Costco Food Court Fans Celebrate Return of Fan Favorite Item
Every time I walk into a Costco food court, memories from childhood flood in. The majority of them involve scarfing down the warehouse’s famously cheap $1.50 hot dog and soft drink combos. There was no place my late father would rather dine than at Costco, where he would proudly carry his super-sized kosher dog (back then it was Hebrew National) over to the condiment table and crank out an obscene amount of diced onions from the beloved onion chopper before dousing it with ketchup and mustard. During the pandemic, when life as we know it changed, the hand-cranked onion dispenser disappeared, as did the self-serve condiment station in general. The ketchup and mustard returned. However, onions have been a different story. While little cups of diced onions have made periodic appearances at some warehouses, and customers have reported onion machines at select stores, many haven’t seen the hot dog accoutrement at their store in years – until now.
“There were onions at the food court tonight!” one Costco shopper shared on Reddit, alongside a photo of their onioned and relished up hot dog. “I haven’t seen onions since before the pandemic!”
Some people commented that they have been around for awhile, but you just have to ask for them. Other store apparently have the little containers out and are served “grab and go style.”
“At my store, the onions are on the counter where you pick up your food. It’s in little sauce cups with lids,” one person writes.
However, many complain that they aren’t available often. “I see it once every 100 days or so. It’s a very rare event but still possible!” one says. “Ours is so hit or miss. I feel like I won the lottery when they have them,” another responded. “My Costco sucks and they’re out of onions by 2-3 p.m., typically,” added another.
“I’m waiting for them to bring back the crank operated onions dispenser,” another lamented. “From what I’ve been told it’s unlikely that will happen. The reason they took them away was because people would load up their soda cup to the top with ‘free’ onions and it was a big loss for the store,” another explained.
“Now they use little disposable cups in the mornings that have to be prepped daily, but due to lack of space, lack of employees, lack of prep time they usually run out by midday and unless it’s unusually slow there won’t be more prepped until the next morning. I’ve had to explain this sad situation to many an unhappy hot dog eater looking for onions. Sincere sympathy, but I don’t think the crank machine is coming back,” they continued.
