Costco‘s food court has been a massive draw for members of the warehouse club, along with people who simply want a $1.50 hot dog combo or a cheap slice of pizza.
As a longtime member, I used the chain’s inexpensive churros as a way to distract my son so I could browse Costco’s aisles looking for deals and picking up staples. When you walk through a Costco warehouse, you see that many parents use the chain’s pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, and other snacks either as a cheap meal or, as I did, to buy some shopping time.
Costco makes regular changes to its food court, but usually just swapping out non-staples. It might switch up a sandwich or add a new cookie flavor, but some items are untouchable.
Founder Jim Sinegal has famously been quoted as aggressively standing by that deal.
“If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out,” he said, CNBC reported.
The combo, a hot dog and a medium soda for $1.50, won’t change, but the rules about who gets that deal have evolved.
Costco first made a soda change
Earlier this year, Costco finished a major food court change as it switched from PepsiCo products to Coca-Cola-branded sodas.
The warehouse club first switched to Pepsi in 2013 for price reasons. It has not shared why it switched back, although CEO Ron Vachris did confirm the change.
“This summer we will be converting our food-court fountain business back over to Coca-Cola,” Vachris said at Costco’s 2025 annual shareholders meeting in response to an audience question.
Both Coke and Pepsi have their diehard fans, and Costco’s change has been seen as a win for Coca-Cola.
“Costco’s return to Coca-Cola marks a strategic win in a long-standing rivalry between beverage giants. Food service contracts — like those with fast-food chains, amusement parks, and warehouse clubs — provide stable, high-volume distribution that supports brand visibility and long-term loyalty,” Global Market News reported.
In some stores, Costco requires a membership card to check in, check out, and eat at the food court.
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Costco ends a food court tradition
Costco has generally gotten more strict about who can enter its stores. In many, but not all, locations, it now requires members to scan their membership cards before entering its warehouses.
It has also changed its policy about who can access its food courts.
“Costco is rolling out membership-verification technology at its food courts that will require customers to show a valid membership card before ordering food, something select locations have already started testing, and that could become more widespread in 2026,” Sporked reported.
That policy has been implemented selectively at some Costco warehouse locations since 2024.
Members have posted photos on Reddit showing the enforcement of the members-only policy at specific stores.
“Effective April 8, 2024, an active Costco membership card will be required to purchase items from our food court,” the sign in the image says. “You can join today. Please see our membership counter for details.”
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Now, at least in select locations, that policy will be enforced by making people swipe their membership card before making a food court purchase.
“We don’t feel it’s right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in a statement, reported by Audacy.com.
Related: 4 ways to shop at Costco without a membership
Costco has been growing its membership
Costco’s entire business model is predicated on driving and retaining members.
“While comprising a smaller percentage of total revenue (around 1.93% in fiscal year 2025), membership fees are the bedrock of Costco’s profitability, often contributing 65% to 73% of the company’s operating profit. This stable, predictable, and high-margin income stream enables Costco to operate its merchandise sales on very thin margins,” according to PredictStreet’s Deep Dive into the Membership Retail Giant.
The chain has been successful in continuing to add members, and that has been a revenue driver, according to statements from CFO Gary Millerchip during Costco’s first-quarter earnings call.
“We reported membership fee income of $1.329 billion, an increase of $163 million or 14% year-over-year. Adjusting for FX, the increase was also 14%. Last September’s U.S. and Canada membership fee increase accounted for a little less than half of membership income growth,” he said.
At the close of Q1, Costco had 39.7 million paid Executive Memberships, up 9.1% versus last year. It ended the quarter with 81.4 million total paid members, up 5.2% versus last year, and 145.9 million cardholders, up 5.1% year over year.
The chain did have a slight decline in its renewal rate.
“In terms of renewal rates, at Q1 end, our U.S. and Canada renewal rate was 92.2%, and the worldwide rate came in at 89.7%, both down 10 basis points from last quarter,” the CFO added.
“This slight decline was due to the factors we discussed last quarter and reflects new online members growing as a percentage of our total base and renewing at a slightly lower rate than warehouse sign-ups.”