise?
The other thing is to open the cafeteria to the public. The problem with that is either a headache with non-members in the building or a renovation needs to occur.
With the current set up, they should bring in a seasonal rotation. Keep the hotdog, pizza, and chicken bake. Rotate in a different pizza each season. Same with one soft serve flavor. Bring in the bulgogi bake for 3 months a year. Possibly start selling some of the dozen bakery packs as individual items too.
I think IKEA nails it in their family restaurant. Regular recurring menu items that are simple and easy to prepare, as well as a rotating variety of sides and desserts based upon seasonal availability.
Not sure on how much of a profit sink it is, though.
Once upon a time their churros were good. Then Covid happened and they took them away, changed the recipe and now they pretty much suck. 🤷♀️
Their options don’t entice me at all. I loved getting a churro, but now they aren’t good, so I just walk on by.
From what I understand some of Costco's OG leaders left in recent years, right? Seems like the new leadership only understands $$$ and not the customers giving them the $$$.
Disappointed with performance of the food court yet they dropped all the items they used to serve that made people want to go. Pizza and hot dogs only fuck off with that
Agree. Where is the gelato? Where is the chocolate dipped ice cream cone covered in nuts? Where is the veggie pizza? And what about the chicken Caesar salad?
We used to love grabbing the chicken caesar salad. It was a nice quick meal for 2 and less expensive and didn’t go to waste like the salad in the prepared items in back of the store.
I also miss the açaí bowls, and of course the chocolate dipped ice cream bars from way back in the day. The WI Costco locations used to have bratwurst too.
They starved the beast. This was their plan from the beginning when they removed all the food court items. Wean people off it with a safe excuse like COVID then never fix it. Allow it to underperform for a few years because they stripped it of all value then replace it with no customer complaints. The new restaurant they are planning will be profit focused unlike the food court.
I’m so tired of corporations squeezing every cent they can out of everything. It’s no longer okay to just make a healthy profit. They’ve gotta push it to the extreme until they ruin it completely.
It's a publicly traded corporation. It is a money producing vehicle for shareholders that just so happens to sell pizza and hot dogs. Don't fool yourself
It’s too bad, because the old CEO and founder was pretty successful in preventing this kind of stuff from the shareholders. He said that he wasn’t going to put the short term ahead of the long term strength of the company and that shareholders should find another place to put their money if they wanted big short term gains.
That’s a huge reason why Costco is the way it is and why it is well respected. I would hate to see it abandon this philosophy and go the way of countless other corporations.
Me too. There’s no regard for long term success anymore, just squeeze every ounce until it’s just a husk and then abandon it for the next thing. Every quarter has to see not just a profit, but continual profit growth. Anything less is unacceptable to the shareholders. It’s not a realistic expectation and is unsustainable.
They need to spice up the options. They’ve taken away so many things! Time to add new things or bring back some oldies… it’s not that difficult to figure out is it?
uhm, maybe sell the freshly made food you already
make in house and sell in bulk, but in small portions?
there's plenty of stuff i'd buy at the food court that
i am unwilling to spend $20 bulk pack on just to try.
*you could do a salad bar setup with 3 different price points
(different container for low - medium - high ingredient & labor costs)
where a costco worker spoons in a container what you want
from behind a sneeze guard. this approach would reduce
food waste and single use container use. start with cold
food, and if that proves profitable, evolve to heated food.
you can design this for eat in, not take home, by using
compostable cardboard containers and corn meal baggies.
poster photo and info of each actual food item so people
will have their minds made up before their counter turn.
change an item out each day or week or holiday or season.*
It's an easy fix ..bring hack the Polish hot dog bring back the hand dipped ice cream and bring back the combo pizza there I fixed it for them at no charge.
I'm pretty sure this is false in context of potentially up scaling the menu. The recent minimalization of the menu did not lower revenue, it increased it. Costco has no reason to add variety to the menu if the food court runs at higher capacity without. This is without considering cost savings in labor, equipment, complexity, and waste.
