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About

The Costco Hot Dog refers to the hot dog served at the food courts in Costco Wholesale stores in the United States, costing $1.50 with a drink combo. The Costco hot dog gained meme attention throughout the 2010s and 2020s, mostly related to its reliable price and reliable taste, portrayed in memes that humorously idolized it for both reasons. Discourse has surfaced multiple times about whether the price of the Costco hot dog will rise. Most notably, Costoc's co-founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal was once quoted saying, "If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you."

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History

The Costco hot dog combo was released in 1984.[1] According to Reader's Digest, "Hebrew National, the store’s hot dog supplier at the time, set up a cart outside a San Diego warehouse. Its initial success spurred Costco’s entire food court business, but the combo price hasn’t changed in over 30 years."[1] In 2009, Cosco replaced the hot dogs with their own Kirkland brand.[1]

In 2022, Costco's Chief Financial Officer Richard Galant stated that the price of the hot dog and soda combo would remain the same "forever."[2]

Online Presence

Starting in 2014, viral posts about the Costco hot dog and its price surfaced on social media. For instance, on January 22nd, 2014, the X[3] account @UberFacts tweeted about how the "hot dog/drink combo" had never changed its price since its start, gaining roughly 3,400 likes in a year.

One of the first known memetic references to the Costco hot dog was a meme following the Because Your Mother Loves Roses template (shown below, left). Currently, its first known upload was on the Facebook[8] page AllHitsB93 on July 16th, 2018, gaining over 150 reactions in six years.

On February 27th, 2019, Twitter / X[4] user @SarahBaska shared a tweet reading, "i could deep throat a costco hot dog right now," gaining over 7,000 likes in five years (shown below, right).

On September 20th, 2020, X[5] user @weirdcities tweeted screenshots from a 2018 Mental Floss[6] article, including a quote from Costco's co-founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal, "If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you… Figure it out." @weirdcities added a caption, "absolutely losing my mind over this," gaining over 9,500 likes in a day (shown below, left).

@weirdcities' tweet gained several reposts on social media platforms like iFunny.[7] Going into the 2020s, the quote from Sinegal was referenced by creators, such as in a meme shared by Redditor muhdzofmadness02 to /r/memes [9] on April 23rd, 2022, gaining over 15,000 upvotes in two years (shown below, right).

Memes about the Costco hot dog continued into the 2020s, evident in a tweet shared by X[10] user @biggersocks on February 1st, 2024, reading, "imagine eating a Costco hotdog here," earning over 114,000 likes in one week (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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