Costco fans are very passionate about the store’s food court and it seems like the company’s co-founder is too.
A Mental Floss article from 2018 is making the rounds this week due to a particular threat made by Jim Sinegal, Costco co-founder and then-CEO.
During a luncheon at the time, the company’s current CEO, W. Craig Jelinek, said he once told Sinegal they needed to raise the price of the iconic $1.50 hot dog and soda combo — which reportedly has not gone up in price since the 1980s.
“I came to (Sinegal) once and I said, ‘Jim, we can’t sell this hot dog for a buck fifty," Jelineck said, according to 425 Business. "We are losing our rear ends.’ And he said, ‘If you raise (the price of the) effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.’ That’s all I really needed."
According to the company magazine, Costco Connection, the food court started in the mid-1980s when the company began testing “a single hot dog cart in front of a San Diego warehouse.”
The company has gone to serious lengths to keep the price low — swapping out the soda cans for fountain drinks and even switching to supplying their own Kirkland brand hot dogs instead of using other brands around 10 years ago.
A Costco employee in 2018 told Popsugar that the company makes just $0.08 on every hot dog combo deal — but that’s not the point of having the deal in the first place.
“The primary role the Food Court is there is to be a good face for the company,” they said. We'll sell you a hotdog and soda for $1.50 … just so your last experience before leaving is one of a pleasant cashier treating you well and giving you a good deal."
Sinegal has long believed the Costco hot dog is sacrosanct — and apparently will take his threat to the grave. In a 2009 interview with The Seattle Times, a reporter asked him, “If that price ever goes up, what will it mean?”
“That I’m dead,” he replied. “We’re known for that hot dog. That’s something you don’t mess with.”
September 23, 2020 at 10:09AM
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Report: Costco co-founder told CEO he'd kill him if price of hot dog combo went up - TODAY
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