Was Costco's Most Expensive Sandwich Worth The High Price Tag?

After a long day of shopping, what better way to reward yourself than with a yummy treat from Costco's food court? After all, it's hard to beat prices like $1.50 for Costco's food court hot dog and soda or an 18-inch pizza for under $10. Besides these popular steadfast items, the menu offers a range of foods that come and go, including its most expensive sandwich, a bulky, bready affair featuring roast beef. First introduced in February 2023, the meaty sandwich lasted just over one year before it was axed. In March 2024, Costco revealed to Axios that they were replacing it with a turkey sandwich.

The initial thing people noticed about this relatively short-lived menu item was its high price tag. At $9.99, some wouldn't even consider buying the roast beef sandwich no matter how good it was. If you did, you'd at least find a dish in proportion with the steep price — the colossal sandwich was definitely enough to share, loaded with layers of sliced roast beef, roasted cherry tomatoes, lettuce, red onions, and a mayo-mustard blend, all on a thick artisan roll. It seemed worthwhile, but were looks deceiving?

While some shoppers initially thought it was delicious, others wholeheartedly disagreed. Many Redditors found it similar to something you could make at home (or worse, since in your home kitchen, you could add cheese or serve it hot like a Philly cheesesteak) and simply couldn't get past paying $10 for one of the bulk retailer's sandwiches.

While the roast beef sandwich has been pulled from the menu, according to a post from a self-identified employee on the Costco subreddit, it may possibly be a rotated menu item, presumably to keep customers continually interested with new options. The same Reddit user also shared that sales of the sandwich were "just fine" at their store, selling "30 to 40 on a busy day". So, although it has disappeared from the menu, a return is possible. However, shoppers' reviews on social media don't exactly paint that as a smart choice.

Most Redditors, at least in the aforementioned thread, don't seem sorry to see it go, preferring other discontinued sandwiches like the BBQ beef brisket sandwich or the hot turkey and provolone. One clever person did the math — for the price of one roast beef sandwich, you could get four hot dogs, four drinks, and two slices of pizza. That's enough to feed a family. Or, you could just buy a whole pizza. Another naysayer declared, "Too much bread and not enough roast beef. Arby's has better roast beef sandwiches and less expensive."

Indeed, the sandwich seemed like an outlier on a menu full of $5 or less items, especially considering it didn't include a drink or sides. Perhaps, as one Redditor conjectured, "it was an experiment to see if people would pay that much and get a picture on sales." In other words, a form of food court market research. 

The turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich that replaced the roast beef isn't exactly the replacement Costco shoppers were hoping for. The new sandwich, priced at $6.99, is smaller than the roast beef, but still hefty. It features multiple layers of sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, and lettuce on a ciabatta roll and comes slathered with a healthy portion of sun-dried tomato spread on the top and a mustard-mayo spread on the bottom. To the dismay of many shoppers, it is served cold instead of toasted. 

In a Reddit post comparing the turkey Swiss and the hot turkey and provolone — which was discontinued during the pandemic — the toasted, obsolete sandwich is the clear winner. Most people agree that a hot sandwich wins over cold any day, with one Redditor stating, "I just had the new one. It sucks. What a rip. Cold, hard [sandwich]. The ciabatta isn't soft at all and they're pulling fresh stock too. It needs to be toasted at the bare minimum." 

Besides the temperature of the sandwich, customers aren't too happy with the price, which is $3 more than the hot turkey and provolone and the calorie count which is surprisingly higher than the roast beef sandwich. If you're not happy with the new sandwich or you're tired of the same menu options, you can always get creative and test out some Costco food court secrets on your next trip.