A New Dessert May Be Coming to Costco Food Courts — and Members Already Hate It

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Costco’s new food court offering may be a giant letdown. Read on to learn more. 

For many people, a trip to the Costco food court is a big part of the shopping experience. And just as Costco’s aisles are commonly filled with competitively priced items, so too does its food court tend to offer a host of bargains, like the famed $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.

But at first glance, Costco’s latest food court offering seems anything but cost-effective. And whether it will be worth the price point is yet to be determined.

A new cookie is coming to Costco’s food court

A Costco food court in Springfield, Virginia recently began advertising a new double chocolate chunk cookie on its menu. The item was marked as out of stock, but its cost was listed at $2.49. And that, frankly, seems to be surprising a lot of fans.

Several Reddit users expressed their dissatisfaction with Costco’s decision to add such a pricey item to its food court menu. One user even brought up the fact that a roast beef sandwich and cookie combo at the food court would cost a whopping $12.49 based on the sandwich’s $10 price point. That’s hardly a cheap meal, and it seems off-brand for Costco.

Should you try the new food court cookie?

Costco Insider reports the new food court cookie will contain 850 calories. This tells us that we’re talking about a pretty large dessert. It will reportedly also be served warm and may replace the long-standing food court churro.

To be absolutely clear, Costco itself has not verified any of this information, so all of it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s also unclear how quickly this new cookie offering will roll out to Costco locations across the country. But if you’re wondering whether you should give the new food court cookie a try, the answer is, it depends.

On the one hand, $2.49 doesn’t seem like a bargain when you can purchase a 24-pack of Costco’s chocolate chip cookies from its bakery for a lot less.

The price of a 24-count for two-day delivery is $11.69, but in-store prices are usually much cheaper. Depending on your Costco location, it may be possible to score 24 cookies for more like $10.

The standard Costco bakery chocolate chip cookies contain 210 calories per serving. Assuming a single cookie constitutes a serving (since the standard cookies are pretty large in their own right), that makes the total caloric value of a 24-pack 5,040.

If the above-referenced Costco Insider information is true, and each food court cookie contains 850 calories, it means that a 24-pack of standard cookies is equivalent to about six food court cookies. But in that case, you’re looking at spending about $15 on six food court cookies instead of $11.69 or less for the standard bakery equivalent. So that reads like not such a great deal.

However, you may not always want 24 cookies. Sometimes, you want a single warm, giant-sized cookie to fill your belly after a busy afternoon of grocery shopping that’s forced you to skip lunch. So it’s also easy enough to make the argument that the $2.49 price point (which, to be clear, has been verified based on an actual food court photo) is worth it.

Remember, too, that any time you buy prepared food, you’re paying a premium for the convenience. When you grab fast food on the way from work, which is pretty much as inexpensive as prepared food gets, you’re still generally paying more than you would to buy groceries and make your own burger and fries.

But if your personal finances are in a good place, then it’s sometimes OK to pay extra for the sake of convenience. So if the new chocolate chip cookie hits your Costco food court, go ahead and give it a try if it tempts you. You may, however, want to make plans to share it with a friend if it ends up being anywhere close to its purported size.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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