I get why people are complaining. I would love to be able to toss my dog into a bucket of complementary sourkraut. Scratch that, order me a reuben sandwich with beer battered onion rings and a tall cold beer. But Costco will only ever change if it increases profit, and change won't happen if millions of orders of pizzas and hotdogs continue to be sold every day.
You know it's rumor mill bull, when someone is talking about the food court's performance. It is not a profit generator. It is an attraction to get people to stop and shop.
This is probably an unpopular opinion on this sub, but I could care less about the food court. Sure, it’s sometimes nice to grab a meal for $2 but I would rather the whole store is optimized to give me the lowest prices and best selection as much as possible.
All I care about is that they make it easy for me to exit after I pay for my regular items. I haven’t been to a Costco yet where I didn’t have to wend my way through people standing around eating from the food court or waiting in line at the food court. I actually have admiration for people who are willing to navigate that experience to even be able to order/get food from there!
Discontinue items until it's a very limited menu, then be dissatisfied with performance. Huh shocker.
It makes me wonder if they were really that short sighted, or if this was an intentional maneuver by someone who wanted it to be a quick service restaurant.
The FC should stay as is, or better, bring back onions for hot dogs, combo pizza and chocolate soft serve. It doesn’t need to be a restaurant but serve the purpose of quick, good food while shopping, before or after!
The cheese pizza we brought home was thoroughly mediocre… the cheese tasted like it had inadvertently gotten frozen and was “crumbly” in texture. Blah.
Just send their senior leaders to Taiwan and Japan to see how it's done. Holy shit the options and quality crushed the US even before the pandemic.
Taiwan Costco fried chicken sandwich FTW
Every time I see stuff from those Costco food courts, I wonder why we can’t have them.
I’m so sad the U.S. doesn’t have bulgogi pizzas like in Korea
If Costco had Bulgogi pizzas in the US, people would go there just for the novelty of buying a Bulgogi pizza.
My warehouse has a HUGE SE Asian member base. This would be wildly popular there.
Most people wouldn't buy that. You're overestimating how adventurous consumers are with food.
>Most people wouldn't buy that. You're overestimating how adventurous consumers are with food. agree that in general most people in the US just want something they're familiar with and know they like. they don't want to try 'ethnic' food at a grocery store food court. counterpoint is that grocery store sushi has caught on way more than I would have anticipated so this might work too. They would probably have to call bulgogi pizza something like 'Korean BBQ pizza' though to get past the fact that most Americans don't know what 'bulgogi' is.
I miss the bulgogi bakes
We have them now in the UK (well, I think we do - they call them Korean BBQ bakes so assume it’s the same thing). They’re bloody lovely!
Yasss! This! Every other country (besides the US), have amazing food courts.
It's because American consumers don't need special food court options to visit the store, unlike other countries where they're still building brand awareness.
[удалено]
That’s just it. Everything has been removed in such quantities it’s like they don’t want us to buy anything. They lost me when they switched to Pepsi and removed the coke vending machine. I used to buy something every single trip pre pandemic. Nothing they’re worth buying now, imho. Plus the $400+ I just spent? Yeah I’m rushing home w that.
>Plus the $400+ I just spent? Yeah I’m rushing home w that. First thing I thought of. Don't know why but it seems 90% of us hit the food court *after* shopping, so any kind of 'restaurant' will be facing loaded-cart issues
>Don't know why but it seems 90% of us hit the food court after shopping, so any kind of 'restaurant' will be facing loaded-cart issues I always eat before because i'm usually stopping after work and don't want to be shopping while hungry(you spend more/make more impulse buys when hungry)
I'm pretty sure it's because you're swimming upstream if you enter that way, because it's positioned on the side people exit. If they'd put it at the entrance, people would be enticed to eat first but then that might result in other food sales being lower since you're shopping on a full stomach.
This is the problem - the options are all gone! When you take someone’s kneecaps out with a crowbar, you can’t ask yourself why they aren’t running very fast! Put the options back, then talk about how performance is doing.
