While Costco members likely join the warehouse club principally for the value the chain offers, many also consider its stores destination shopping.
Yes, it's important to pay low prices, but a visit to one of the chain's warehouses also offers fun in a variety of ways.
First, there's the treasure hunt aspect of the experience. You never know what you might find when you visit a Costco (COST) -). While you may have come for groceries and household items, you may leave with a kayak or a winter coat.
Related: Costco made a huge change members need to know about
Members also enjoy the sample stations that the warehouse club offers. It's part of the Costco experience to visit and graze on everything from candy to hot food, sometimes washing it all down with a beverage you might never have tried before.
And of course, Costco members love its famous food court. So anytime the warehouse club changes its menu, it's a big deal among the customers.
On the plus side, Costco hasn't changed its massively popular $1.50 hot-dog-and-soda deal. That's likely never going to change because the company has made it a sort of untouchable price point even if it's not a moneymaker.
The warehouse club has, however, made a major change to its food-court menu. adding a new item and taking away another fan favorite.
Image source: Xinhua/Ting Shen via Getty Images
Costco adds a Crumbl-style cookie
Crumbl Cookies has become a national sensation. The cookie company changes its menu each week, except for its chocolate chip cookie. That item — a massive specimen by cookie standards — always remains on the menu.
Now, Costco has quietly answered Crumbl's challenge — at a much lower price point.
"Costco might be calling Crumbl Cookies out with a new giant Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie in the food court for $2.49," the popular Snackolator Instagram page reported.
"These are rolling out nationwide and are ginormous cookies at 750 calories (about the same as a Crumbl chocolate chip cookie). They're made with all butter and a mix of bittersweet and semisweet chocolate chunks."
Crumbl charges $4.25 for a single cookie (although prices may vary by location).
Costco's food court generally has a one-in, one-out menu philosophy. That's not a hard-and-fast rule, but generally when it adds something new to the menu, another item gets removed. That appears to be what's happening here.
"Good news for cookie lovers is bad news for churro lovers though as @costco has removed the churro from the food court to make way for these new cookies," Snackolator added.
Costco keeps growing
A market in which people are worried about inflation and the security of their jobs benefits Costco. Since the company's core mission is delivering good prices, that's something consumers want more of when they're worried about the economy.
Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said the chain both retained members and added new ones at impressive rates during its fourth-quarter earnings call.
"In terms of renewal rates, at Q4-end, our U.S. and Canada renewal rates stood at 92.7%, which is up a tenth of a percent from the 92.6% figure as of the end of Q3," he said.
"The worldwide rate came in at 90.4%, down a tenth of a percent, reflecting the impact of increasing penetration of memberships from international, which renew at a lower rate, in large part because of new openings internationally."
The warehouse club also continues to steadily add new members, he said.
"We ended the fourth quarter with 71 million paid household members, up 7.9% versus a year ago, and 127.9 million cardholders, up 7.6%," he said. "And that's on new openings over the past year of — just under 3% increase in new locations."
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