47 Fun Facts About Costco

In which Washington city is Costco's worldwide headquarters?

Costco's worldwide headquarters is in Issaquah, Washington, on a campus built beside a working warehouse so buyers can walk over and see how merchandise is selling.

In which city did Costco open its very first warehouse?

Costco's first warehouse opened in Seattle, Washington, at 4401 Fourth Avenue South in the city's industrial SoDo district, south of downtown.

In what year did the first Costco warehouse open?

The first Costco warehouse opened in 1983 in Washington state, and the company became the first ever to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in under six years.

What is the Kirkland Signature house brand named after?

The town where Costco's HQ used to be, Kirkland, Washington, gave the brand its name; the company left Kirkland for a new campus in 1996 but kept the label.

In what year was the Kirkland Signature brand launched?

Kirkland Signature launched in 1995 as Costco's single private label, consolidating a scattered set of earlier house brands under one name across categories.

What did the food-court hot dog and 20-ounce soda combo cost in the US as of 2025?

The hot dog and 20-ounce soda combo cost $1.50 in 2025; co-founder Jim Sinegal famously told his successor he would 'kill' him if he ever raised the hot dog price.

In which year was the price of Costco's hot dog and soda combo first set?

Costco set the combo price in 1985 and held it unchanged for the next four decades, absorbing costs by switching to Kirkland Signature hot dogs and self-serve soda.

Jim Sinegal co-founded Costco with which attorney from an old Pacific Northwest retailing family?

Jeffrey Brotman, a Washington lawyer whose family ran retail stores, co-founded Costco with Jim Sinegal and chaired its board until his death in 2017.

Sinegal learned the trade under which retail pioneer, regarded as the father of the warehouse club?

Sol Price opened the first Price Club in 1976; Sam Walton wrote that he borrowed as many ideas from Sol Price as from anybody else in the business.

Price Club, Costco's future merger partner, opened its first store in 1976 in which city?

The first Price Club opened in San Diego in 1976 on Morena Boulevard, inside a former aircraft hangar; Costco dates its own corporate history from that opening.

Price Club's first store was in a former manufacturing building once owned by which famous figure?

The Morena Boulevard building was a former hangar built for Howard Hughes's aircraft business; Price Club admitted only business owners at first, who had to show a resale licence.

In what year did Costco and Price Club agree to merge?

Costco and Price Club agreed to merge in 1993, creating a combined company with 206 locations and about $16 billion in annual sales.

What name did the merged Costco and Price Club company use at first?

The merged company traded as PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, so a card from either chain worked at both sets of warehouses.

Before merging with Costco, Price Club turned down a merger offer from which retail giant?

Price Club rejected a merger approach from Walmart and chose Costco instead; Walmart's own warehouse chain, Sam's Club, went on to become Costco's chief US rival.

In which year did the merged company revert to plain 'Costco' as its name and stock symbol?

In 1997 the company renamed itself Costco Companies Inc., adopted the COST ticker and rebranded the remaining Price Club warehouses; it became Costco Wholesale Corporation two years later.

When Costco went public on the NASDAQ, shares opened at what price?

At the time the company had just 17 warehouses and 1,950 employees.

Jim Sinegal began his retail career in what job?

Grocery bagger was Jim Sinegal's first retail job, taken as a student in the mid-1950s at a discount store whose founder became his mentor; he later ran Costco for nearly three decades.

Before Price Club, its founder had launched which discount chain in 1954?

FedMart, opened in 1954, was bought by German retailer Hugo Mann, who forced its founder out in 1975; a year later he and his son Robert started Price Club.

Which city's Costco became the world's largest warehouse after a 2015 expansion?

The Salt Lake City warehouse grew to about 235,000 square feet in 2015, making it the largest Costco in the world at the time; a typical warehouse runs around 150,000.

The smallest Costco, at under 77,000 sq ft, is in which city?

The Juneau, Alaska, warehouse at roughly 76,000 square feet is about half the size of a typical Costco, serving a state capital reachable only by air or sea.

In 2011, Costco's highest-volume store in the world was in which city?

The Yangjae warehouse in Seoul was Costco's top-grossing location in 2011, outselling every US store although South Korea then had fewer than ten warehouses.

Under a company rule, no regular item may be marked up more than what percentage over cost?

Costco caps markups at 14% on regular branded goods and 15% on Kirkland Signature items, which is why the company's overall net profit margin runs only about 2%.

Roughly how many distinct products does a typical Costco carry?

A typical Costco carries about 3,700 distinct products, against 30,000 or more in a conventional supermarket, stocking only one or two versions of each item and selling far more units.

In the early 2020s, which organisation's two titles outranked Costco Connection in US magazine circulation?

Only AARP The Magazine and the AARP Bulletin outranked Costco Connection in US circulation in the early 2020s; the magazine is mailed free to Executive members each month.

Costco began selling rotisserie chickens in 1994 amid the rising popularity of which restaurant chain?

Boston Market's rotisserie craze in the early 1990s inspired Costco to add its own rotisserie chicken in 1994; the birds became such a traffic driver that Costco later built its own poultry plant.

