Costco's Food Court Needs To Get It Together And Sell Pie

No trip to Costco is complete without visiting the Costco Food Court after a shopping venture, and the options don't stop there. From its bakes, meatballs, and pizzas to its salads, sandwiches, and soups (plus drinks), the wholesaler's typical food court has seemingly everything you need to fill up after a draining hour of actively searching for deals. (Not to mention its hot dogs are iconically affordable.) And then there are its sweet treats: The place offers apple fritters, brownies, cinnamon rolls, floats, ice cream, muffins, and shakes.  Despite this abundance, there's still a glaring omission — no pie!

Costco and its members both famously buy in bulk, and this seemingly remains the same when it comes to the chain's pies. The new peanut butter chocolate pie is a richly sweet, almost 5-pound giant peanut butter cup that fittingly rolled into stores on Pi Day 2023, and since then, folks can't seem to get enough (at least, those who can get their hands on it). This isn't mere opinion, either. One TikTok user's post about the pie's debut has, at the time of this writing, thousands of passionate comments and over a hundred thousand likes.

Clearly, Costco's peanut butter chocolate pie is well on its way to becoming just as beloved as Costco's food courts. So, why isn't Costco combining these two favorites together into one tasty experience for consumers? And it doesn't need to be only that particular pie, either! Why not bring all Costco pies into the mix and sell them by the slice? After all, buyer and seller alike benefit.

Sure, you can technically just go buy a pie at Costco if you're already there, but what if you're not certain you want to spend money on the entire dessert? For example, Costco's aforementioned new peanut butter chocolate pie is $20 (with price depending on location, like all of Costco's products). From one perspective, this might not seem like it's very much; when you're stocking up at Costco, you're frequently spending hundreds of dollars on a single shopping trip. However, that's exactly why you might not want to add a $19.99-plus-tax item to the bill, let alone find a place in your already crowded kitchen for a huge pie.

Officially selling slices of pie at the Costco Food Court would allow shoppers to spend less, along with the chance to enjoy dessert sooner rather than later, rather than lugging the whole thing home. This is also true for pies like the cult-favorite Costco pumpkin pie. Admittedly, it's not too expensive at roughly $5.99, but selling it by the slice would only further increase its affordability. Besides, isn't half the fun of Costco sampling its wares? Sometimes, folks only have an appetite for a little taste. The food court is the perfect way to fulfill that desire for things like slices of pizza pie. Let's add dessert pies to the list.

The fact that Costco already serves other items at its food court proves this approach to satisfying customers is effective. It's true that the wholesaler's food court isn't necessarily profitable, but it does bring in money — and an increase in the chain's overall revenue by encouraging its members to stay signed up would only bring in more. The food court is a perk, and it's one that would only be greatly enhanced by adding pies to its menu.

This is especially true when it comes to extra leftover pies that certain Costco locations don't manage to sell. In this scenario, the store in question could simultaneously generate new demand and get rid of surplus product before it goes bad by slicing up what's already been made. Pie will probably sell better in that form while also decreasing Costco's food waste. Besides, premade pies take little additional labor to prepare, so Costco's bottom line won't suffer. The existence of free samples at Costco stores underscores this line of reasoning, too — practically giving away food for cheap can be an extremely savvy business move when all is said and done. 

No matter how you slice this pie, it just makes sense. The Costco Food Court needs to eat humble pie and admit this. It's not some pie-in-the-sky dream! Dear Costco, sweetie pie — you might be getting tired of all this wordplay, but we won't shut our pie hole until you give us what we really want: pie slices in the Costco Food Court.