Costco Makes First Change to Hot Dog Combo in 4 Decades

Costco's famously unchanging food-court staple is getting a tweak—but not the one many customers have long feared, People reports. For the first time in more than four decades, the warehouse chain has altered its $1.50 hot dog combo, but the price is still locked in. The quarter-pound all-beef hot dog, historically bundled only with a 20-ounce fountain soda, can now be ordered with a 16.9-ounce Kirkland Signature bottled water instead. Customers previously could fill a cup with water from the soda fountain, but this is the first time a sealed bottle has been part of the official deal.

Shoppers had already been spotting the option in the wild: a Reddit thread months ago noted cashiers offering bottled water in place of soda, and an Instagram post over the weekend showed signage announcing the swap. Some customers welcomed the move as a more practical or healthier choice, with one commenter saying they planned to get one soda and one bottled water when ordering two hot dogs and "stash the bottle for later." USA Today reports some commenters are lauding the "healthier" water option, while others are insisting the refillable soda still offers more bang for their buck.

Costco has repeatedly pledged not to touch the combo's price, despite inflation, the New York Post reports.. In 2022, then-CFO Richard Galanti said the chain doesn't think of the hot dog meal as something that must directly turn a profit, pointing to strength in other parts of the business. That same year, then-CEO Craig Jelinek flatly answered "No" when asked if the cost would ever go up—echoing co-founder Jim Sinegal's reported directive years earlier not to raise the price and to "figure it out" instead.