In 2019 Costco opened its own vertically integrated poultry factory in which state?

The Lincoln Premium Poultry plant in Fremont, Nebraska, opened in 2019 to process around two million chickens a week and keep the rotisserie chicken price steady.

Sinegal described Costco's constantly rotating stock as what kind of atmosphere?

Treasure-hunt is the term Costco uses for its rotating stock of limited-time items; the idea is urgency, buy the deal now because it may be gone on the next visit.

Until 2009, Costco's food-court hot dogs were kosher franks supplied by which brand?

Hebrew National supplied Costco's kosher franks until 2009, when supply problems and thin margins pushed Costco to make its own under the Kirkland Signature label to protect the combo price.

In 2013 US Costco food courts dropped Coca-Cola fountain drinks in favour of which company's products?

Costco's US food courts switched to Pepsi in 2013 after Coca-Cola raised its prices, helping hold the hot-dog combo price; Coca-Cola products returned to the food courts in 2025.

Which food-court item replaced the pretzel in 2009 because of slow sales?

The Churro took the pretzel's food-court slot in 2009 and lasted fifteen years before a double chocolate chunk cookie replaced it in 2024.

In what year did Costco start selling one-ounce 24-karat gold bars?

Costco began selling one-ounce 24-karat gold bars online in 2023, priced only about 2% over spot, so they serve more as a membership draw than a profit centre.

As of 2025 Costco sells more than half of the world's supply of which nut?

That single buyer has direct implications for over a million cashew farmers in Africa.

Ron Vachris, Costco's CEO from 2024, began his career in 1982 doing what job at a Price Club?

Forklift driver was Ron Vachris's first job, at a Price Club in 1982; he rose through warehouse management to become Costco's president and, in January 2024, its chief executive.

When Vachris took over in 2024, he became which number CEO in Costco's history?

Third in the line, Vachris followed only co-founder Jim Sinegal and Craig Jelinek, who ran the company for twelve years from 2012.

As of 2024, Costco is the world's largest retailer of beef, poultry, organic produce and which drink?

Wine is the drink: Costco's volume makes it the world's largest wine retailer, and its bigger wine departments employ roaming 'wine stewards' to advise members.

Costco's first mainland China warehouse opened in 2019 in which city, closing early over crowds?

The Shanghai warehouse in Minhang district opened in August 2019 and shut early on its first afternoon as crowds overwhelmed it; Costco had entered China online via Alibaba's Tmall in 2014.

Costco's first New Zealand warehouse opened in 2022 in which city?

The Auckland warehouse at Westgate opened in September 2022; a local licensing-trust monopoly on alcohol retail in West Auckland means the store cannot sell alcohol.

In 2017 a judge ordered Costco to pay $19.4 million to which jeweler over rings sold as its namesake style?

Tiffany & Co. sued over Costco signs that labelled unbranded rings 'Tiffany' settings; the 2017 award of $19.4 million was vacated in 2020 by an appeals court, which found shoppers were not proven misled.

In September 2024, the basic Gold Star membership fee rose from $60 to what?

The Gold Star fee rose to $65 in September 2024, the first increase since 2017; the Executive membership went from $120 to $130 at the same time.

In which country did Costco open its first warehouse outside the United States?

Canada was Costco's first foreign market, with a warehouse in Burnaby, British Columbia, in the mid-1980s; Canada later hosted more Costco warehouses than any country except the United States.

The first Costco Business Center opened in 1996 in which Washington city?

The first Costco Business Center opened in Lynnwood, Washington, in 1996 to serve restaurants, offices and small shops; around 70% of a Business Center's items are not stocked in a regular warehouse.

Costco's 'exit greeters' compare the contents of a shopper's cart with what?

Your receipt is the reference: the greeter at the exit compares the items in the cart, lower rack included, against the receipt's line items to catch scanning errors in either direction.

Costco spent over $22 million backing Washington's Initiative 1183 in 2011 to end the state monopoly on what?

Liquor privatisation was the aim: Initiative 1183 ended Washington's state-run spirits stores, passed with about 59% of the vote and was the most expensive initiative campaign in state history at the time.

Costco keeps overheads down partly by having no public relations department and buying no what?

Outside advertising is skipped entirely; Costco relies on word of mouth and its own member mailings, which helps keep overhead near 10% of revenue against a net profit margin of about 2%.

Roughly how much revenue did the Kirkland Signature brand record in 2024?

Kirkland Signature brought in about $86 billion in fiscal 2024, over 30% of Costco's total sales; co-branded items come from names such as Starbucks, Ocean Spray and Jelly Belly.

At Costco headquarters, where does the CEO sit alongside the other 7,000 staff?

The boss's cubicle is allowed to be slightly larger, and executives are expected to spend most of their time out visiting warehouses.

Innovel, which Costco bought for $1bn in 2020, is what kind of company?

Logistics is Innovel's business: the former Sears final-mile delivery arm gave Costco its own network for delivering and installing big-ticket items such as appliances and furniture.