Sam’s Club Reduces Their Hot Dog Combo Prices, Starts ‘Weiner War’ With Costco

Sam’s Club lowered its hot dog and soda combo price from $1.50 to $1.38 on November 15, as announced by the owner company, Walmart, during their Q3 earnings call. It seems fast food wars have moved from trying to outdo each other over chicken sandwiches to hotdogs being the bone of contention now.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said to the investors during the earnings call: “​​The members’ dollars are going further at Sam’s Club, too. We’re also making the everyday shopping trip better by lowering the price of the cafe hotdog combo by nearly 10% to $1.38. Around the world, our teams have this type of mindset.”

“Frankly, It Can’t Be Beat”

Costco and Sam’s Club have been in competition over their hot dogs since the mid-’80s, and now Costco has to come up with a winning strategy, as Sam’s Club has put up more attractive prices. Aside from the weiners and like most other big grocers, Sam’s Club has also announced that they will keep the prices of Thanksgiving staples very fair due to inflation and offer 40% less year-on-year prices of lobster tails and lamb racks.

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The slashed hot dog price is on Sam’s club website, with a subliminal cocky copy that reads, “Frankly, it can’t be beat.”

“New lower price. Same great hot dog and drink combo, And the free refills are still flowin’,” they added.

Why The Reduction?

In a post titled “It’s 12 cents. So what?!”, Sam’s Club answered the question on their website blog for those wondering about the 12 cents markdown.

“A dime and two pennies might not seem like much and we tend to agree– when it comes to one transaction on one hotdog combo,” the post reads. “But there’s a bigger story at play here. This is a signal. It’s indicative of the journey we’re on– to make the Sam’s Club membership the most valuable subscription you have. And in this case, that means working it twelve cents at a time.”

Per Costco’s hotdog price set at $1.50 over the years, there are no plans to increase the price ever, as confirmed by CEO Craig Jelinek, who co-founder Jim Sinegal had once threatened to kill if he ever did. Costco may, in fact, have to lower its prices to catch up with Sam’s Club’s more juicy offering.