Dive Brief:

• Two Costco stores in California are testing out a new kiosk ordering system in their food courts, according to the Orange County Register. The pilot stores are in Tustin and Pacoima.
• A Costco employee interviewed for the story said that Tustin kiosk has been "a great success," and said wait times have been cut "substantially."
• The touch-screen system allows customers to order their meal, pay with a credit card, and then grab their food at a pickup window. There is no word yet on if Costco will be testing the kiosks in other locations.

Dive Insight:

Anyone who has visited a Costco on the weekend will tell you the food court can be an intimidating place. In addition to finding a coveted spot to park their double-wide shopping cart of goodies, customers are faced with lines that seem to have no end.

Enter the ordering kiosk — an innovation that has sped up service and delighted customers at fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and other meal destinations.

Costco is testing out the touch-screen ordering system as a way to keep more would-be diners in-store. If the warehouse store is able to drastically scale back lines and cut down on the wait time, it could see a nice bump in food court sales. Kiosks can also increase order accuracy.

The vast majority of Costco locations have food courts, but there are the occasional outliers that don’t offer the $1.50 hot dog and soda combination. Cheap prices, quality products, and a need to take a breather after roaming store aisles for hours all contribute to the success of the food courts in most Costco locations.

With the introduction, Costco is showing it wants to compete with fast-food and fast-casual chains that have implemented kiosk technology. Panera Bread was an early adopter of the service, which has also been embraced by convenience stores Rutter’s Food, Wawa and QuikTrip. Smaller startups, like Philadelphia-based honeygrow, are also using kiosk technology as a way to appeal to younger consumers and keep the busy lunch line moving.

If Costco adopts the kiosk ordering system on a wider scale, it could make its food courts a preferred meal destination — particularly millennials, who the club retailer is trying to keep from defecting to Amazon.

Costco has so far shown its resilience in the face of mounting competition from the online retailer and others. In its most recent financial quarter, the company posted a 17% increase in earnings and same-store sales increases of 7.9%. Its value perception among customers along with the quality of its products, the strength of its private label sales and the treasure-hunt appeal of its shopping experience continues to drive growth.

Some investors, though, are concerned about Costco's ability to keep growing its membership. Look for the club retailer to continue adding reasons for shoppers to sign up, be it meal innovations or other services.