Restaurants are becoming more expensive. The costco hotdog food is $ 1.50. Should it only be a member?
These days it is not easy to find a cheap food, especially if you are feeding a family and especially if you walk.
You may cost $ 50 to get four full food McDonald’sA KFC family is approximately $ 45 before the cost of bucket food. Even four plain hotdogs from a road-string Chip truck You may spend above $ 30.
The family pack in Swiss Shaile starts at $ 39.99. Mucho Burito has a single Burtito $ 12.45.
It is difficult there. But for decades, for so many people, there is a thrifty oasis – a bulk warehouse, wrapped in foil and served with a fountain drink.
$ 1.50 CostCo Hotdog Food. Despite inflation, Price is a firm since the 1980sAnd it has been a popular menu item for both members and foods to be carried.
So when Vancouver city costco People who announce the recently posted indications will require an active membership card to buy food From the food court, it made a terrible debate Online About what non-members should be able to be able To use those cheap food.
On the Costco Canada subredit, someone wrote, “Everyone is able to buy $ 1.50 hotdogs and if they are broken then they are able to be able to drink.”
“How expensive everything is, you can always get a cheap quality here. Sad for non-members,” Someone wrote on X.
Technically, the costco food court has always been only for members, but the policy has not always been strictly implemented. Costco Allegedly In 2020, he started breaking up on non-members to reach its food courts, and Another push last yearBut still, some people find ways to get those cheap dogs without paying a $ 65 membership fee.
Later in this summer, the food court in costco will no longer be to enjoy everyone. Pinky Wong of CBC went to the place as to what changes are coming and how Vancouns are reacting.
But Social mediaPeople Post secret videos Inside, share tips to get to the pharmacy to get and describe through the doors High school children Walking for cheap lunch. The whole families have caught a quick dinner on their way Concert and Hockey Games.
Employees in downtown Vancouver Costco Recently told CBC Vancouver The place was particularly loose with its food court policy due to its location outside the warehouse. Vancouver is amazing Website Note This is a popular place for people to grab a quick cutting on its way for the nearby Rogers Arena or BC Place.
CBC News has contacted Costco Canada for a comment and has not heard back yet.
When? CBC Vancouver reached out For local stores in June, he was told that membership was required to buy food from the food court.
‘Real challenge of people receiving cheap food’
Canada Annual food price report In 2025, in 2025, the total food prices will increase by three to five percent – working for the average family spending four spending $ 16,833.67 on food in 2025, growing up to $ 801.56 from last year.
Meanwhile, the increase in operational expenses increased the cost of food purchased from the restaurant by December 2019 as compared to December 2019, according to A. 2025 Statistics Canada Report,
The Costco Food Court has always been able to keep its prices low as it was designed to bring people into store to buy other items to buy other items at McMaster University in Hamilton.
He said, but the rising cost of food has been a challenge for this, and now financial stress in our current economy means that we are going to eat only cheap hotdogs to people going to costs or going to Ikea to eat without buying anything else, he said.
Cost of livingSmokin deal which is also an entrance to your wallet
If you go for $ 1.50 hot dog and pop combo, but exit with $ 200 in grocery accessories, Well Costco has achieved its goal. Producer Elison Dempster explained why it is so difficult to oppose the “loss leader”.
“Inadvertently, what happens, we have received corporations for deficit in our social programs,” Hugins said.
“It tells you how strange things are. People like, ‘Well, I am very financially distressed, I am going and can get the cheapest food that I can do. A hotdog.”
From a professional point of view, if you are getting too much demand from people that you will never convert to customers, you start losing money, Hugins said. In this way, the decision of the costco is understood, he said.
“From a large perspective, it goes to show you that people have a real challenge to get cheap food.”
Food out like ‘normal people’
About this One of four Canadians According to Toronto’s food insecurity policy research program, in 2024 lived in a house that faced food insecurity.
Meanwhile, the income gap in Canada reached a record high in the first quarter of 2025, according to which Statistics Canada Data released this monthGiven the decline in the homes with the highest income and the decline in the lowest income houses.
Poverty takes a big toll on mental, physical and social health, Ellen Power said, “A professor at the School of Cinsiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University at Kingston, Onts, who researches issues related to class, food and health.”
“Being capable of eating out once like ordinary people is a fire for the lack of ‘common people’, social isolation and social exclusion,” Power said.
“This is important for everyone, but especially for those parents who want their children fit and relate like other children.”
Nevertheless, $ 1.50 hotdog food is not really the answer, said Kelen Visman, the Educational Director of the Master of Food Resource Economics Program at the University of British Columbia.
He said that stable income, access to healthy foods and the cost of housing are some of the main issues to address with food insecurity, he said.
Wiseman also noted that most costco stores are in areas that are not accessible to the city core, in addition to Vancouver, which just makes the option to stop for food “It is not all possible.”
The Canadian family of four will pay more than $ 800 for groceries in 2025, the annual Canada Food Price Report predicts. Meat, vegetables and fruits can grow up to five percent due to a weak dollar and climate change.
Fast-food restaurants move upwards
Hugins said that a lot of fast-food restaurants are focused on going into a differential product rather than reducing prices-Hugins said, Hugins said, taking steps like adding salads and rice bowls to the menu to chase up to high-margin goods.
“They have tried to move the upmarket slightly a bit, which means that we need to return to companies and take those lower mines of the market.”
He said, costco currently appears in that market – if you have membership.
“I don’t know how they are earning money on this thing,” a woman says that a costco comes out of the hotdog Facebook video How to feed a family of six under $ 30.
“I’m going to have a party next week. Is it crazy to ask for 20 to leave the food court for $ 1.50 hotdogs?” Asks someone CostCo subredit.
“The price cannot be defeated and I have never heard of anything bad about them.”
