I liked the point about “how can we keep the $1.50 price?”
There are things that can be absolute, and then you have to fit in around that. Other things sre seen as variable, so things get stretched.
When I stopped eating animals in 1979, I knew I would never revert. I suppose it helps that I was 19, so I hadn’t done much in the world that I’d miss. But people thinking about giving up meat often wonder if they can live without this or that.
I’ve never had a driver’s license either. So all decisions are made without cars, while I’m sure for some people, they’d take up driving if it became inconvenient to not have a car.
The Costco founder decided they needed the $1.50 hot dog, so all decisions revolve around that.
…is that they actually managed to reduce costs so they aren’t losing money, just not making the profit other places do off of selling them at “market value”.
I could be mistaken though, maybe it really is a loss leader and “fair return” is actually “gets enough people to come shop at CostCo/is a major factor in people deciding to renew $100ish yearly memberships” or something like that.
That makes employees into full time employees which triggers a ton of extra regulations that have enforcement costs in and of themselves and many also have direct costs (like a health care requirement). So I expect that 50 cents to a dollar is a significant underestimate. Or at least maybe since Starbucks does pay insurance (I think after a year’s employment maybe), and while they have high prices they sure aren’t sky high.
Yeah, you can feel the difference if you go to CostCo or Starbucks. Or more obviously compare Starbucks inside a Target store (which gets staffed by Target employees) v. a “real” Starbucks store.
I generally prefer the place with the employees that actually give a crap (which tends to have higher prices, but doesn’t always), but as you say they don’t always exist.
I thought the $1.50 includes a drink, it is the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo. The soda doesn’t add much to the cost, but it does eliminate the possibility of selling $0.20 of sugarbird water and cup for $1 and adding $0.80 profit to the transaction.
Honestly, when they switched from the Hebrew National franks (which are pretty damn tasty, and the only name brand that I buy) to their own Kirkland dogs, I believe the quality went up slightly, and remains consistently high.
“Sh*tty Kirkland Meeseeks boxes” is a baseless slander.
Psst … wrap them individually in the Costco cling wrap that comes in the giant double roll pack (I know, plastic wrap = evil, but these are hard times) and freeze them. Thaw and enjoy at your leisure.
Scandinavians are crazy for hotdogs. They might have stolen the idea for the pricing structure from Costco but nothing would be more natural for a Swede thinking about adding a quick warm food option to their store than hotdogs.
