Costco Co-Founder Said "I Will Kill You" to CEO Who Wanted to Raise Hot Dog Prices

There’s loving your business.

And then there’s threatening to kill your CEO for messing it up.

Jim Sinegal is Costco’s co-founder.

Craig Jelinek took over for him as CEO in 2012.

At one point, Jelinek suggested raising the price of Costo’s $1.50 hot dog combo.

Sinegal had some words for the new CEO.

“If you raise the [price of the] effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.”

That’s what Sinegal told him.

To make it work, Costco stopped using Hebrew National as its supplier and built a Kirkland Signature hot dog factory in Los Angeles.

That move allowed Costco to keep it’s $1.50 price tag, which people love. Costco sold over 151 million hot dog combos last year alone.

In January, Jelinek told Costco investors that he has no plans to raise prices, saying: “End of story.”

People really, really love the way Costco treats people.

There was a shareholders meeting a few years ago where someone demanded that the brass do layoffs and cut costs. The CEO told them that Costco will buy back all their stock and turn the company private before they ever did that.

— Rock God (@TheHoustonWade) September 21, 2020

Costco has been awesome from the very beginning. I worked at store #3 when it first opened. One employee had an infant with serious health issues when he was hired, who needed $$$ special formula plus expensive health care.

Costco just... covered everything. Without a question.

— Deep healing starts with disinfectant. It'll sting (@damianaswan) September 21, 2020

They have the best quality store brand products.Prices on everything else are great. And If your buy something there and regret it or it breaks, you can take it back without a receipt for a very long time

They pay their employees incredibly well. Their employees seem very happy.

— Miss Daphne Doyle (@QweenDancing) September 21, 2020

More businesses should treat people with this level of care!

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