Since 1985, there have been two constants at Costco: Richard Galanti has been chief financial officer and the famous hot dog and soda combo has cost $1.50.
Last week one of those finally changed, and it wasn’t the price of the hot dog.
Galanti on Friday retired after 40 years as one of the wholesale retailer’s top executives. In an interview with Bloomberg, he addressed the fate of the famous frank whose career will now outlive his own.
Asked if anything would happen to the iconic combo once he was gone, Galanti had a succinct response.
“It’s probably safe for a while,” he said.
It was a slightly more measured response than one of the last times the long-tenured executive addressed the Costco food court’s flagship product. During a 2022 earnings call, he joked that “lightning just struck me” after he was asked if the hot dog would raise its prices.
Galanti said at the time that Costco would leverage the other parts of its business to keep the ¼-pound all-beef frank at the same price it has had since the Reagan administration.
“Some businesses that are doing well with margin … those things help us be more aggressive in other areas, or, as you mentioned, hold the price on the hot dog and the soda a little longer — forever,” he said.
Indeed, Galanti told Bloomberg that “the Costco culture is to keep it simple.”
Though the chain could make decisions that would benefit it financially, he said Costco is content to stick with what has worked for it.
“We generate more money than we need every year,” he told Bloomberg. “I’m not trying to look for the last penny by doing something a little more risky.”
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