50 Fun Facts About Costco

In which Washington city is Costco's worldwide headquarters?

The campus sits next to a working warehouse so buyers can walk over and check how merchandise is selling.

In which city did Costco open its very first warehouse?

Portland and Spokane followed within three months, and the original site was rebuilt in 2005 while keeping the same street address.

In what year did the first Costco warehouse open?

At launch it sold to small businesses at a markup of only 8 or 9 percent over wholesale.

What is the Kirkland Signature house brand named after?

Costco moved its offices from Kirkland to Issaquah in 1996, but the label kept the old town's name.

In what year was the Kirkland Signature brand launched?

It now accounts for nearly a third of company sales and grows faster than Costco as a whole.

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

Costco sold more than 137 million quarter-pound hot dogs in its food courts in 2017 alone.

Costco's $1.50 hot-dog combo price was first set in which year?

Costco started selling fresh food that year from a hot dog cart outside its original Seattle warehouse.

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

Brotman chaired the board from 2013 until his death in 2017.

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

Sam Walton wrote that he borrowed as many ideas from this man as from anybody else in the business.

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

Costco counts its own corporate history from that 1976 opening on Morena Boulevard.

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

Members originally had to show a resale certificate or professional licence to get in.

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

The combined company had 206 locations and $16 billion in annual sales.

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

Memberships became universal, so a card from either chain worked at both.

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

That rival's warehouse chain, Sam's Club, remains Costco's main US competitor.

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

All remaining Price Club stores were rebranded, though former Price Club sites in California are still often staffed by Teamsters.

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?

He started bagging groceries at FedMart in 1955 and went on to run Costco for almost three decades.

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

He was famously forced out of that chain before starting Price Club with his son Robert.

After a 2015 expansion, the largest Costco warehouse in the world (235,000 sq ft) is where?

A planned Fresno store would have been bigger, but the city only approved 219,000 square feet.

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

It dates from a 1993 experiment with small-format warehouses.

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

By 2018 the Taichung store in Taiwan had the most members of any Costco and ranked second in sales.

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

Kirkland Signature items get a slightly higher cap of 15%, and overall profit margins run about 2%.

Roughly how many distinct products does a typical Costco carry?

Costco will stock only one or two versions of a product and sell far more units of each.

Costco Connection's US circulation ranks third behind two titles from which organisation?

It goes free to 15.4 million executive-member households.

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

The birds are such a traffic driver that Costco built its own poultry plant to protect the price.

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

The plant was meant to keep the rotisserie chicken price steady while controlling quality.

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

The idea is a sense of 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?

Supply problems and thin margins pushed Costco to make its own under the Kirkland label to protect the $1.50 price.

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

Coke had raised prices; the switch helped hold the hot-dog combo at $1.50, and Coke returned in 2025.

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

It was itself replaced by a chocolate chunk cookie in 2024.

As of 2025, which food-court item was on the menu in Canada and France but not the US?

Australia gets meat pies, the UK gets jacket potatoes, and Mexico gets pastor taco-topped pizza.

As of 2025, Costco's food court in Iceland served which local dish?

It is a traditional fish stew; Iceland has exactly one Costco warehouse.

In 2025 the bulgogi bake was sold in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and which other country?

Mango boba tea is limited to the same four countries.

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

They sell for only about 2% over spot, so they act more as a loss leader for memberships 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?

Ninety-five percent of Costco's workforce is in its warehouses, and most executives climbed from there.

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

His two predecessors were co-founder Jim Sinegal and Craig Jelinek, who ran the company from 2012 to 2023.

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

Its biggest 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?

Costco had first entered China online in 2014 through Alibaba's Tmall.

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

A local monopoly on liquor retail 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?

An appeals court later vacated the award, ruling the jeweler had not proved shoppers were actually misled.

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

Membership fees generate most of Costco's profit: 65.5% of net operating income in 2024.

Costco's first-ever gas station and car wash opened in 2006 on the site of what?

The first store was rebuilt on the adjacent lot in 2005 and kept the same street address.

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

More than 70% of what a Business Center stocks is not found in a regular Costco.

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

They have done it since the first store opened in 1983, checking for missed items in the lower rack too.

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

It was the most expensive initiative fight in the state's history and passed with 60% of the vote.

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

Overhead runs at about 10% of revenue against a profit margin of about 2%.

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

Co-branded Kirkland products come from names such as Starbucks, Ocean Spray, Jelly Belly and Walker's Shortbread.

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?

The deal gave Costco its own delivery and installation network for big-ticket items.