I don’t think the apple pie is a loss leader. I am betting that at wholesale cost, the dough for the pie is about a dollar, tops and the apples probably come in huge pails like the 10 gallon pails of paint and tile mortar at Home Depot. The apples, maybe a dollar worth at wholesale cost. Now if you made that at home, then yes, it’s costing more than $5 between the dough and the apples, even if the apples are 1.50 per lb, apples alone would be $6.
The hot dogs with soda for 1.50 and the huge rotisserie chickens for $5, definitely loss leaders and Costco admits that they fight with suppliers to keep the cost down so they can charge the same they’ve always been charging, because they know people will go in there just for the chicken and they’ll grab a hot dog and soda for lunch, and between the chicken and the hot dog, they’ll drop another hundred or two in the store.