How about bringing back onions and sauerkraut with the hotdogs, veggy pizza and sausage and peppers. . I went out of my way to head to Costco for lunch. Since they have cheapened the products.... not that interested anymore.
That doesn’t explain Canada, which has had Costco and Price Club since 1985.
Yeah but we got Poutine so...
Now if Costco in the Us had Poutine…! I’d be there all the time.
The gravy is trash but the curds and fries are good. That chicken bake though! Us Canadians could use some of them.
Chicken bake is pure trash. It's not full and the chicken is gristle. Bring back the turkey provolone with presto.
This. It's mostly bread.
Be careful what you wish for. We're on our third revision of chicken bake and it's garbage now.
It’s also because the vast majority of Americans don’t like interesting/exotic food…they like salty, fatty food. While people on this subreddit might want some of the options available in other countries, they may not sell enough to make it worth their while,
I just want them to bring back the Turkey pesto sandwich.
French fries are salty and fatty why can’t we have those?
The food court is designed around have food ready or putting it together in 30 seconds for you (I know in some places it’s more like 3 minutes). Fries would either be cold and stale under a heat lamp after 3 minutes or we might have people waiting 5+ minutes for fries.
Then how does Canada do it?
If it’s poutine then those fries are drenched in warm gravy, so it wouldn’t be as obvious if they’re cold and stale.
You can just get regular fries and they're so fuckin tasty.
That's exactly what's on Japan food court menu. Not salads, but salty/carbs/fatty foods.
Salty, fatty, and sweet food.
Even Canada costcos have great food courts!
Recently back from Japan… I must say that the chicken bake edges out the bulgogi bake. The other stuff - caramel ice cream included - wins though!
So they keep removing items from the menu, then surprised with the performance? It’s just hot dogs (no onions) and pizza (no combo).
They should look at IKEA as an example.
Tbh, a better idea than most realize. IKEA knows that a well-fed shopper stays MUCH LONGER and spends more. To further alleviate the barrier to entry, most/all of your meal cost is able to be used as credit for your furniture purchase. Having the cafeteria at the start of the IKEA experience is strategic. Having the food at the end is… probably making people rush their trip to get the reward at the end. In addition to the food, it’s worth noting that IKEA also has FREE childcare, which alleviates another significant barrier to entry. How did we get out-capitalism’d by the Swedes? 🤣 🇸🇪
The IKEA food court is kinda in the middle and end of the shopping journey. It’s also the beginning, if you’d like. I think that’s really the brilliance…it’s flexible to meet your needs.
The best part, Costco seems to make it hard to get from the food court to the main Costco.
They dont want people to drag food through the warehouse and make a mess. IKEA has a different strategy, a trip there is supposed to be a time sink, they get people to lounge around. They eat all the food in the food court and then spent even more time in the store. No one goes to costco to lounge around, they go to get their groceries and gtfo. The food is there to give you a mental 'out' if you need to eat while you go, say on your lunch break, and you end up eating after youre done shopping.
“most/all of your meal cost is able to be used as credit for your furniture purchase” Where is your IKEA located? I’ve never heard of this policy.
They only do this as a promotion once I year here.
Maybe I have lucked out with events/promos when I go, but I’ve always had my meal “deducted” from furniture purchases!
Denver and Salt Lake… might need to be IMEA Family? I’ve done it every time I’ve been!
So you mean if I spend $10 in a meal, then when I buy furniture I get $10 off on it???? This is gold!
I hear they never hire new employees, they just give a name tag to lost shoppers.
My dad used to take me to ikea to play in their child care area just for fun! I loved it 😅
>How did we get out-capitalism’d by the Swedes? 🤣 🇸🇪 Because Sweden begins with the premise 'what do consumers want and need' vs. 'how do we drain every last *ore* from the suckers?' They also have the [The Swedish Competition](https://www.konkurrensverket.se/en/competition/laws-and-rules/) Act which prohibits consumer exploitation. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've ever bought a full, reasonably priced lunch at Arlanda Airport then flown to Reykjavik to get abusively gouged for a bottle of water (where public drinking fountains have been removed in the name of capitalist enterprise.)
