The Decline of the Costco Food Court

The Costco food court was one of my favorite places to eat as a kid. I would go there nearly every week with my Dad. A slice of pepperoni pizza and a berry smoothie was my go-to. Sometimes I would switch it up with a polish dog or combo pizza. Maybe throw in a churro or go with the very berry sundae instead of the smoothie.

That was a long time ago.

Today, the Costco food court is a shell of its former self. Many beloved items have been wrongfully taken from us. Year after year they remove great items that people loved. Teasing us with good products, getting people to fall in love with them, just to rip them away a few years later.

  • 2017
    • Removed the berry smoothie, replaced with fruit smoothie
  • 2018
    • Removed the polish dog
  • 2020
    • Removed the combo pizza
  • 2023
    • Removed the fruit smoothie, replaced with mango smoothie
    • Removed the very berry sundae (frozen yogurt), replaced with ice cream sundae

*Note that this timeline may not be accurate for every store, as they don’t do the same things at the same time for every location.

What have they done to get people EXCITED about going to their store? What do I have to look forward to after I check out? Mediocre smoothies and inferior versions of items I used to love?? All I get now is sadness thinking about how far they have fallen. The food court went from a mandatory stop at the end of a shopping trip to a fleeting thought, something maybe I would stop at if the line wasn’t too long.

The OG berry smoothie was simply the best smoothie Costco has ever offered. It tasted the best, it was easy to drink, it was fast to make, and it was also the cheapest at $1.45. The next iteration, the fruit smoothie, still tasted really good. I personally didn’t like it quite as much as the berry smoothie but I would still regularly get them. It left you feeling more full afterwards. The massive downside with this change was the price increase. It more than doubled: from $1.45 to $2.99. On top of that, the fruit smoothie was significantly more effort for the employees to make. With the berry smoothie, they just had to pull a lever from the dispensing machine. With the fruit smoothie they had to scoop the fruit into the cup, pour in some frozen mixture, and then blend it together. It was quite a task. More time preparing the orders means more time waiting in line and waiting for your order to be completed. Also, they often weren’t blended very well and as a result it would be difficult to drink because too much ice would get stuck in the lid hole. Overall, a downgrade.

This leads me to the smoothie of today, the mango smoothie. I don’t have a lot to say about this one, it just doesn’t taste very good. I don’t see myself ordering one again. Also, it comes in at 360 calories. Over 100 more calories than the fruit smoothie at 220 and the berry smoothie at 240.

On top of that, this year we also lost the very berry sundae. It was replaced by the new ice cream sundae. Just like with the replacement smoothie, it comes with a price increase. It jumped from $1.65 to $2.49. It also has over 200 more calories than the very berry sundae, presumably because of the change from frozen yogurt to ice cream. It went from 440 to somewhere between 650-690 (there are multiple flavors and I’m not sure where the strawberry falls into that range.) As if to spite me one more time, I went to Costco specifically to get a strawberry ice cream sundae so I could have an opinion on the taste before writing this but ALL of the sundaes were out of stock.

One bright spot, fast ordering with the new tablets. Just a few button presses and tap your card/phone and boom order is placed. The ‘Self-serve kiosk’ was added in 2018 and it may be the only improvement to the food court in the last decade.

The acai bowl came and went. I liked it. Introduced in 2018, it was swiftly discontinued in 2020. At 5$ it was a bit expensive for the food court, but was still a very good deal compared to other places. It was only 330 calories as well. But as compensation they now sell some in bulk in the frozen section, which I appreciate. It’s one of my favorite breakfast options and now it's convenient to have them available at home.

At least the price of the pizza has stayed the same, although it came at the cost of losing the combo. $1.99/slice and $9.95 for a whole pizza is a great deal. We still have the hotdog + drink combo for $1.50 (thank you Jim Sinegal) which will forever be a fan favorite. But the polish dog was so much better. There was NEVER a time where I would pick the hot dog over the polish dog.

Costco, PLEASE bring these beloved items and restore the food court to its former glory

references:
https://haveyourselfatime.com/costcos-berry-smoothie/
https://www.today.com/food/costco-co-founder-reportedly-told-ceo-he-d-kill-him-t192310
https://www.costcohotdog.com/the-costco-food-court-menu/
https://twitter.com/theduskykitchen/status/1639417659765960704
https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Costco-Acai-Bowls-44848987
https://costcoconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2017/07/costco-berry-smoothie-v-new-fruit.html
https://twitter.com/CostConnoisseur/status/1020881889874403328