Given Costco's size and influence in the food market, I'd like to see them lend more credence to the plant-based meat market which would be even better for them financial and environmentally.
I don’t know why I can’t at least buy lentils from Costco. They’ve got the huge bags of pintos and rice already. They could definitely apply their business model to plant based options. Instead their shelves are prime examples of foods that could otherwise be great vegan but just have animal products needlessly included.
I think it depends on the local market. I live in an area with a large Asian (Indian/Pakistani/Chinese/East Asian) population and my local Costco sells all sorts of lentils along with Naan, etc. They even have a few types of boxed pre-made lentil soups (dals). It probably just doesn't make sense for them to stock lentils in markets with low demand.
Don't be too hard on them, they're the largest organic retailer in the US[1]. Which doesn't mean they couldn't do better (in lots of ways), but they do seem to be trying.
I love finding new plant-based products at our costco, but sadly they rotate in and out and so sometimes we lose a product that I would have loved to keep buying. Hopefully I see some of my favorites back in soon. I understand Costco rotates products around sometimes, even if they did well.