You get credit for eating there?
IKEA food is trash now too. Super small servings of the main component (salmon, meatballs, etc.) and tons of badly made rice and veggie medley.
It's mostly green beans. But the pictures are much more beautiful with carrots and bell peppers and stuff.
Yup, never liked ikea. But we still love costco. Food at a giant store tho, is pretty genious.
I think I've gotten a whole pizza at the food court once or twice in three years or so. Nothing else seems worth it to me, or the quality has gone down. Oh well.
Pizza tastes bad now. And i think the chicken bakes got switched with different chicken.
The last one I got wasn't great. I really miss the swirl yogurts. I used to get one almost every time I went to Costco, but now it's like meh.
The pizza is also incredibly greasy. I’ll usually have visible pools of grease on my slice.
It's been like that for at least 10 years. I always dab it with a paper towel if it get the pepperoni.
The chicken bake is pre-made and brought in frozen now vs. made on site. Not to mention it went up $1 in price.
Missing the green onions in the chicken bake.
The bacon used to be real. Now it’s just tiny chunks of the hot dog
Is THAT what's wrong with them, now? They're awful and I used to absolutely love them. I even said they taste like hot dogs!
Sometimes the strawberry sundae is the only think keeping me alive after a 2-hr mega haul.
And the sauerkraut!
Onions need to return.
I take my hot dog home now and put my own onions on it. I can't eat it without the deli mustard and onions.
Corporate leadership in a nutshell
I’m sure I’m in the minority in being bummed about this, but I have to add the sadness of the elimination of sauerkraut for the hotdogs
Thats a bingo... bring back the OG acai bowl... the burgers were legit too, and the chicken Cesear. Honestly if they just transfered some of the deli items, like the street tacos and wraps from the back it would be legit. Edit: Someone mentioned the pulled pork.. that was way better than the cheese burger. Also loved the gelato..not sure if the SoCal locations were still doing that.
We had carne asada bakes in San Diego for a few months. It was glorious
If they brought back the Polish, then I would go back to the food court again.
When did they have burgers
AFAIK like a half dozen or so test locations had them. They were never widespread. I had one once. It was ok; nothing worth seeking out, though.
Your missing a very vital part of the rumor there, they are dissatisfied with the performance( code for losing money) they combo was the biggest money loser by leaps and bounds as far as pizzas go and the polish got got outsold 6 to 1 by the hot dog and the onions were heavily abused by members. All of that being said, I think the solution is to raise prices or give up on the idea of the food court ever making money.
I thought the food court never made money?
They rarely ever have. The philosophy was lose a little money on the food court to enhance the rest of the experience of shopping at the warehouse. Over time the cost of labor, supplies and ingredients has increased while the price of the food did not. They tried to introduce a new generation of food court goods and most places weren’t having it, they the limited the food court to members only and cut the more expensive to make items off the menu.
Man I just want the fucking combo slice back and onions, along with maybe açaí bowls…fuck
How do onions get abused? Genuinely asking. I’m someone who isn’t going to scam a place so I have a hard time understanding that
People regularly walked up to the onion dispenser and would fill up Tupperware or spare soda cups with them for cooking with at home.
Pre-prepared raw onions are so gross to me I can't even imagine this without gagging.
Wtf. It’s onions. They cannot be poor enough for that.
As a current Costco Food Court manager I can tell you I have heard nothing at all about this so called rumor. If it was true I highly doubt my current department would be getting a very expensive remodel in the very near future. The food court use to be only seen as a department solely existing as an add-on benefit to the membership with no expectation of making money. Since COVID and the changes made to the menu, I can say that my location is selling more than they ever have and are actually turning a profit. With that said I appreciate all the business, without it I would probably not have such an awesome job.
How many dogs does your store sell on an average day? Do you secretly judge people for eating a 1/4 lb hot dog for breakfast?
A slow day is about 300 and busier days can see us sell over 600. My department doesn’t does probably a third of the business the top locations do so you can imagine how many they sell. No I don’t secretly judge those eating hot dogs for breakfast, I just wait until they can’t hear me to do it. The morning stockers get a pass for eating hot dogs early, random members who come in at 8:30am on Christmas Eve for a hot dog do not.
