Why Costco Quietly Removed Cheeseburgers From Its Food Courts

Costco isn't beloved just because of its great deals on massive containers of toilet paper, oil, spices, and meat; it's beloved because of its food courts, which are, sadly, a members-only Costco perk as of April 2024. Known mostly for its hot dogs and pizzas, Costco briefly sold cheeseburgers at its food courts too. In 2017, Costco released cheeseburgers at about a dozen of its locations, only to have them disappear by 2020. The funny thing is, we don't actually know why. Costco has never officially confirmed its reasons. 

We can rule out the pandemic as the cause, as the burgers were pulled in March before Covid-19 lockdowns really went into effect. It seems the burgers — which featured an organic patty, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and special sauce — were not well received. It's not hard to find negative reviews of the simple burgers on Reddit, with some commenters likening them to bad cafeteria food. Others called them dry and said they were obviously steamed — which makes sense as Costco food courts don't have grills. The burgers were probably also too expensive to make, and removing them from the menu seemed to have been a move towards streamlining. Between lackluster reviews and a menu full of Costco food court items we'll always order, it's safe to say we probably won't see that burger again anytime soon.

We've made the case before that Costco's food court never has to change. The hot dogs alone could probably draw crowds for years to come, as they're tasty, cheap, and surprisingly high quality. But not all new items are bad — we're in love with Costco's new strawberry-banana fruit smoothie. Costco is also adding its turkey provolone sandwiches back to the menu over the course of 2025, which were quite popular and discontinued during the pandemic. While not technically totally novel, it's arguably a new item if it's making a return! While some Costco food court goers are Pepsi fans, plenty of people are welcoming the news that the store is switching back to Coca-Cola for its food court soda offerings. 

It's not that new menu items are always going to be bad; it just seems that the Costco burger wasn't planned out well. If it does want to bring back burgers, Costco would do well to install real grills in its food courts so that the burgers can be made fresh, which might have been the only thing holding Costco back from offering a truly delicious burger.