Costco Has Officially Discontinued This Popular Food Court Item, and Fans Say It's 'Excruciatingly Heartbreaking'

When it comes to Costco’s food court, it doesn’t take much to get fans worked up into a frenzy. The beloved cafeteria-style eatery has garnered itself a swath of dedicated customers that spans across the entire planet. No group is more vocal than this loyal bunch and no menu change ever goes unnoticed.

As we inch our way into the new year, fans of Costco’s food court are in for yet another unexpected surprise. In a decision that has left countless fans disappointed, Costco has decided to remove the $1.25 fries option from the food court menu entirely. The decision comes at a time when the popular bulk retailer identified certain items as being “loss leaders,” which includes the $5 rotisserie chicken, the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo (which we hope never goes anywhere) and now, the fries.

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While menu options like the hot dog and soda combo, double chocolate chunk cookie and the chicken bake generally get a lot of the attention online, the food court fries—without a doubt—had a major following. Online, news of the fry removal has been spreading like wildfire, with some fans taking to Reddit to communicate their woe’s.

“My local Costco used to sell the best fries I've ever had and stopped,” one Redditor titled a post shared to the Costco subreddit. “I would go in and get 2-4 orders of fries whenever I went,” they continued. “To this day I've still never had fries that were better or even as good, and it was only $1.25 for A LOT of fries.”

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The author of the Reddit post went on to explain that they noticed their local Costco food court stopped selling the fries during the pandemic and they never came back. “I miss them,” they said.

Costco’s food court fries were never available nationwide, however, some customers in East Coast states such as Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey are likely to feel the brunt of the unexpected removal. Speculation online suggests that Costco decided to prioritize pizza moving forward, as one Redditor added their thoughts on the matter.

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“A number of locations had them until a few years ago. I wholeheartedly agree they were some good fries.” The commenter goes on to say that another Redditor who works at Costco mentioned getting rid of the fries because the fryers were “interfering with the pizza ovens.”

At this point, all we have is speculation, as Costco seems to always have a plan in place for any sort of unexpected menu change. We can see maintenance on the fryers being a major pain in the butt, especially considering how busy some of these food court locations tend to get on any given day of the week. And while it is disappointing to see the fries go, we should all be able to agree that if Costco ever changes the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, it will be the official signal of the end of an era.

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