Some Price Club execs left and started Costco, copying everything Price Club did. Eventually they merged as Price-Costco, and after a few years became just Costco.
I worked for Price Club in accounting for several years, in or related to their wholly owned manufacturing plants. I taste tested pizza samples out of the test ovens when it was being researched and developed. I saw the first machines for mixing and packing jelly bellies.
Sol Price preferred the taste of hamburgers made with steer meat. The hamburger plant received 40 pound boxes of 98% lean frozen steer meat from New Zealand. The boxes went through a long microwave to thaw, were mixed in a giant blender with “trim”, fat from USA cows, pressed into burgers, and re-frozen.
Sam Walton respected Sol and Robert Price and their Price Club concept enough, that originally he wouldn’t open a Sam’s in cities where there were Price Clubs. Of those days are long gone. There’s a Sam’s a 2 mile walk away where I get a few items at a good price on a free or borrowed membership. Costco is a 3-mile drive where we buy thousands of dollars annually, but rarely the hot dogs.
I should add that we had a tour of Costco #1 in Bellevue WA by the former CFO. One thing I recall is that the chickens are fed a week longer so that they get bigger. This was about 15 years back.
Yes. I also remember when Costco dogs came in two types. The one I always got was discontinued. Sadly, so was the sauerkraut.