Costco Switching From Coke To Pepsi At All Its Food Courts

Image via Flickr/ basykes

Costco confirmed that their foodservice locations at 400 U.S. stores will begin switching from Coke to Pepsi in April when the vending contracts expire.

In a few locations Costco has already begun to make the shift, but some are concerned that the change might illicit a negative reaction from consumers. The $1.50 hot dog and 20 oz. Coca-Cola combo has been a staple of Costco from the very beginning, but the price isn’t going to change, only the beverage.

This isn’t the first time that Costco has made a change to its combo, in 2009 the company switched from Hebrew National hot dogs to Kirkland Signature. It also upsized the combo drink from a 12 oz. to a 20 oz.

Alan Bubitz, Costco’s VP of food services, said in a statement, “You’re not going to be able to please everybody… It’s our job to preserve the integrity of the price point.

Bubitz has said that the change has nothing to with the 2009 standoff among Coke and Costco, in which a pricing disagreement resulted in the store refusing to stock Coca-Cola products for a few months.

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Costco sells more than 100 million hot dogs at its foodservice locations – more than four times what Major League Baseball sold at stadiums in 2011.

This could be a great opportunity for Pepsi to grab a larger percentage of the market. Even if the company doesn’t see a profit from this deal, they’re still going to be distributing 31 million more gallons of their beverage in to Costco shopper hands each year.