The Alleged Costco Food Court Change That'll Disappoint Pepsi Fans

The Costco Instagram fan account Costco Insider reported on December 17 that after 11 years of serving Pepsi products in its popular food court, the warehouse chain is switching back to Coca-Cola. Costco had previously dropped Coke products in 2009 after failing to agree on mutually satisfactory prices. In the process, they pulled all of the soda brand's cans and bottles from their shelves with notes of apology for Costco customers. Costco brought the Coke products back to store shelves a month later.

Four years later, in 2013, Costco switched to Pepsi fountain drinks in its food courts in order to keep its $1.50 hot dog and a soda combo so cheap. Apparently, Coca-Cola has lowered its prices in the interim and Costco is capitalizing on it by making the swap sometime in early 2025, per the Costco Insider account. Now, before you Diet Coke superfans get too excited (and you Pepsi fans too disappointed), it is just a rumor at this point which hasn't been confirmed by Costco itself in a formal capacity. Still, we'll be keeping an eye out for any official announcements.

While Costco is allegedly switching to Coke from Pepsi products, other big brand food chains have already done the swap in recent years. This includes Skyline Chili out of Cincinnati, Ohio, a chain with over 130 locations in four states. Skyline announced the change on social media in March of this year that it was going back to Coca-Cola, leaving fans of Pepsi-owned Mt. Dew aghast. (Skyline did soften the blow by holding onto Dr. Pepper which is one of the few sodas in the U.S. not owned by either Coca-Cola or Pepsi.) Similarly, rival Cincinnati chili chain Gold Star had already started to make the switch in its 60-some restaurants at the time of Skyline Chili's announcement.

Last year, in January 2023, the burger (and frozen custard) chain Culver's announced it would also be ditching Pepsi for Coca-Cola, which naturally upset fans of the former, some of whom claimed they would stop eating at the restaurant. The chain didn't offer any public reason as to why they made the switch, but if it's true that Coca-Cola is outbidding Pepsi in terms of prices it would help explain the shift. Disappointed Pepsi drinkers might consider giving Subway their business instead starting in 2025 since Subway is actually switching from Coke to Pepsi products.