101–110 of 135 posts
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How do you get sick eating Panda Express? You can get veggies and noodles in addition to meat there...
I haven't been to one in quite a while but my impression is that there is lots of added sugar in all the sauces they use, in addition to a lot of fried food.
While the article starts with a "we're losing money on these" anecdote, the article does not say that they're losing money in terms of selling the combo below cost. They are selling it for less than the market will bear, but that also applies to the rotisserie chickens ($5/3lb vs grocery stores at 2lb). If it makes you feel better, think of the lost $0.50-$2 as being silently charged to their marketing budget behind…
> but that also applies to the rotisserie chickens ($5/3lb vs grocery stores at 2lb). It's a common myth that rotisserie chickens are cheaper than frozen. If you do the math you'll find that rotisserie chickens are slightly more expensive. See: https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/pywretailchicken.pdf > Rotisserie, Under 2lb, Norwest cost is $5.73/lb on average
One of my gripes about this price point is that they downgraded the buns they use with their hot dogs a few years ago. They used to be these tasty, substantial picnic rolls, but now they're bland and bready. I'd happily pay a few cents more to get the better buns. The real kicker is that if you look at the photo of the hotdogs in their food courts (in SoCal, at least), the photos are of the old, picnic style buns and…
The buns are declining in quality... you have to ask for the free toppings now (like onions and sourkraut which were always kept in the condiments counter until a year or two ago). They are now kept in carefully measured tiny plastic containers completely void from view. And the quality of the "meat" inside has dropped off a cliff in recent years. I don't enjoy them at all anymore, where as I used to go into Costco s…
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Yes. The messaging from Costco is that it's OK to eat this way. It feeds the overall mentality of unhealthy members that this lifestyle goes inline with their over consumption of oversized foods at Costco generally. That there is nothing wrong with grabbing a hotdog, pizza, and soda on your way to pick up your blood pressure "medication" at the pharmacy once you're done stuffing yourself with the food causing your hi…
I suspect going around grumpy at the world thinking a hot dog is "borderline child abuse" gives you more stress-induced health issues than the occasional hot dog would.
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Well, if they were actually losing money on it, it would be a loss leader. But since the actual cost of the dog, bun, cup, soda, paper plate, napkins, condiments, labor and depreciation comes in under $1.50, it's not a loss. It's just money left on the table. Except -- it probably isn't. Costco isn't really a restaurant, it's a store which carries a limited number of high-value items packaged in bulk. The hot dogs (a…
It's absolutely a text book loss leader. A loss leader doesn't need to be sold below cost, only below its minimum profit margin. Leaving money on the table is effectively losing money.
> A loss leader doesn't need to be sold below cost, only below its minimum profit margin.
I think that's an important point, in that you're saying that it's incorrect to consider only the cost of ingredients, rather than the entire cost of delivery (including cooking, labor, etc.).
On the other hand, as the parent pointed out, they're not a restaurant, so their "minimum profit margin" for this particular activity is zero.
As such, they can afford to do it, at whatever volume, indefinitely.
> Leaving money on the table is effectively losing money.
This is the different thing, since it has to do with what the market will bear and not with what it costs them.
The distinction is important because a business can, by this definition, "effectively lose money" while still making a profit. That's good enough for some people.
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Why dont they just remove the sugar from the syrup and offer packets or liquid syrup in containers like at coffee shops?
The sugar is part of the recipe that people associate with the brand. It's why Coca-Cola works so closely with McDonalds to get everything right with their dispensing machines.
> When California recently enacted a soft drink tax that would have raised the consumer's cost, Costco locations in the state switched the combo to include Diet Pepsi. The link supporting this claim refers to changes in San Francisco and Seattle locations as a result of city ordinances, not a statewide change in California.
Why dont they just remove the sugar from the syrup and offer packets or liquid syrup in containers like at coffee shops?
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I suspect going around grumpy at the world thinking a hot dog is "borderline child abuse" gives you more stress-induced health issues than the occasional hot dog would.
The way some parents feed their kids straight into obesity and other diseases is indeed legalized child abuse.
It is not unlike Prime Video and Prime Music (among others). When you run a membership program you create offers that increase the perceived value of the membership and engagement with your ecosystem. Similar is Costco gas, people wouldn’t drive out of their way for the discount if they didn’t already pay the membership. And while you are there you might as well pick up four times the bread you need, more milk than y…
I'm only consuming "far more than I normally would" if I'm routinely throwing away things I bought from CostCo, unconsumed. I don't. Nor does anyone else I know. It's just consumption moved around in time. I know, I know, it may be aesthetically distasteful to you to see people walking out with 36 rolls of toilet paper instead of six. It may be hard not to sneer at the poor people trapped on the capitalist treadmill.…
I suspect this is the real source of the hostility, rather than aesthetics: Costco represents, in general, a larger-land-footprint, car-dependent, suburban (or even semi-rural) lifestyle.
There's likely something of a false dichotomy at work here, as well, in that there could be Costco-compatible dense-city living, but that doesn't seem to be true currently.
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Maybe neither you nor grandparent know about UHT treatment of milk, and how it's common outside America and uncommon inside.
Seems to be at every single grocery store I have ever shopped in for the past at least 5 years. Not every milk is UHT but every grocery store offers it.
But what about Costco (or other bulk-only sources), which is, really, the whole point of the thread (and original comment)?