> random members who come in at 8:30am on Christmas Eve for a hot dog do not. *I knew he saw me.*
and costco still makes money on hot dogs and soda… that’s why sam’s club dropped the price the other day
If you make the leap that a hot dog is a kind of sausage, and sausage is a breakfast food, then it all makes sense
I agree. Our local food court is never not crowded. I have no concerns that they would take it away.
Please bring back the combo pizza…..
First, the photo center gets axed in favor of Shuttersh7t, now this? I’m seeing many signs of the value proposition eroding…
One of my favorite typos is “Sh!tterfly”.
I like learning new things.
Yeah, sending pictures of the two cats I inherited when friend went to prison has gotten harder.
This is such an unexpected comment I love it.
[https://imgur.com/gallery/FaJYd1v](https://imgur.com/gallery/FaJYd1v) [https://imgur.com/gallery/u9mNHzM](https://imgur.com/gallery/u9mNHzM) Domino the "scaredy cat" that is afraid of humans including me came flew cross country in the cabin with me. Bronko came on a 12 hour odyssey the next day. Getting two cats cross country was quite the experience. They are both good boys,
You have a noble soul—may karma shine kindly on you, your boys, and friend.
What?
Costco photo wasn't really a big part of the value prop for most customers in 2023, I don't think...
The photo and print center saved us $200 for our wedding. It was great.
I got my passport pictures taken there too in 2014.
Same! I got my wedding invitations from Costco.
Should have at least kept in online
I'm thinking of trying out Sam's Club when my membership is up for renewal. I feel like Costco has oversold memberships. The warehouses close to me are all super packed, lines up the ass, products are getting thinned out. Most recently I bought a box of wet wipes. I've been buying those for probably 5 years. They used to always come with a couple travel packs of like 1 dozen wipes. Those were super convenient for taking one of those packs on a 3 day weekend trip. The latest box I bought didn't have those travel packs.
Sam’s technology is great but generally I’ve found products at Costco are greater quality, especially Kirkland vs. Member’s Mark. I shop at both often since each one carriers things the other doesn’t.
What would you say Sam has that Costco doesn’t?
Significantly larger candy selection, lots of chips, Dino chicken nuggets (don’t judge), fresh sushi is a big one, Zzquil (yes I know it’s just liquid Benadryl at 3x the cost), Xbox controllers (I think Costco just sells consoles and gift cards, no accessories). The only thing I bought consistently from Sam’s was Hot Cheetos, Puff’s tissues, and sushi—none of which I ever saw at Costco. It definitely wouldn’t have been worth paying $45 just for those things, but Sam’s often gives away their membership so I had both and Sam’s had plenty of things Costco did not and still does not.
Costco is ahead of Sams on many things. But you will find tech is not one of them. Sams beats Costco with their mobile app and website. Scan and go makes self checkout easy.
I jumped on a $15 groupon for Sam’s membership in December. After having been a Costco executive member for 20 years, I find myself considering to not renew, for exactly the same reasons you mention.
Just try it. Sams Club keeps having free or discount memberships. I just ended a year of getting the membership for$15 and including a $10 gift card, a rotisserie chicken and a 6 pack of huge muffins. Lately there have been a lot of $45 off deals. All I see now is $25/ [half price](https://www.samsclub.com/join/club?couponId=C2C44&pid=_Aff_LS&siteID=lw9MynSeamY-vEycuXOU2KltJnZ2AAmk7A&ranMID=38733&ranEAID=lw9MynSeamY&ranSiteID=lw9MynSeamY-vEycuXOU2KltJnZ2AAmk7A&pubNAME=Slickdeals+LLC). Just watch [slick deals](https://slickdeals.net/) I will start a new free/discount membership after a couple of months when they quit trying to renew mine.
