Costco’s worldwide headquarters are in Issaquah, Washington, an eastern suburb of Seattle, but its Kirkland Signature house label bears the name of its former location in Kirkland. The company opened its first warehouse (the chain’s term for its retail outlets) in Seattle in 1983.[10][11] Through mergers, however, Costco’s corporate history dates back to 1976, when its former competitor Price Club was founded in San Diego, California.[12][13][14]
Costco originally began with a wholesale business model aimed at enrolling businesses as members, then also began to enroll individual consumers and sell products intended for them, including its own private label brand.[15] As of May 2025, Costco operates 905 warehouses worldwide, with 86% of them being in North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico).[5]
History
A Costco in Tlalpan in Mexico City
Australia’s first Costco, located in Docklands, Victoria, Australia
A Costco Wholesale store in Hashima, Gifu, Japan
Price Club
Main article: Price Club
Costco’s earliest predecessor, Price Club, opened its first store on July 12, 1976, on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California. It was founded three months earlier by Sol Price and his son, Robert, after a dispute with the new owners of FedMart, Price’s previous membership-only discount store.[16] Price Club was among the first retail warehouse clubs, beginning with its Morena Boulevard store inside a series of old airplane hangars once owned by Howard Hughes.[17][18] The store, known as Costco Warehouse #401, is still in operation today.[19][20]
Price Club’s sales model targeted small business owners, selling items in bulk for a discounted price at no-frills outlets that were accessible only with an annual membership fee.[21] The company launched an initial public offering in 1980 and expanded to 24 locations in the Southwest and 1.1 million members by early 1986.[14][21] Price Club expanded into Canada in 1986, opening a store in Montreal,[22] followed by a Mexico City store in 1992 as part of a joint venture with hypermarket chain Controladora Comercial Mexicana.[23] The company also announced plans to open stores in Spain and Portugal through their Canadian subsidiary.[23]
Costco opens
Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman[24] opened the first Costco warehouse in Seattle on September 15, 1983.[25] Sinegal had started in wholesale distribution by working for Sol Price at FedMart; Brotman, an attorney from an old Seattle retailing family, had also been involved in retail distribution from an early age. Sinegal began his retail involvement as a grocery bagger.[26] At its launch, Costco sold goods to small businesses at a markup of only 8 or 9 percent over the wholesale price.[27]
A second store opened in Portland, Oregon in October, and a third in Spokane in December 1983.[10] On December 5, 1985, Costco went public, opening on NASDAQ at a price of $10 per share; at the time, the company had 17 warehouses nationally and 1,950 employees.[25][28] The company was initially headquartered at its first warehouse in Seattle but moved its headquarters to Kirkland in 1987.[25]
The “PriceCostco” merger
In 1993, Costco and Price Club agreed to merge operations after Price declined an offer from Walmart to merge Price Club with their warehouse store chain, Sam’s Club.[29] Costco’s business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which made the merger more natural for both companies.[14] The combined company took the name PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, meaning that a Price Club member could use their membership to shop at Costco and vice versa. PriceCostco boasted 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales.[17] PriceCostco was initially led by executives from both companies, but in 1994, the Prices left the company to form PriceSmart,[14][30] a warehouse club chain in Central America and the Caribbean unrelated to the current Costco.[31]
Costco moved its headquarters from Kirkland to Issaquah in 1996. It chose to build a new headquarters campus next to a warehouse store to allow buyers to check sales and merchandise.[32] They had originally planned to move by December 1993 to Redmond, another Eastside city, but delays in road construction near the warehouse site caused the company to reconsider.[33] The former Kirkland headquarters, a 10.7-acre (4.3 ha) campus, was sold in late 1996.[34]
The company began testing store conversions to Costco branding across the Southwestern United States in late 1996. It officially reverted to using the Costco name and stock symbol in February 1997, with all remaining Price Club locations subsequently rebranded as Costco.[35][36] In March 2020, Costco announced the acquisition of Innovel, a logistics company, for one billion dollars.[37]
Other company milestones
The first Costco warehouse in Seattle was replaced with a new building on an adjacent lot to the north in March 2005;[38] the company was able to arrange to keep the same address for the new building, which was on land acquired from Seattle Public Schools.[25][39] The original building was demolished and replaced by a parking lot, gas station, and car wash—the company’s first—which opened in 2006.[40][41] In 2014, Costco was the third largest retailer in the United States.[42] That year Costco announced plans to open an online store in China using Alibaba Group.[43]
Costco announced the opening of 29 new locations in 2016, the most in one year since 2007.[44][45] Span Construction, led by King Husein, has constructed almost all of Costco’s buildings since 1989.[46]
Costco opened its first warehouse in China on August 27, 2019, in Shanghai. The store attracted so many customers that it had to close after only a couple of hours.[47] The first Costco in New Zealand was first opened at West Auckland in September 2022,[48][49] delayed from mid-August due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[50]
Costco today
