At 759 outlets and growing, the whole world already knows that Costco is all about buying
in bulk and saving big. Everyone in the know takes advantage by getting his or her Costco
card. And just like Ikea, this wholesale retail chain also maintains an in-store
or next-to-store fast food court, designed to hold their customers hostage after walking
five miles up and down the aisles, hungry, spent, and exhausted. So with that in mind,
let’s look at ten secrets you didn’t know about Coctco’s food court.
Food Court Access for Non-Costco Members
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there's a way to get inside the Costco fast food court for
non members. But then it's limited edition, so listen closely. Only Costco stores with
fast food courts situated on the outside are open to outsiders. And more often than not,
these are the Costco outlets that are located in warmer countries. There's no need to be
a Costco member. You don't have to pay $60 for a one-year membership to get inside the
fast food court. Just go on in and enjoy. Costco is found in the US, Canada, Mexico,
United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Iceland, and Spain. Find the warm
countries from this list and spin a win. Or, you may want to talk the Costco security guard
into letting you in but that will definitely require a lot of convincing power. Celebrity
power might work, too. If you're a Hollywood A-lister however, you can probably afford
to pay for a Costco membership card.
Whole Cooked Chicken At Costco
Nobody sells a $5 whole cooked chicken anymore except Costco That's right! Not even Wal-Mart,
whose whole priced chickens are sold at $6 each. And the going rate for the same item
at the big chain grocery stores: almost $8 bucks. So you would be crazy not to jump on
a three-pounder-or-over Costco rotisserie chicken at $4.99, which has been a deep price
freeze for decades. And if you think Costco’s losing money to the tune, you guessed right!
They’re losing about $40 million bucks a year for selling on average 157,000 big birds
for the same period. So why the great sacrifice? The answer is the customer patronage that
Costco is getting from all its loyal patrons. For after walking all those long aisles, it
feels like a no-brainer to bring home one fat, already cooked chicken with you. Are
you a bachelor who can finish one whole chicken before the end of a Star Trek TV episode on
your beat-up couch? Or are you a soccer mom with three or more other hungry mouths to
feed? It's all good. You can buy two Costco rotisserie chickens without hurting your bachelor
or family budget. Listen: don't make the mistake of buying whole chickens from the
nearest grocery store. This is the easiest way to max up your credit card debt!
The Healthiest Processed Food?
The great Costco, that bulk retail store that Price Club built in 1976 will never be beat,
not even when it comes to your health. In one episode of the Dr. Oz Show, the great
doctor decided to train his investigative journalism guns on the Costco rotisserie chicken.
And guess what, the big bird emerges as the winner. The verdict: It's simply the healthiest
processed food out there, despite all its imperfections. Food journalist Mark Schatzker
tried to drill holes in the great Oprah doctor's testimony--or was it the other way around?
At the end of the Costco cooked chicken TV segment, however, even Mark had this to say.
The cooked chicken is still fairly healthy. In fact, Mark suggests that you could eat
your Costco cooked chicken with the skin on. My mom and Dr. Oz would love to frown on this
practice. But the truth is, in the light of recent research, the fats found on chicken
skin are actually mono and poly unsaturated fats. Now if my gym instructor was right,
these are the healthy fats we should be keeping in our bodies. Still, the fact remains that
Costco rotisserie chicken is classified as processed food. For one, it's definitely not
organic. Here's what the $5 wonder has that makes it definitely processed, according to
Mark: MSG, yeast extract, sodium tripolyphospate, brown sugar and natural flavorings. Nevertheless,
if you're a chicken lover, you can't go wrong with Costco rotisserie chicken. It's simply
the best as well as the cheapest out there. Think about it this way. Why would you buy
a KFC 16-piece fried chicken bundle for $24.99 when you can get a whole Costco chicken for
$5 bucks.
Costco Food Court Food Is Actually Delicious
Let's admit it, those drab, enlarged pictures with the price tag that are plastered on the
walls of the average Costco food court item can easily steal your appetite. But bear in
mind, the prices of all those food items are simply out of this world. And come to think
of it, they haven't changed for years! Take it from Joe Avella, a Business Insider straight
out of Brooklyn. Brooklyn definitely has a lot of well-hidden fast food gems according
to the late Anthony Burdain of CNN's Parts Unknown. But even in this day of blatant
bulk buying among Costo aficionados, the saving secrets have remained secrets all these decades.
Consider, for instance, what a measly $12.05 buys you, tax-included, as of 2016. At this
price tab, you get the following: A soft drink, hot dog, barbecue beef brisket sandwich,
and a churro for dessert. This package of freshly cooked goodies are certainly so much
more than the average Big Mac meal. With the sheer size of the sandwich and the hot dog,
you're getting two Big Macs. The taste of the the sandwich alone is to die for with
all its juicy goodness totally unknown in the McDonald's dehydrated fast food cuisine
world.
Costco's Food Court Doesn't Have A Deep Fryer
This being the case, expect no French fries in these parts. If you're a hater for fries,
I assume there’s at least two of you out there, this is great news for you. If not,
consider yourselves warned. At any rate, you must know by now that deep frying only adds
more unhealthy fats to the average fast food diet. And if you don't believe this, just
consider how a company like McDonald's got rid of deep-frying its apple pies. With this
in mind, Costco's fast food trajectory is certainly going in the right direction. And
now it's time for some calorie counting. A slice of Costco food court pizza has 700 calories
while the company's famed chicken bakes average 770 a piece on the calorie Richter scale. The
slice of Costco pizza will only cost you $2 bucks, while the chicken bake is $3 bucks.
