COSTCO is now serving Coca-Cola across all of its food courts in the US.
After more than a decade, the warehouse retailer has swapped out Pepsi for Coke, a move that sparked mixed reactions online.
Costco has officially restored Coca-Cola to all of its food courts[/caption]
Costco announced the change back in January, and it had fans divided even back then, as many asked for the decision to be reversed.
The CEO of Costco, Ron Vachris, confirmed in January that the chain would be making the change this year.
He said in a company statement: “This summer we will be converting our food court fountain business back over to Coca-Cola.”
Costco has given shoppers a picture of what the new Coca-Cola team-up looks like, with an image of the new classic Costco Hot Dog with Soda meal for $1.50, featuring the drink.
In a social media post, the company also confirmed that Coca-Cola has been made available in every Costco location.
But in the comments on Facebook, many shoppers asked for different drinks to be made available instead.
SODA SWAP HISTORY
Costco has a long history of swapping the sodas it uses in its food courts in order to cut costs.
In 2009, Costco had a spat with Coca-Cola over pricing issues, which resulted in the company ousting the drink from its warehouses.
This only lasted for a month before a deal was met, however.
Then, in 2013, a deal was reached with Pepsi to replace Coca-Cola in the food courts.
This happened because Costco failed to negotiate lower costs with Coke.
Costco has long fought to keep its prices low so it can maintain some of its most notable combo meals, including the Hot Dog with Soda.
The chain’s latest move does benefit the market leader in the soda industry.
Coca-Cola has a commanding hold of the market with a roughly 19.18% share.
Costco classic food court items
- Hot Dog with Soda – $1.50
- Pepperoni or Cheese Pizza slice – $1.99
- Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad – $6.99
- Turkey and Swiss Sandwich – $6.99
- Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie – $2.49
Pepsi lags behind Coca-Cola with an 8.31% market share.
MENU CHANGE
Costco’s food court menu is often changing without shoppers knowing beforehand.
This could be for many reasons, like if the company doesn’t deem it to be popular enough to keep serving it.
But this also means that shoppers can be surprised with additions to the food court they had asked for.
In July, Costco brought back the Combo Calzone for $6.99 to food courts across the US.
Fans had been begging Costco for this since March, and they were overjoyed when it finally happened.
Costco has a long history of swapping the sodas it uses in its food courts to cut costs[/caption]
