Did you know that the price of a Costco hot dog with a soda has stayed the same at just $1.50 since 1985 even through inflation?
The $1.50 Costco Hot Dog and Soda Has Held Steady Throughout Inflation – 2025-10-06.
Calculated using CPI data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Costco Wholesale.
Figure has not yet been formally peer reviewed and are intended as exploratory
Posted by Odd-Distribution4153
38 comments
I think its more cause Costco isnt trying to make money off of the Hot Dog and Soda. Its to get you in the door to spend money on items that are going up with inflation.
How long till costco decides not to take those losses.
It will be sad day indeed.
IKEA has a similar thing but the price has risen from 1,50€ to 2€ (or 1,50€ for a vegan one) here in Germany and they don’t even include the drink anymore, that would be another 50ct or € I’m not sure right now…
The Costco hot dog is a loss leader – meaning it’s purposely priced – they lose money on every single one sold. It is not a marker for any sort of inflation statistics.
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If everything was increasing with inflation then inflation would not be at the level it is.
They lose money on the hot dog but prices of costco membership have increased to offset losses
I remember reading that CostCo was also really fighting to raise the price of their rotisserie chicken during the pandemic, because they felt that this was a signature item at that price. This is a couple of years ago now, dont know if they actually raised prices.
Definately not 4.50 worth smh
Yes I knew this because it’s posted once a month on Reddit.
Yes, this single data type on an excel chart sure is beautiful.
/s
Ok look: this is a loss leader. They get you on, and you buy a $5 hot dog for $1.50 but you also buy $350 worth of other stuff. And you had to pay a membership fee just to walk in the door!
Those things aren’t magic. They are marketing!
Those of us with class by pass the hotdog and get a chicken…. And spend $250 on random shit because it’s at the back.
Then I go home and question life choices and devour the chicken with my bare hands over the sink.
Hey look, I can plot the price of a Costco hot dog over time too:
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What a useless visualization.
The Hot Dog is good, and the roasted chicken is also good.
“If you raise the price of the fucking hot dogs I will kill you.”
Costco realized that that selling $1.50 hot dogs isn’t a random product to bump up a food court profit margin but a cheap massive marketing campaign that more marketers would kill for.
You talk about Costco and the $1.50 hot dog isn’t far behind.
This sub sucks now
Charging 4.5 equivalent for a hotdog and soda in 1985.
Simply means it was overpriced before.
Jim Sinegal (the co-founder and former CEO) told his successor that if they raise the price of the hot dog he was doing to kill him. That’s why they haven’t raised the price.
When interviewed about it in 2009 by The Seattle Times, when they asked him what it would mean if the price ever went up he replied, “That I’m dead.”
Damn it might be coming soon. Multiple times I’ve found little plastic bits in the hot dog. I’ve since stopped eating it and moved to their pizza. No strange substances yet…
Repost bot post and repost bot comments
This chart looks like my income.
The hotdog at Costco is the last thing I believe in
What if it had tracked with the prices of other fast food items like the big Mac or the whopper? Does that mirror this?
Has the composition changed with time? Would be an interesting graph.
Now show me a chart showing the wait time over the years to get that $1.50 hot dog.
Some context is needed for this graph. Now show % of each *”meat”* by products are in the hot dog over the years.
The cost to walk in the door, however, is up by more than 2x in the same timeframe. Granted, membership is still below the inflation line too…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/1e5igum/costcos_historical_membership_fee_growth/
What’s crazy is the stones it took to charge $1.50 for it in 1985. Overpriced AF.
But what does Costco actually pay to make/sell a hot dog + soda? I can get an 8 pack of hot dogs and 8 buns for 5.49+1.79 at Fred Meyer so each one is 0.91. 16 oz of soda at 0.03/oz is 0.48. Now I imagine Costco can get even cheaper prices so it is going to be less than that. Add in some labor but overall price per hot dog+soda isn’t going to be that much over 1.50 and I can’t see it being anywhere near 4.50.
There is currently no inflation.
Things just cost more.
/s
It’s a loss leader. They don’t make their money from hot dogs (which are cheap as shit to produce at scale)–they make their money from people buying a whole lot of other junk while they eat their $1.50 hot dog.
And in university tuition inflation, it would be about $4,257.
Whenever I see some product like this (or Arizona ice tea) that kind of brags about keeping the same price so long, I think “Wow, they must’ve REALLY been overcharging all those years ago!”
started with 70/30 meat and is now 90/10 to minimize the loss? 🤣 i got no clue but probably right
If it were sold by Microsoft it would be $30 by now.
Honestly it makes sense to me. No one’s going to Costco for only hot dogs. Having this deal is probably enough to make a handful of people take an extra trip to Costco, and if they buy literally anything, it’d probably offset the loss for a hotdog
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