So if you're really strapped for cash and need to survive on a shoestring budget, the
Costco fast food court is definitely the way to go. Nobody gives out such ridiculously
low fast food prices anymore, not even with the McPick 2 for $5 bucks menu. The Costco
chicken bake alone would be enough to surpass the filling level of the McPick, so that means
you've already saved yourself $2 bucks right there. For a family of three or four, the
full Costco 16-inch pizza will only cost you $10. Still hungry? Well you can pull out
the Costco rotisserie chicken from the fridge. And that one only cost you a measly $5 bucks,
and that's a pretty big chicken.
Costco's Hot Dog and Pop Drink Combo
As you can see, there's still a way to beat the cash registers when you got your hunger
pangs going, or the whole family for that matter. So here's wishing that there would
be more Costco outlets opening soon. The last time I checked, there's an even better alternative
to the big time bulk retailer's $60 membership offer. It's called an executive membership
and at $120 per member, you get 2% reward on your purchases, among other perks. If you
can afford to shell out $120 per year, you should be good to go, survival wise. For best
results, ask your wifey or hubby to split the cost with you. After all, everybody in
the house benefits from all the benefits that Costco brings. When you can bring down the
cost of food, you'll have more funds for rent, utilities or the average mortgage. And by
the way, when Costco serves hot dogs, it means the jumbo one, not the teeny weeny type. You
can also opt for the Polish sausage with no price difference. Get as many condiments especially
pickles from the designated counter to sweeten the deal. Nobody will bother you anyway, not
even the security guard.
Fast Food on a Deep Price Freeze
Remember, no other fast food outlet including McDonald's can offer you better value, these
days. The Big Macs have shrunk and the same goes for the A&W buddy burgers. But by all
indications, the prices for virtually all goodies at the Costco fast food court will
stay the same for many more years to come. With Virgin Galactic, Amazon's Blue Origin, and
SpaceX's space programs reportedly going on a high-flying spree in the next few years,
let's hope and pray that Costco will think of having outlets on the moon and on Mars.
After all, deep space must be better off with the Costco flagship flying in all directions. When
you’re in a position to freeze fast food prices for this long, Costco can hold the
key to space exploration without starving to death. The only real challenges are how
to preserve and how to further shrink the size of fast food. That last one should be
easy.
Costco Has a Robot
The Costco kitchen robot, which, surprisingly, doesn't have a name yet, is the big secret
behind the splendid taste of every Costco pizza. Whether pepperoni, cheese or both,
artificial intelligence or AI is already behind the precise mixture of ingredients in the
making of one of the Costco food court's most popular products. The use of robots, apparently,
is a much better alternative to the French sous vide method. It avoids the use of plastic
bags to heat up the food item at a precise temperature. Instead, it takes robotic arms
to sprinkle the precise combination of sauces and spices. You might not recognize it, but
for sure, the AI technology ensures that every Costco pizza lives up to exacting standards.
Organic Secrets of Costco Fast Food
The retail warehouse club that was the first to realize sales of $3 billion in less than
six years has a lot of organic stuff in its store shelves. But the big question looming
in the minds of the organic conscious public is whether the Costco rotisserie chicken is
organic or not. Mark Schatzker categorizes the whole cooked chickens as non-pastured
organic chickens. However, this information has attracted a sea of doubting Thomases from
the health-conscious fried chicken lovers out there. Nevertheless, the law says that
no chickens sold in the United States are injected with hormones or antibiotics. So
you be the judge. If you ask me, considering that the retail giant isn't harboring any
price increase thoughts? Boy, we all should be taking advantage. Just consider inflation
and your growing family. How can you afford to feed your loved ones and their frenzy for
good old chicken unless you rely on a firm that can manage to keep food prices down for
many more years to come? Some might say that with the money that Costco is earning from
its over 90 million loyal members, keeping fast food prices down is just a drop in the
bucket. Still, any retailer that knows how to keep food prices low deserves a pat on
the back. Rather than scrounging dollar stores for the cheapest canned goods such as chicken
flakes, cooked ham, and ready-to-eat bacon, you're much better off health wise going to
Costco. At least, you can get the freshly cooked food items that can satisfy your hunger
after shopping till you drop. Undercover animal welfare activists are always watching out
for any foul play in Costco's chicken farms in Nebraska.
Ikea vs. Costco: Who's Winning?
Health wise, there's no question that the Ikea food court sports healthier fast food
menus. Some people even argue that the less greasy looking items over at Ikea are actually
more packed with nutrients. For $10 bucks, you can get a very satisfying meal at the
beloved Swedish furniture and home appliance retailer. And according to my friend who
owns a Costco card, ten bucks is enough to satiate the gigantic hunger of a couple. If
you prefer meatballs over chicken, Ikea wins. Otherwise, there's a reason why Costco is
willing to lose millions to satisfy its teeming masses of hungry shop-till-you-drop loyalists.
Still, a $1.50 hot dog and soda drink is too hard to pass up when you're, say, a struggling
student trying to control your loans. And a Costco chicken bake filled with choice chicken
breast cuts, cheese, and Caesar salad for the measly price of three bucks? Who can resist
that? And now that Costco has a total of 759 outlets worldwide, the company's role in the
food chain just can’t be denied. Trust me, if you can afford a Costco card, you can
be well-fed for life. So guess what? The real winners are you and me.
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