3 ms·

It was (is again) this gas stations Costco hotdog

Tempest1981 2y ago
Do you need to be a Costco member to eat at the food court? I thought "no", which means they are still making profit on their food alone.
- jjj123 2y ago
  You need a membership to get through the door, right?
  - titanomachy 2y ago
    At the Costcos I’ve been to the restaurant is outside the members-only area.
  - jogjayr 2y ago
    I haven't seen outdoor food courts in Ontario Canada. But you don't need a membership to go to the pharmacy, and I'm sure they'd let you in for free for the food court. In California, in addition to the pharmacy, there was no membership required for buying alcohol.
  - ezschemi 2y ago
    No, you don’t. If you know someone with a Costco membership and they buy you a gift card, you can get in with that. Even if the gift card is only for $10 or $20 and you want to buy things worth more than that, you still get the membership prices and pay the difference by credit card.
  - bluefirebrand 2y ago
    Here in Calgary, you don't need a membership for the food court, pharmacy, eye clinic, or customer service. Customer service would be where you would sign up for a membership anyway Or liquor stores I think.
- jogjayr 2y ago
  Or they consider it a marketing channel for their memberships. Costco stores aren't exactly in convenient locations if you aren't already a member. And someone who would go to all that trouble for a cheap hot dog might as well hit up Ikea instead. For starters the Ikea food court has more than 3 things on the menu, as well as coffee and tea.
- ihumanable 2y ago
  Depends on the store. Some stores food courts are outside where they check for membership and some inside. > Costco officially restricted food court access to members in 2020 How much that's enforced is store by store, Costco makes a lot of profit off of memberships so there's an incentive to having non-members have a positive opinion of the store so that they one day become paid members.

Tempest1981 2y ago

Do you need to be a Costco member to eat at the food court? I thought "no", which means they are still making profit on their food alone.

jjj123 2y ago
You need a membership to get through the door, right?
- titanomachy 2y ago
  At the Costcos I’ve been to the restaurant is outside the members-only area.
- jogjayr 2y ago
  I haven't seen outdoor food courts in Ontario Canada. But you don't need a membership to go to the pharmacy, and I'm sure they'd let you in for free for the food court. In California, in addition to the pharmacy, there was no membership required for buying alcohol.
- ezschemi 2y ago
  No, you don’t. If you know someone with a Costco membership and they buy you a gift card, you can get in with that. Even if the gift card is only for $10 or $20 and you want to buy things worth more than that, you still get the membership prices and pay the difference by credit card.
- bluefirebrand 2y ago
  Here in Calgary, you don't need a membership for the food court, pharmacy, eye clinic, or customer service. Customer service would be where you would sign up for a membership anyway Or liquor stores I think.
jogjayr 2y ago
Or they consider it a marketing channel for their memberships. Costco stores aren't exactly in convenient locations if you aren't already a member. And someone who would go to all that trouble for a cheap hot dog might as well hit up Ikea instead. For starters the Ikea food court has more than 3 things on the menu, as well as coffee and tea.
ihumanable 2y ago
Depends on the store. Some stores food courts are outside where they check for membership and some inside. > Costco officially restricted food court access to members in 2020 How much that's enforced is store by store, Costco makes a lot of profit off of memberships so there's an incentive to having non-members have a positive opinion of the store so that they one day become paid members.