Costco doesn't enjoy the success that it does because of poor marketing strategy. That dog combo (also the pizza and those sandwiches dripping grease) may be unhealthy but they're huge, tasty, ridiculously cheap, and very convenient. Same goes for those roast chickens--maybe not as unhealthy as the items at the chow line windows but twice as big as the ones Sam's sells and for less than $5 we can get two meals out of one of the things. Obviously they can't be making money on the stuff but it IS a good way to attract and keep customers.
A related question...can anyone explain the rationale behind offering for example a $100 gift card for $75? I don't know if Costco does that here but up in Minnesota it was a Christmas season thing, mainly cards for restaurants. I don't know if they do that here or not. What would prevent a customer from buying up maybe ten of those things for his favorite restaurants and then enjoying 25% off all his meals at those restaurants for as long as the cards last? A hot dog or a chicken is one thing. $750 spent for $1,000 worth of meals is something else entirely.
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