• Cotsco has kept its iconic hot dog and soda combo at $1.50 for over 40 years, despite inflation.
  • CEO Ron Vachris and company leadership continue to promise the price won’t change.
  • Costco maintains the low cost by producing its own hot dogs to control expenses.

Change is inevitable. Unless, of course, you're talking about Costco’s famous $1.50 hot dog.

For a solid four decades, the warehouse giant has kept the price of its food court hot dog exactly the same. Through the rise of the internet, smartphones and AI, one thing has remained constant: the price of a Costco hot dog (with a 20-ounce soda).

And if Costco president and CEO Ron Vachris gets his way, that price will stay the same forever.

In a recent Instagram post shared on the @Costco account, Vachris walks up to the Costco food court counter to order himself one of those iconic dogs. "$1.50? For this hot dog?" he quips, before taking a bite. "The hot dog price will not change as long as I'm around," he added.

As for how it tastes? Vachris simply said, "amazing," adding, "amazing quality, amazing value." He continued to polish off the dog, and right before taking his last bite, he added, "that's $1.50 well spent."

This isn't the first time Costco has reassured customers that the price of the hot dog combo will not change. During a 2024 quarterly earnings call, Gary Millerchip, the CFO and executive vice president of Costco, addressed ongoing speculation, confirming, "the $1.50 hot dog price is safe."

That's quite the commitment, considering that $1.50 in 1985 would be closer to $4.65 today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation Calculator.

Still, Costco has found ways to keep costs down. As legend has it, former CEO W. Craig Jelinek had toyed with the idea of raising the price of the hot dog, suggesting the idea to co-founder Jim Sinegal. And that, Jelinek shared in 2018, did not go well at all.

“I came to (Sinegal) once, and I said, ‘Jim, we can’t sell this hot dog for a buck fifty. We are losing our rear ends.’ And he said, ‘If you raise the hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.’"

So he did figure it out. Costco ultimately took production in-house. Jelinek helped Costco build its own hot dog manufacturing plant in Los Angeles, and later a second plant in Chicago.

By committing to not raising the price, the execs had to get creative. Now, “we keep it at $1.50 and make enough money to get a fair return,” says Jelinek.

For Costco fans, that unwavering price point is a huge perk. And if that's not a reason to kiss your Costco membership card today, we don't know what is.