Walking through Costco last week felt different. Not in an obvious way — same giant carts, same free samples, same inexplicable urge to buy a 48-pack of something you didn’t need. But small things were off. The book section? Gone. A new scanner beeped at the entrance. And there was a buzz near the deli about pizza that hadn’t been there in years. Turns out, Costco has been quietly rolling out a wave of changes in 2025 that affects almost everything — from what you eat to how much you pay to walk through the door.
The pizza everyone thought was dead is back — sort of
If you spent any time in Costco’s food court before 2020, you probably remember the combo pizza. Italian sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, all piled onto a massive slice. People genuinely mourned when it disappeared. Online petitions popped up. Reddit threads got heated. It was a whole thing.
Well, the combo pizza is making a comeback — but not in the food court. Costco is bringing it back as a take-and-bake option in the deli section. You grab it, take it home, and bake it yourself. The recipe has been tweaked too: same generous toppings people remember, but with an improved cheese blend and a crust designed to crisp up nicely in a regular home oven.
Early feedback from test markets has been pretty enthusiastic. Some members are actually saying they prefer it this way because they can control the bake time and get the crust exactly how they like it. Whether it truly beats the original food court version is debatable, but at least it exists again. That counts for something.
Why the book aisle just vanished
Here’s one that caught a lot of members off guard: Costco is ending year-round book sales at warehouse locations starting in early 2025. If you were someone who casually browsed the book table for bestsellers or big glossy coffee table books during a random Tuesday shopping trip, that’s over now.
Books aren’t totally gone, though. They’ll still show up from September through December — the holiday season window when book sales actually spike. The rest of the year, that floor space gets repurposed. From a business standpoint, it makes sense. Books sitting on warehouse floors in March just don’t move the way they do in November. But for the casual reader who liked stumbling onto a deal? It stings a little. Publishers are feeling it too, adjusting their strategies around that compressed window. Some authors who relied on Costco’s year-round exposure are scrambling to find alternative retail channels.
Twenty-nine new warehouses in a single year
So what does Costco do with all that extra floor space and membership revenue? Build more stores, apparently. The company has plans to open 29 new warehouses globally in 2025. That’s 26 brand-new locations plus three relocations. Six of them are scheduled for March alone, in spots ranging from Brentwood, California to Sharon, Massachusetts.
This isn’t just a domestic push either. New stores are planned for Japan, Mexico, and Canada. Each warehouse brings roughly 250 jobs to its area, which is a decent economic boost for smaller communities. And Costco’s reputation for competitive wages means those positions tend to attract a lot of applicants. The expansion is partly about reducing overcrowding at existing stores — anyone who’s tried to shop at a busy Costco on a Saturday knows exactly why that matters.
That weird scanner at the door isn’t going away
You might have already noticed the new card-scanning system at your local Costco entrance. Instead of the old method — where an employee glances at your card while you awkwardly hold it up — there’s now an actual scanner. You tap or swipe, and you’re in. Faster. Cleaner. A little impersonal, maybe, but efficient.
The scanners aren’t just about speed, though. They give Costco real-time traffic data — how many people are in the store, when it’s busiest, how to staff accordingly. It also helps crack down on non-members sneaking in, which has apparently been enough of a problem that the company decided to invest in the technology. Privacy-wise, Costco says the scan data isn’t tied to your purchase history or personal details beyond basic membership verification. Whether you trust that is your call.
Fresh sushi — and yes, it’s actually good
Did you know some Costco locations have sushi chefs? Not a sushi counter buried behind the bakery. Actual trained chefs making rolls fresh daily. The program has been around for a while in select stores, but 2025 is bringing it to a lot more warehouses.
The menu includes standard stuff like California rolls alongside fancier specialty rolls. Prices stay in line with what you’d expect from Costco — substantially cheaper than a sit-down sushi restaurant but not gas station sushi cheap either. The fish sourcing reportedly meets the company’s sustainability standards, which, honestly, is more than you can say for a lot of grocery store sushi. Members seem genuinely excited about it. Grabbing a fresh sushi tray while doing a normal grocery run hits different than ordering delivery for the third time this week. Costco is also testing expanded roll varieties in select locations based on how well the initial rollout performs.
The food court is losing churros and gaining cookies
Costco’s food court has always been a little shrine to absurdly cheap comfort food. The $1.50 hot dog combo has survived inflation, recessions, and what feels like the collapse of affordable eating everywhere else. But the rest of the menu? That’s shifting.
The churro — a staple for years — is being pulled from the menu. In its place comes a Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie that early testers have been raving about. Whether a cookie can truly replace a churro in people’s hearts is a deeply personal question, but the reviews are promising so far. Some locations are also replacing traditional seating with standing tables to improve traffic flow during peak hours, which is one of those changes that sounds smart on paper but feels annoying in practice when your feet hurt and you just want to sit down with your slice.
Access rules are tightening too. Costco is more strictly enforcing member-only policies at the food court. Gone are the days of walking in off the street for a cheap hot dog without a card.
Membership costs more now, but there’s a catch
The Gold Star membership went from $60 to $65 per year. The Executive membership jumped from $120 to $130. Not massive increases, but enough to notice on a credit card statement. This marks the first fee hike since 2024.
But here’s what softens the blow a little: Executive members now have a higher cap on their annual 2% reward — $1,250, up from $1,000. If you’re someone who spends a significant chunk of your budget at Costco (and honestly, who among us doesn’t), that increase could actually pay for itself. New perks include enhanced travel benefits and early access to certain online sales. The extra revenue, according to the company, is getting funneled back into infrastructure — the new scanners, the warehouse expansions, general store improvements. Membership growth hasn’t slowed down despite the price bump, which tells you something about how people feel about the value they’re getting.
Cheaper chicken and cheaper foil — no, seriously
While everyone else seems to be raising prices on everything, Costco went the other direction on a handful of popular items. Kirkland Signature fresh chicken tenderloins. Baguettes. Aluminum foil. All got price reductions. In this economy, that feels almost surreal.
The price drops come down to supply chain improvements and what Costco can squeeze out of supplier negotiations thanks to its sheer buying power. When you’re ordering chicken for over 800 warehouses worldwide, you get a different phone call than a regional grocery chain does. These aren’t dramatic markdowns — we’re not talking half off — but on items you buy regularly, even a small reduction adds up over months. For budget-conscious shoppers who’ve been watching grocery bills creep upward for years, seeing prices go down on staples feels like finding twenty bucks in an old jacket pocket.
And that might be the most Costco thing about all of this. They raise your membership fee by five bucks, then make you feel good about it by dropping the price on the stuff you actually came for. The food review community on social media has been eating this up (pun intended), with creators documenting every new find and price shift in their Costco hauls.
All of these changes together paint a picture of a company that’s simultaneously trying to modernize and stay true to what made it popular in the first place. Some of these moves will make people happy. Others — goodbye, churros — will sting. But Costco keeps growing, keeps building stores, and keeps selling hot dogs for a buck fifty. As long as that last part holds, most members will probably stick around through whatever comes next.
