- Costco Wholesale Corp., like most businesses, had to make alterations to in-store operations over the past few months due to the coronavirus.
- The beloved wholesale brick-and-mortar store announced reopening its food courts to entice shoppers to start visiting again following the COVID-19 outbreak.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic—not to mention the fears surrounding it—there’s a pretty good chance you’ve been putting your Costco runs on the back burner until the virus starts to let up, and you’re not alone.
On Costco’s third-quarter earnings call, which took place on Thursday, May 28, CFO Richard Galanti announced that in-person traffic was down 2 percent in the United States. However, gas sales (which don’t require close encounters with other shoppers) were up.
Nevertheless, the company is doing what it can to bring shoppers back into stores. And, knowing just how much we all love their cheap and delicious hot dogs, that’s where they’re starting their efforts.
Costco began re-opening its food courts on April 30, operating at about 20 percent in the U.S.. On Thursday’s call, Richard announced that shoppers can expect almost all food courts to be up and running by mid-June. Though, keep in mind, the menus are and will continue to be limited until the cloud of COVID-19 fully lifts.
It gets better. In addition to ensuring access to fro-yo and foot-longs, Costco is also starting to bring back its famous food samples that make the warehouse shopping experience what it is. Richard said that it will be a slow roll-out—and it won’t be as we remember it (picking samples up with our fingers)—but it will begin in mid-June as well.
Hey, even if it’s not the full Costco experience that we once knew and loved, we’ll take it.
Rebecca Ravee Norris is a freelance writer with a decade's worth of lifestyle media experience. Based out of the Washington metropolitan area, she covers everything from beauty and wellness to style and celebrity news. She is a graduate of George Mason University and has a B.A. in Media: Production, Consumption, and Critique, along with a minor in Electronic Journalism. When she's not writing, she can be found with her beloved Jack-Chi, Cash, working through reps at the gym, dreaming up her next home decor project, testing a new recipe, getting lost in the pages of a book, or catching up on her favorite shows.
