Costco Wholesale lands in Ottawa the week of a Canadian hot dog combo change

Costco Wholesale flew from Washington Dulles to Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier on May 18, 2026, a short 61-minute hop in its Gulfstream G280 (tail N84CW) that arrived just after 6:30 a.m. local time. The flight deposited company executives — likely CEO Ron Vachris or senior operations staff — into Canada's capital the same morning a minor but widely-noticed change to the $1.50 hot dog and drink combo was making news north of the border.

The Canadian food court now offers a 500-ml bottle of water as a drink option alongside the traditional fountain soda, a move Vachris himself previewed in a March Instagram post where he reiterated the price would stay frozen as long as he was CEO, per coverage by InsideOttawaValley.com. The change, while small, fits Costco Wholesale's habit of using executive travel to visit markets where real-time operational tweaks — tariff negotiations, extended warehouse hours, or menu adjustments — are being rolled out. Two new Canadian business centers opened recently, and the company this quarter cited expanded operating hours in all Canadian buildings to handle traffic increases.

The Washington-to-Ottawa routing is not a regular beat for N84CW, which over the past week has logged trips between San Diego, Philadelphia, and Monterrey. Landing in Ottawa the morning a food-court memo becomes a national conversation is exactly the sort of hands-on visit that defines the Issaquah retailer's flat management culture.