Jacob Hoang is standing on the Epstein Family Amphitheater stage before hundreds of screaming UC San Diego students on a sunny spring day, holding a chicken over his head. He is about to eat it.
Hoang is not your average student, and this is no average chicken. It is a $4.99 rotisserie from the Morena Costco, and Hoang is the president of the Costco Club at UC San Diego.
It is time for the annual eating of the chicken, a rite of age for the president of the club, which has grown in its short three-year history. The event now draws a crowd big enough to nearly fill the new amphitheater in the heart of UC San Diego’s campus.
The Costco Club at UC San Diego launched in 2021 with the simple purpose: “to provide new and existing Costco enthusiasts a safe space to express shared interest in wholesale products,” per its bylaws. The 800-member student organization, much like the warehouse club retail store, has amassed a cult-like following.
The club has officers like any campus organization, only with a Costco twist. The “Cost Captain” is the treasurer, the “Wholesome Wholesale Warden” is the safety officer, and the “Kirkland Discord Dean” is the of the club’s Discord, a social platform.
The social club meets on campus for occasional Costco “runs.” Student drivers take fellow Tritons without cars for a group shopping adventure. On a recent run, a group of 30 UC San Diego Costco Club — not all of whom were Costco — arrived at 10:30 a.m. at the Morena Costco food court, a few miles south of campus. There, the group formulates a plan.
Some shop in packs, others shop solo. A few of the students are wide-eyed first-time Costco shoppers. Others are veteran retailers who, as kids, would shop there with their parents and now are adulting on their own. The group has name tags, but some take them off once inside, having too often been mistaken for Costco employees in the past.
Freshman Chesca Lim, one of the drivers, said it was a way to engage with the student community and to give back.
“I heard about this club in high school, on Instagram. I was hyped,” she said. Her haul included croissants, vitamin C and chocolate chip cookies.
take advantage of Costco’s signature free samples and buy typical college student items, from pasta to laundry detergent. Hoang, wearing a real Costco embroidered gray sweatshirt, his Costco Club ID in hand, and a cowboy hat on his head, teaches the newbies. Certain prices have different discount meanings, he says. Items ending in a 97-cent price means the item is on clearance and an asterisk on a price tag means it is the last stock of the item.
The students meet back at the food court for a club-bought lunch: a couple of pizzas.
First of its kind
The Morena Boulevard Costco, a converted airplane hangar, is the home warehouse for the club and has connections to the school. It was the company’s first location when it opened in 1976 under the Price Club name, founded by Sol Price, the “father of the warehouse store” who died in La Jolla in 2009. Price later donated $2 million to the construction of UC San Diego’s Price Center and has a history of philanthropy throughout the region.
The campus’ Costco Club, the first of its kind on the West Coast, is open to any student and raises money by selling shirts, stickers and other merchandise.
“We sell out instantly,” Hoang said.
The money either funds further Costco runs or the production of more shirts.
“Sometimes we do collabs with sororities that reach out to us, and our joke is like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a wholesale party with all Kirkland items.’”
“We’ve actually had folks from UC Riverside, UC Merced, UC Davis, UC Berkeley reaching out to us, saying, ‘Hey, how can I start my own Costco Club?’” Hoang said.
Free samples? Of course
At the annual chicken-eating event, which resembled a music festival, students were handed a card valid for “free samples.” Stations along the corridor gave out ramen noodle soup packs, Rice Krispies Treats, bags of chips and candy and Monster Energy drinks — typical college student fare. Some students walked away with as many Monsters as they could carry.
Max Lin, a second-year student holding three cans of Monster Energy drinks, said they “are the most exciting menu item, especially being mid. I’m an econ student, so the price did pop into my mind,” she said, noting that they were the most valuable of the offerings.
The club’s pitch on Instagram — “Come watch me eat an entire rotisserie chicken” — drew a crowd of hundreds earlier this month. Students grabbed pictures with an oversized Executive Member card at a photo booth. Costco swag — including hips, gift cards, sweaters and warm rotisserie chickens — were all being raffled off. Campus provocateur Charlie Kirk, who was holding court with students at the same time just a few buildings away, drew a smaller crowd than the chicken-eating spectacle.
Hoang, still holding the chicken, contemplated his next move. The tradition he was taking part in started when past president Johnny Gong, standing before a crowd near Geisel Library, attempted to eat an entire chicken under an hour. Onstage at the amphitheater, music blaring, Hoang had a spur-of-the-moment idea: walk around the crowd for some student participation. He made his way through the crowd, eating the chicken and taking selfies with fans screaming as if they were seeing a rock star. All the while, he signed flyers for the crowd using his chicken juice-covered fingers.
At times, attendees would take a bite of the chicken; other times, he tore off a piece for them. At one point, the chicken fell out of his hands and onto the concrete. Undeterred, Hoang picked it up in stride and soldiered on.
