Costco Wholesale is a wholesale club founded in 1983 by James "Jim" Sinegal and Jeffery Brotmon. As of today, it's the third largest retailer in the world, behind Amazon and its main rival Walmart.
Costco's roots trace back to July 1976 when Price Club opened for business in San Diego, California. Price Club, founded by Sol Price, was one of the first wholesale clubs founded. For $25 a year (equivalent to about $135 dollars todaynote ), members could purchase goods in bulk. Since Price Club operated as a no-frills business, savings were passed directly on to the member. Business boomed, and Price Club soon found itself making bank. But of course, its success lead other businessmen to take interest in the wholesale club model. One such person was Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, who decided to open his own club. The aptly-named Sam's Wholesale Club (now just Sam's Club) opened in Oklahoma in April 1983. Why are we talking about their main competitor? More on that later.
Jim Sinegal and Jeffery Brotmon also decided to take a stab at starting their own wholesale club. Their club, Costco Wholesale, opened in September 1983 in Seattle, Washington. Six years later, they were able to go from zero to $3 billion in sales. But thanks to the financial backing of Walmart, Sam's Club was able to secure the top spot. With so much money in its coffers, Sam's Club was in the position to buy out either Price Club or Costco and put them out of business. So the two decided that in order to prevent that from happening, they had to join forces. In 1993, Price Club and Costco merged to form PriceCostco, and operated under that name until 1997. Price Club was eventually fully absorbed into Costco. The original Price Club is still in operation today.
Costco provides these examples:
- The Artifact: The Kirkland Signature brand is named after Kirkland, Washington, which is where the company originally had its headquarters. In 1995, it moved to Issaquah, but it was decided to keep the Kirkland name since it was much easier to spell and pronounce.
- Enemy Mine: In order to prevent Walmart (owner of Sam's Club) from buying it out, Price Club and Costco decided to join forces.
- Insistent Terminology: People who shop at Costco are not “customers”, but rather “members”. Justified in that only those who pay the annual membership fee can shop in its stores.note
- We Sell Everything: A somewhat obscure saying goes that you can buy everything you'd ever need at Costco except "the textbooks you study from, the tuxedo or gown you're married in, the house you live in, and the coffin in which you're buried."
- Except that Costco's online store does sell coffins and wedding gowns. And the company offers member-only referrals to home-buying and build-to-suit services.
Costco appears in, is referenced, or is parodied in these works
- Employee of the Month (2006) takes place in Super Club. The film itself was shot inside the warehouse at Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- In 2023, a Costco-themed version of Monopoly was released. All of the spaces are based on the locations of warehouses across the world. The tokens are also themed after the club; a slice of pizza, a pallet jack, the giant teddy bear, a hotdog and soda combo, a shopping cart, and a golden nametag that commemorates the 40th anniversary of the company.
- In the Family Guy episode "Stuck Togther, Torn Apart, the Griffins go to CostMart. Peter wears different disguises to get free samples, but it turns out that it's three different guys who look a lot alike.
