Welcome to Deep Dish, a weekly roundup of food and entertainment news. Last week we discussed the advent of Michelin grapes.
Costco is known for large-format grocery goods, samples galore, affordable and beloved rotisserie chickens, and…suing the federal government, as of recently. The chain filed a suit against the Trump administration last week, alleging that its tariff collections have been unlawful, not to mention incredibly costly.
Also this week, Consumer Reports determined that Instacart routinely tests different prices for the same goods on its customers, 7-Eleven’s famous Japanese egg sandos have landed stateside, and more.
Costco and Others Sue Trump Over Tariffs
Costco Wholesale has filed suit against the Trump administration before the Court of International Trade, asking it to rule that all tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are unlawful. The company is seeking a “full refund” of all duties under the act paid as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive order that imposed what he called “reciprocal” tariffs.
While Costco does not reveal how much the duties have cost it in its filings, importers have paid nearly $90 billion under the IEEPA law, according to US Customs and Border Protection data through late September.
With Friday's lawsuit, Costco becomes the latest major company to seek tariff refunds through the courts. Trump’s tariffs are already being reviewed by the Supreme Court in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., consolidated cases argued before the Court in November. These consolidated cases also challenge the Trump administration’s authority to unilaterally issue the Liberation Day tariffs, arguing that the administration has no authority to issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs without congressional approval.
In May, a three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs in a unanimous decision, finding the tariffs illegal and issuing a permanent injunction banning their enforcement. That decision was appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where it was upheld; it is now before the Supreme Court. According to the law firm Kelley Drye, “if the Supreme Court sustains lower court rulings invalidating the tariffs, a centerpiece of President Trump’s trade policy agenda will be upended, and he will likely need to turn to other trade laws that generally afford the President more limited authority to act. The Court’s decision in this case could also significantly shape our understanding of the balance of power between the President and Congress.” —Andrea Strong, contributing writer and editor
ICE Raided Chicago’s Immigrant Communities, but These Neighbors United to Save Local Restaurants
Across Chicago, community leaders are stepping up to protect immigrant restaurant workers, launching dining events, restaurant crawls and helping street vendors, reported by Jess Roti this week in a story highlighting the impact of the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois and Chicago. The immigration crackdown by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has had a chilling effect on daily life.
ICE specifically targeted Latino and Black communities like South Shore, Little Village, and Belmont Cragin, actions which have had an outsize impact on local businesses and restaurants. Latino-owned restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores have much slower traffic and lower sales as part of the new abnormal, with regular patrons and employees expressing fear of being approached or detained by masked officials.
But diners and neighbors are not sitting idly; Roti’s report highlights the powerful community-driven response to the ICE raids, from throwing whistle-kit-packing events to literally chasing ICE agents away to protect their neighbors. Others have organized fundraisers and ongoing series, like a restaurant crawl in the targeted Belmont Cragin neighborhood, to support businesses in response. —A.S.
7-Eleven Brings Japanese Egg Salad Sandos Stateside
The viral 7-Eleven Japanese egg salad sandwich sold across convenience stores, or konbini, is finally coming stateside. According to 7-Eleven, the sandwich, made with “soft and fluffy milk bread and rich and creamy egg salad crafted with Kewpie, Japan’s original egg-yolk-only mayonnaise,” is now available at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes locations.
While a mostly successful replica, the tamago sando, as it is known, has already set off alarm bells: the shokupan, or milk bread, in the American version has a crust, which is absent in Japan. “The key differentiation is that we chose to keep the crust to ensure consistency, freshness, and quality,” a 7-Eleven spokesperson told Today’s senior food editor Emi Boscamp. “Maintaining the crust helps protect the bread’s texture and flavor throughout its shelf life.” There’s one more difference–it’s selling for $5.49 in the US versus $2 or less in Japan. —A.S.
Instacart is Testing Dynamic Pricing on Customers
A recent study from Consumer Reports found that popular grocery delivery app Instacart charges different customers different amounts for the same exact product—say, a dozen eggs of the same brand for $3.99 for one and $4.79 for another. “Based on how much Instacart says the typical household of four spends on groceries,” the Consumer Reports study and analysis found, “the average price variations observed could translate into a cost swing of about $1,200 per year.” A brand spokeswoman, speaking to The New York Times, credited the discrepancy to “short term” and “randomized” pricing tests that help stores “understand consumer preferences and identify categories where they should invest in lower prices.” Dynamic pricing isn’t necessarily a new lever for consumer brands (Wendy’s, for one, announced in 2024 that it would basically implement a variation of surge pricing), but as food and groceries become less and less affordable, it feels particularly sinister to subject unsuspecting consumers to luck-of-the-draw, AI-enabled pricing tests of which they have no knowledge. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor
