Costco planning major food court changes very soon

These days, your average trip to the grocery store is anything but average. 

Between rising costs, seemingly never-ending trends in the food and beverage aisles, and a consolidation across the entire retail industry that seems to be hitting grocery stores the hardest, shopping for food can feel like a competitive sport. 

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Take, for example, the ever-changing landscape at your local grocery store. 

Chances are, your local grocery store may have undergone new management in recent years. It may have even been completely bought out by a larger competitor.

That's because the retail industry has been marked with major consolidation since covid; many smaller mom and pop shops or markets went under during the pandemic, when prolonged closures dropped foot traffic to zero nearly overnight. 

Even when things began to reopen, interest rates were so high that smaller operations couldn't afford to borrow money to either grow or keep their business afloat. 

So larger corporate retailers snapped many smaller competitors up. And many of those larger corporations operate some of America's largest grocery stores, like Walmart, Target, Sam's Club, or Costco  (COST) .

Grocery stores are adapting

For the grocery stores that hung around, they've had to adapt to even more changes.

It's no longer enough to stock just the basics. Today's customer largely expects to find new and exciting trends on their shelves. 

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That might mean keeping dozens of new non-soda beverages, plant-based meats, more gluten-free options, or countless other trendy new foods and beverages. 

On the business side, this means incurring costs to keep and maintain those trendy foods — or risk obsolescence. 

Costco planning new food court changes

While keeping up with trends and customer needs may be a costly challenge, Costco is routinely hailed as one of the best grocers for customer satisfaction. 

Approximately 137 million members pay the annual $65 per year just for the privilege of shopping at the discount warehouse. 

It's not just the savings that Costco members are in search of, though. 

Many make the trek to their local store just for access to the food court alone. 

Costco's food court, which famously still offers the $1.50 hot dog meal, also tries new things once in a while. 

The retail chain has indicated it will roll out several new items, including a strawberry banana smoothie, which will replace the fruit smoothie. 

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"My U.S. Costco now has Strawberry Banana as the smoothie....and it's very good," one Reddit user wrote on the Costco subreddit. 

Costco also told analysts that it will re-introduce the "fan-favorite turkey provolone sandwich," sometime during the third quarter. 

Customers have been awaiting the return of the sandwich after it disappeared from the food court years ago.

And later this summer, Costco is planning on "converting our food court fountain business back over to Coca-Cola." 

Costco's food court has offered Pepsi drinks only for over 10 years.