Is Costco Already Discontinuing the Controversial Roast Beef Sandwich?
Costco faced some serious customer backlash earlier this year when it added a surprisingly pricey roast beef sandwich to its food court menu. Now—less than a year after the sandwich debuted—rumors are swirling that the grocer plans to send the sandwich off into early retirement.
The saga surrounding this contentious sandwich started back in February when customers spotted it for the first time at a Lynnwood, Wash., warehouse. They were immediately outraged over the high price tag of $9.99, primarily because Costco has kept most of its other food court options very cheap in comparison. Despite the backlash, Costco plowed ahead and began rolling the new item out at more warehouses across the country this past summer.
Fast forward to this week, an alleged Costco employee took to Reddit to share a rumor that the sandwich will soon be discontinued.
"Heard from one of my managers that the sandwich will be getting the [axe] here soon. More than likely due to poor sales," they wrote.
In the comments section under the post, another alleged employee also claimed that Costco will stop selling the roast beef sandwich, but not for good. Instead, Costco purportedly wants to make it a rotating menu item that will only be available at certain times.
"It will be back. The rumors say they are looking at other types of sandwiches." the alleged employee wrote.
Of course, shoppers should take both of these claims with a grain of salt because Costco itself has not confirmed that the sandwich is leaving. We reached out to the company for comment on the rumors but did not immediately hear back.
Regardless, customers weren't at all surprised that Costco may be planning to remove the sandwich after all the pushback over the price. Many also said they weren't fans of the taste of the sandwich, which comes with a decent pile of sliced roast beef, onion relish, a mayo and mustard blend, lettuce, roasted cherry tomatoes, and red onions on an artisan roll.
"It's $10 here. Who at Costco thought people would pay that much!?," one critic commented.
"For $10 I want a decent sandwich. What I got was a tasteless sandwich with not enough sauce, stale bread, and unevenly made. Just a disappointment," another wrote.
Even some of the people who did enjoy the sandwich still didn't think it was worth the cost.
"There was a lot of backlash over the price. I'm not surprised, I had one, it was good but not $10 good," a member said.
The roast beef sandwich isn't the only Costco food court item to generate major controversy this year. Back in late spring, the retailer began adding mango smoothies (previously only available in Hawaii and some overseas warehouses) to food courts in the mainland U.S. While some people liked the smoothie, tons of members disliked the taste and compared it mango baby food.
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