Photo: Archive Photos
Costco's popular $1.50 hot dog and soda combo would cost you $4.55 if inflation was taken into consideration, according to the New York Post.
The newspaper used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ official inflation calculator to estimate the nearly three-times increase with adjusted inflation. The meal has, however, never adjusted its price, remaining $1.50 throughout the history of the retailer's existence.
Last year, newly appointed CFO Gary Millerchip confirmed that the price would remain moving forward via CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn.
"Costco’s new finance chief today: 'I also want to confirm the $1.50 hot dog price is safe,'" Meyersohn wrote on his X account.
Costco has offered the quarter pound all beef hot dog and soda combo at the same price since 1985 in adherence with a pledge made by its founders. Then-CEO Craig Jelinek told Mental Floss in 2018 that since-retired former CEO and co-founder Jim Sinegal threatened to kill him if he ever changed the hot dog combo price.
“If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you,” Sinegal said, according to Jelinek. “Figure it out.”
Rumors about the price of the hot dog combo circulated when former CFO Richard Galanti stepped down in March after several decades with the company. Costco, which has a $60 annual membership fee, also focused on cracking down on non-members dining at its food court beginning last April.
The big-box warehouse club has 871 stores across the United States and Puerto Rico and is estimated to make more than $4 billion annually through membership fees.