Indeed! I paid the same $3++ at Costco and was amazed at the poor selection at Safeway where the same pineapple would have run $7 given the weight - which is approaching tourist prices at Dole Plantation for the exact same pineapple. I think I was paying $2-something for the same pineapple at Costco a year ago.

At least I can reduce my overall cost by planting the heads in my garden where after about 2 years I have 1-2 more pineapples

The crop they sell now are all Dole commercial grade, and need to hit a certain ripeness to be sweet otherwise I can't tell them apart from the gas ripened crap from Costa Rica. The specialty pineapples like the sweet white flesh Kona variety seem permanently gone from the stores.

One interesting fact I learned from Dole Plantation (the visits are never a total waste) - you can tell ripeness not just from the color, but from the size of the eyes on the pineapple. You want a relatively uniform size of eye from the base up to the crown which shows the pineapple was picked in a ripened state, vs much larger eyes at the base and small ones at the crown where the pineapple will never really ripen properly and just get softer with age without developing its full sweet flavor.