Costco Sold a Million “Bleeding” Vegan Burgers in 60 Days

Anthony Bourdain might not be a fan of these new “bleeding” vegan burgers, but the patrons of Costco can’t seem to get enough of them. In February, Costco quietly started selling a new, meat-like vegan burger that “bleeds” beet juice and sizzles on the grill just like beef, thanks to vegetable fats.

And the test exceeded everyone’s expectations: Costco sold more than a million of them in just 60 days. Now the burgers are rolling out to more locations as quickly as they can put them out.

“Having sold a million burgers this quickly has exceeded everyone’s expectations,” Don Lee Farms president Donald Goodman said in a press release. “The excitement around this burger has been overwhelming. We are now expanding availability in club stores and will be introducing the burger in restaurants and other retail markets in the upcoming months.”

The name “Organic Plant-Based Burger” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue so well, but that doesn’t seem to have hurt sales much. Don Lee Farms says it’s the only USDA-certified organic burger in its category. And people really got excited to see these at their local Costcos.

Don Lee Farms says its Organic Plant-Based Burger is now the fastest-growing vegan burger in the country, and that’s a pretty huge category, too. “Fake meat” technology has been growing by leaps and bounds in the past decade, and vegan burgers and plant-based meat products like the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger are an enormous trend that only seems to be growing.

It’s not just vegetarians and vegans who are eating plant-based burgers, either. According to CNBC, 60 percent of U.S. consumers claim to be trying to reduce their meat intake.

Cutting back on one’s meat intake could be about to get a lot easier, too, because the Organic Plant-Based Burger is now available at Costcos in Central and Southern California, Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, and it will soon be on its way to more locations in Northern California and the Northeast.

Would you try Costco’s new “bleeding” vegan burgers?