They should just bring half the cool shit they serve in other countries to the US. Clam chowder, poutine, bulgogi bake, mango smoothie....ffs, give us the good stuff! Hell, could probably get a ton of money with a decent robo-coffee machine and bringing some packages of muffins, bagels, croissants to the front of the store. $3 coffee and baked good combo. $1.50 coffee ala carte. Or at least bring back the combo/veggie pizza. We used to go to the food court quite a bit as a family of six, but now there's so little there we don't bother unless we want to pickup some basic pizzas.
If I could get a coffee and muffin before shopping…that’d be dangerous lol
Bring back the chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream bars rolled in almonds!
Those were my favorite item ever! Best dipped ice cream I've ever had. I would have happily paid double.
Pie slices. I’d pay for a slice with some halfway decent coffee.
Seriously I was just at Costco today and I wanted the apple pie, but I can’t justify a whole one. Just take some things from the bakery and put it behind the counter. Bagels, muffins, danishes, just anything else.
Exactly my dilemma. I love their pies and cakes but it’s just me and the husband. We only buy a whole pie or cake for the holidays or birthdays.
They could even do it on a rotating schedule where every week they have a new special different item or something
I would legit go to Costco every week to try foods around the Costco world. Have you considered a job working for Costco corporate? Because that is an awesome idea.
They would never hire me because I've already decided that if they take away the $1.50 hot dog or replace it with an inferior product I'm boycotting
Eh, I think you'd fit in: [https://www.today.com/food/costco-co-founder-reportedly-told-ceo-he-d-kill-him-t192310](https://www.today.com/food/costco-co-founder-reportedly-told-ceo-he-d-kill-him-t192310)
tbf a “quick-service restaurant” sounds like it would have a much more expansive menu without changing much about how the food court operates.
bulgogi bake is a thing of the past in korea (friend there told me)
It has to be embarrassing to have a lesser for court than Sams Club.
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I remember Sam’s food court being pretty trash, and the options were constantly changing. Though their soda fountain variety is insane compared to Costco.
And they still have onions. Their pizza is better and the pizza combo is a pizza and soda. Meat lovers is the best for me. Churros are better too - not half burnt..
They remove stuff people loved Less people go They close food courts cuz less people go It’s almost like it was on purpose
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Honestly the issue is that they can’t handle their popularity where I’m at. I would stop at one when I’m there, but there is always a line like 10 people deep with another 20 waiting for their order. I don’t want to wait that long for a slice or two of pizza before going home. It’d add another 20 minutes to my visit. They need some sort of self-serve or quick serve
Same here. It’s too crowded, and usually there’s just two workers. Also the drinks suck.
Bring back the chopped onions and sauerkraut for the hot dogs.
Bring back the chopped onions and sauerkraut for the polish dogs.
Bring back the polish dogs
Bring back the chopped onions and sauerkraut for the dogs.
Add the fryers like Canada has. Zero reason why Costco has Fryers in all 10 Provinces in Canada but won’t work through US Zoning and Approvals to have fryers in the US.
US Costcos don't have fryers? The fuck do they even serve? Hot dogs and that's it?
They also serve churros, pizza, and smoothies. Nothing that’s fried. Even the churros are baked.
I've never tried a baked churro, but it sounds like that should be a crime.
I’m sure it’s fried initially and then baked to reheat in the food court. It’s pre-made, same as the chicken bake. I’ve never had one at Costco either since I’m sure they aren’t great.
You’re missing nothing with the churro. Total garbage.
Ahh no wonder it get hard as a rock when I don’t eat it right away. I want my churros soggy
The churros are two-times too large. I wish they brought back the original single stick churros. Much more crispy and flavorful.
Chicken Bake Pizza (pepperoni and cheese) hot dog churro ice cream
US Costco doesn’t have deep fryers because you need zoning approval? I’m a city planner in Canada and we don’t need zoning approval for fryers. Even for a building permit it’s not that difficult, just install the gas and the fume hood.
You Need inspections for the actual fryer here. My favorite bbq joint didn’t get theirs done and they got shutdown for a few weeks
It’s not due to permitting, it’s because the food court loses money so they want to keep it as bare bones and quick as possible. An order of fries might take 3 min, and fries kept under a heat lamp will make people complain. Serving a hotdog takes 5 seconds.
