Cycle 15 - Item 147 31 (Fri) May 2024 Hotdog 2.5 at Costco -Yangjae, Seocho, Seoul, Republic of Korea- At long last, I bit the bullet and renewed my Costco membership. Since our return from Manila, I've been to Costco twice, with my mother, the S…
At long last, I bit the bullet and renewed my Costco membership. Since our return from Manila, I've been to Costco twice, with my mother, the Sangbong branch. My last recorded visit to the original store in Yangjae - as far as I'm aware, it was at the time the only store, now 18 locations across Korea - was in June 2013 (see generally 4.157 Rotisserie Chicken Quarters) - in fact, during the renewal process, the staffer couldn't find a purchase on my card within the past 10 years. So, here we go again.
Still 2,000 won.
Apparently, the pricing of the Costco hotdog is a thing. In the US, it was introduced in 1984 at the price of $1.50, which remains the price 40 years later, much to the delight of customers and the bewilderment of business community - even sold at a loss, the price is kept low as a symbolic gesture. To match inflation, the item should cost $4.40 in 2024. The hotdog was featured once previously on GMTD, 12 years ago in Cycle 3 (see generally 3.083 Hotdog), when the price was 2,000 won, as it is today - with inflation, at the current exchange rate, the price would be around 6,000 won. Cost-saving might explain why the sausage went from beef to pork, at least in Korea (every country uses a different sausage).
According to sources reference on Wikipedia, Costco switched from (costlier) Coca-Cola to (cheaper) Pepsi partly to compensate from the losses on the hotdog.
In the past, minced onions and pickled relish were provided in self-serve free-for-all dispensers, alongside ketchup and mustard, allowing customers to make piles of that god awful "banchan" (see generally 2.252 Calzone):
[T]he loyal patrons of Costco Korea have created their own unique side dish to accompany ... whatever they've purchased to eat at the food court. Concocted on the spot from the complimentary condiments available, it's nothing more than ketchup, mustard, chopped onions, and sweet pickle relish mixed together into a reddish-yellowish-whitish-greenish mash. They do this on a separate plate, requested for this very purpose, necessary because they make so much of it ... most of which they'll throw away. Not only does it taste vile and look disgusting, it's also wasteful. Awful. 9 of 10 tables feature this monstrosity. Costco Korea probably goes through more ketchup, mustard, onions, and relish than all the other Costcos throughout the world combined.
They've since switched to single serving portions of onions and relish, provided only with hotdogs, certainly as a cost-saving measure.
I was relieved not to see a single customer this time making the monstrosity.
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