Costco has reportedly raised the prices of two of its popular food court items.
Business Insider reported that the chicken bake jumped from $2.99 to $3.99 while the price of a soda increased from 59 cents to 69 cents.
Nexstar Media confirmed the price hike.
“It’s sad but true,” an unnamed employee at one store told Nexstar.
The move comes as consumers continue to feel the bite of inflation, with the price of food up 11.9 percent compared to a year ago.
The beloved hot dog and soda combo remains $1.50, a price unchanged since it was first added to the menu in 1985. In May, Costco denied rumors of a price hike on the combo.
“Let me just say the price, when we introduced the hot dog-soda combo in the mid-’80s, was $1.50. The price today is $1.50, and we have no plans to increase the price at this time,” Bob Nelson, Costco’s senior vice president of finance and investor relations, said on an earnings call.
That price is so iconic that CEO Craig Jelinek said company founder Jim Sinegal had an ominous reply when he suggested raising it.
“I said, ‘Jim, we can’t sell this hot dog for a buck fifty. We are losing our rear ends,’” Jelinek told 425 Business in 2018. “And he said, ‘If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.’ That’s all I really needed.”
But Costco has tinkered with the rest of the food court ― and not just with the prices. The $1.50 combo used to offer the option of either a hot dog or a Polish sausage. In 2018, however, the retailer killed the Polish sausage option, setting off a fury on social media.