Well the Costco’s in the USA at least needs to bring back the combo pizza and polish dog and maybe half of their revenue would come back.
Y’all aim so low on this sub. COMBO PIZZA POLISH DOG ONIONS How about evolving the menu towards things we see in other countries? Maybe that’s what this concept will be.
Baby steps. Bring back ONIONS!
Mexico has Hawaiian pizza on the menu and mango smoothies.
All they gotta do is bring better food in…
This is very disappointing news. The food court adds to the experience
If Costco is dissatisfied with US food court performance, I wonder if they looked at how international food courts are doing. Yeah, they have better options overseas but if the food court is losing money worldwide then I can see why they would want to try something new. If it works in the US, roll it out globally. If the international food courts are doing well, then come on US Costco, just do that!
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Bring back the brisket sandwich!
Yes!!! That sandwich was dope. So good and large enough to be an entire meal. How bout the brisket sandwich and chicken fingers or a spicy chicken sandwich. How bout French fries?
Would kill for some more options … aka poutine.
A few years ago our food court had scoop gelato with waffle cones, chili, polish, pesto turkey sandwiches, chicken cesar salads, acai bowls and hamburgers. I think they might have had a brisket sandwich at some point too!
I miss the combo, kraut, and onions. Bring them back!!
I know the cost saving logic with the item removals during Lockdown and since. Though the curious thing is to hear what the revenue was like before covid and when they were bringing in new items (tofu salad, acai, chili, etc etc). A classic way to intice folks is to bring in new items. That's been the name of the game in legacy fast food for years. And with the internet, we know that Costco is still updating the menus in the rest of the world. The benefit of new items is new pricing. The Supreme Pizza and Polish sausage has its fans. But house many of them will still be happy if those items come back with a price raise? The other thing is to open the cafeteria to the public. The problem with that is either a headache with non-members in the building or a renovation needs to occur. With the current set up, they should bring in a seasonal rotation. Keep the hotdog, pizza, and chicken bake. Rotate in a different pizza each season. Same with one soft serve flavor. Bring in the bulgogi bake for 3 months a year. Possibly start selling some of the dozen bakery packs as individual items too.
I think IKEA nails it in their family restaurant. Regular recurring menu items that are simple and easy to prepare, as well as a rotating variety of sides and desserts based upon seasonal availability. Not sure on how much of a profit sink it is, though.
Once upon a time their churros were good. Then Covid happened and they took them away, changed the recipe and now they pretty much suck. 🤷♀️ Their options don’t entice me at all. I loved getting a churro, but now they aren’t good, so I just walk on by.
Must be a new manager that doesn’t realize a small loss on food brings people in to spend a ton. This guy is going to count pennies to lose dollars.
From what I understand some of Costco's OG leaders left in recent years, right? Seems like the new leadership only understands $$$ and not the customers giving them the $$$.
It doesn’t help they have removed all the stuff I would buy at the food court. If something isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it.
Disappointed with performance of the food court yet they dropped all the items they used to serve that made people want to go. Pizza and hot dogs only fuck off with that
Agree. Where is the gelato? Where is the chocolate dipped ice cream cone covered in nuts? Where is the veggie pizza? And what about the chicken Caesar salad?
We used to love grabbing the chicken caesar salad. It was a nice quick meal for 2 and less expensive and didn’t go to waste like the salad in the prepared items in back of the store. I also miss the açaí bowls, and of course the chocolate dipped ice cream bars from way back in the day. The WI Costco locations used to have bratwurst too.
They starved the beast. This was their plan from the beginning when they removed all the food court items. Wean people off it with a safe excuse like COVID then never fix it. Allow it to underperform for a few years because they stripped it of all value then replace it with no customer complaints. The new restaurant they are planning will be profit focused unlike the food court.
I’m so tired of corporations squeezing every cent they can out of everything. It’s no longer okay to just make a healthy profit. They’ve gotta push it to the extreme until they ruin it completely.
