I mean, if you never go, sure. But it's $65 a year. You can easily save that much in a couple of trips compared to if you bought the food somewhere else.

We have the $120 annual membership.

What we save on dog food in the first four months of the year pays for that membership. And the store brand dog food is manufactured for Costco by Diamond, so it's better quality than anything available at Walmart for less.

Household goods, TP, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, etc, etc are a significant savings if you have space to store them.

Some of the deals on groceries, meat, frozen goods and so forth are significant if you have a deep freeze or extra fridge in the garage to keep everything in.

It's more than a grocery store though. Appliances, furnishings, electronics, gas, tires, and more can be had at decent prices. For instance, I can get a name brand car battery from Costco at the same cost as Auto Zone's no name special.

As others have said, the annual cash back reward is at least $120.

But...

You have to set a budget, have extra space, and be disciplined about shopping there. Stay out of the central impulse zone in the store unless there's something you need there, and comparison shop on major purchases. It's great for people stuck in the suburbs. For everyone else, YMMV.

As far as the hot dog goes... It's just a meme, man. Relax.

If the sole reason you have a Costco membership is for the hotdogs, then I would agree, but for the vast majority of people the reason they shop at Costco is to buy items in bulk and save money compared to buying the same amount at the local chain grocery store.

It's not even because the hotdog itself is particularly good. It's your standard beef frankfurter and a fountain soda. There's no magic with the item from a culinary standpoint. It's the fact that they still haven't raised the price on it when they almost certainly could have done so silently a long time ago and nobody would have noticed or cared. It's the one act of upper management bothering to think about their customers for a change rather than just gouging every single cent they can get out of their members because some math formula told them that it was possible.

The costco down the street from me has their food court outside and does not need the membership to purchase from. You also don't need a membership to get gas (though you don't get the discount which is the only real reason to use a costco gas station and wait half an hour to fill up because of how packed it is).

I'm not sure if it's like that everywhere, but my costco doens't need membership to access the restaurant area. Not that I disagree that the subscription carries a good chunk of costco's revenue.