How Costco Makes Money Without Selling Products

A $1.50 hot dog since 1985. A $4.99 rotisserie chicken that costs Costco up to $40 million a year. So how does Costco make money? Last year it sold almost $300 billion of goods and kept about 3 cents of profit on each dollar, while collecting about $5.9 billion from membership fees. This video looks at how the hot dog, the chicken, Kirkland Signature and a 14% markup cap all work together, and why the card in your wallet matters more than anything on the shelves. Chapters 0:00 $1.50 since 1985 0:36 The card 1:19 The markup cap 1:58 The hot dog and the chicken 2:40 Kirkland Signature 3:08 The hidden trade 4:07 The full machine Sources Costco FY2026 results (Sept 2026): https://pulse2.com/costco-reports-93-... FY2026 members, renewal rates, Executive share, gross margin: https://beancount.io/blog/2026/09/26/... Markup caps, Kirkland, Sinegal (Motley Fool via AOL, Dec 2025): https://www.aol.com/finance/costco-ma... Hot dog $1.50 since 1985 (Fox Business): https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle... Rotisserie chicken and Nebraska plant (Oct 2019): https://fox17online.com/2019/10/11/co... Rotisserie chickens sold in 2023 (TheStreet, Jan 2026): https://www.thestreet.com/retail/usda... Item count (Motley Fool, Sept 2025): https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/0... 2024 membership fee increase (TODAY): https://www.today.com/today/amp/rcna1... Image credits (Wikimedia Commons) Costco SSF interior, KS rotisserie chicken – BrokenSphere (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Costco 9821, Costco 9822 – Chris Light (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco Carts – Curlyrnd (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco checkout, Costco in Korea – Sikander Iqbal (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco before Labour Day 2026 (01, 02) – Sikander (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Social distancing at the Costco in North Brunswick – Richard Arthur Norton (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco Waterloo rotisserie chicken oven – Jason Zhang (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Costco Wholesale Club – Jacob Blanck (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco Exterior (2 photos) – Ambrosia LaFluer (CC BY 2.0) · Food court and $1.5 hot-dog combo at Costco Queens – Deans Charbal (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Kirkland Summit Roast Coffee Pod – TaurusEmerald (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Kirkland Signature water bottles – m01229 (CC BY 2.0) · Bottled water – Myrtle Beach TheDigitel (CC BY 2.0) · Costco Naples – Chasetheg (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco Self-Checkout System – Mds08011 (CC BY 4.0) · James Sinegal, W. Craig Jelinek – US Department of Labor (public domain) · Costco rotisserie chicken packaging – Cullen328 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Icelandic Costco membership card – Drumstick21 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Costco aisle footage from "MASSIVE COSTCO HAUL!" – Big Family Expedition (CC BY 3.0) Stock video: Pexels. The Hidden Trade is not affiliated with Costco. This video is for information only and is not financial advice. #costco #business #economics