What Happened To Costco's Cheeseburger?

While the food court is one of the many benefits Costco shoppers can look forward to (a list that also includes discounted gift cards and plentiful free samples), not every menu item achieves the iconic status of the chain's beloved hot dog. In 2017, Costco debuted an organic cheeseburger at select locations, including five locations in California (Folsom, Livermore, Corona, Pacoima, and Lakewood); Superior, Colorado; Brentwood, Tennessee; Raleigh, North Carolina; Duluth, Georgia; and Seattle, Washington. In addition to cheddar cheese, the ⅓-pound burger (which was designated as a test item in the chain's food courts where it appeared) also featured a sauce with similarities to Thousand Island dressing, as well as lettuce and tomatoes. 

Retailing for $5, the food court item seemed to be a good buy, at least in theory. However, a Seattle-based location posted a notice in 2020 stating that the cheeseburger would be pulled from the menu once its food court remodel was complete, which indicates that this test item did not live up to Costco's expectations. Along with the roast beef sandwich and açai bowls, the cheeseburger was included in our collection of Costco food court items that ended up being total flops.

Costco has never explicitly stated why it eliminated the cheeseburger from food court menus, but the timing of the elimination could offer insight. The chain yanked the menu item from Seattle food courts in 2020, so the decision may have been influenced by pandemic effects. Costo eliminated a few other food court items around this time, including the churro and chicken Caesar salad, and lots of other dining establishments tweaked their menus during the pandemic due to supply chain snafus and lack of patrons. It's also possible that the item simply didn't sell as expected, or was too costly to justify in light of its low sales, and it's common practice in commerce to eliminate products and items that lead to financial deficits. 

While we may never know the true reason why Costco eliminated its cheeseburger, it's worth mentioning that some shoppers found fault with certain aspects of the burger. On Reddit, a Costco fan stated, "It was pretty meh the one time I had it. The most notable thing I remember was that the cheese wasn't melted, which was a pretty big deal breaker for me." Additionally, there were some initial comparisons between the Costco cheeseburger and Shake Shack fare, and some found these comparisons to be pretty spurious upon sampling the Costco burger. While the cheeseburger is no more, customers can take a bit of solace in Costco's highly delicious food court pizza, which at least partially owes its great taste to the chain's efficient, robot-assisted process for making pies.