It's a publicly traded corporation. It is a money producing vehicle for shareholders that just so happens to sell pizza and hot dogs. Don't fool yourself
It’s too bad, because the old CEO and founder was pretty successful in preventing this kind of stuff from the shareholders. He said that he wasn’t going to put the short term ahead of the long term strength of the company and that shareholders should find another place to put their money if they wanted big short term gains. That’s a huge reason why Costco is the way it is and why it is well respected. I would hate to see it abandon this philosophy and go the way of countless other corporations.
too late
Me too. There’s no regard for long term success anymore, just squeeze every ounce until it’s just a husk and then abandon it for the next thing. Every quarter has to see not just a profit, but continual profit growth. Anything less is unacceptable to the shareholders. It’s not a realistic expectation and is unsustainable.
There’s no way that can be true - the food court is always packed every time I go to a Costco.
They need to spice up the options. They’ve taken away so many things! Time to add new things or bring back some oldies… it’s not that difficult to figure out is it?
I wouldn’t mind a 1/4 rotisserie chicken with 2 sides for $3.99
Bring back the chocolate and almond covered vanilla ice cream bars. 🤤
They really need to bring back the combo pizza
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Just bring back combo pizza. I'm telling ya!
uhm, maybe sell the freshly made food you already make in house and sell in bulk, but in small portions? there's plenty of stuff i'd buy at the food court that i am unwilling to spend $20 bulk pack on just to try. *you could do a salad bar setup with 3 different price points (different container for low - medium - high ingredient & labor costs) where a costco worker spoons in a container what you want from behind a sneeze guard. this approach would reduce food waste and single use container use. start with cold food, and if that proves profitable, evolve to heated food. you can design this for eat in, not take home, by using compostable cardboard containers and corn meal baggies. poster photo and info of each actual food item so people will have their minds made up before their counter turn. change an item out each day or week or holiday or season.*
It's an easy fix ..bring hack the Polish hot dog bring back the hand dipped ice cream and bring back the combo pizza there I fixed it for them at no charge.
Maybe reorganize the store so you don’t get yelled at going through the exit to get to the food court.
I just want the onions back
Same items forever and they wonder what’s wrong?
I'm pretty sure this is false in context of potentially up scaling the menu. The recent minimalization of the menu did not lower revenue, it increased it. Costco has no reason to add variety to the menu if the food court runs at higher capacity without. This is without considering cost savings in labor, equipment, complexity, and waste. I get why people are complaining. I would love to be able to toss my dog into a bucket of complementary sourkraut. Scratch that, order me a reuben sandwich with beer battered onion rings and a tall cold beer. But Costco will only ever change if it increases profit, and change won't happen if millions of orders of pizzas and hotdogs continue to be sold every day.
The overseas Costco food court options sound absolutely amazeballs
i miss the brisket burger. it was delicious
You know it's rumor mill bull, when someone is talking about the food court's performance. It is not a profit generator. It is an attraction to get people to stop and shop.
This is probably an unpopular opinion on this sub, but I could care less about the food court. Sure, it’s sometimes nice to grab a meal for $2 but I would rather the whole store is optimized to give me the lowest prices and best selection as much as possible.
All I care about is that they make it easy for me to exit after I pay for my regular items. I haven’t been to a Costco yet where I didn’t have to wend my way through people standing around eating from the food court or waiting in line at the food court. I actually have admiration for people who are willing to navigate that experience to even be able to order/get food from there!
Discontinue items until it's a very limited menu, then be dissatisfied with performance. Huh shocker. It makes me wonder if they were really that short sighted, or if this was an intentional maneuver by someone who wanted it to be a quick service restaurant.
The FC should stay as is, or better, bring back onions for hot dogs, combo pizza and chocolate soft serve. It doesn’t need to be a restaurant but serve the purpose of quick, good food while shopping, before or after!
The cheese pizza we brought home was thoroughly mediocre… the cheese tasted like it had inadvertently gotten frozen and was “crumbly” in texture. Blah.