History of Costco: Company timeline and facts

Costco is a retailer that sells goods at wholesale prices. It pioneered the membership warehouse club model 50 years ago. Costco sells a wide variety of goods ranging from produce and other grocery items to clothes, TV sets, and even luxury items such as gold bars and Rolex watches that can sell for $20,000 or more.

Since its founding, other companies, like Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club, have attempted to replicate Costco’s success by selling bulk items to members at wholesale prices. Other retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Amazon have also tried to compete in price and value.

Here’s a brief history of Costco, followed by a timeline of key events in the company’s history.

Related: How much does Costco pay? From cashier to forklifter to CEO

Costco’s history involves the merger of two companies in 1993: Price Club and Costco. Price Club was created by its namesake founder, Sol Price, in 1976, and was set up to sell goods in a warehouse to paying members. It initially focused on selling to small businesses but later switched to catering to non-business members, and Costco says this is when the growth of the warehouse club industry took off.

Costco—before merging with Price Club—was founded by James Sinegal, who had experience at Price Club, and Jeff Brotman, who had a background in retail. They focused on the members-only retail business model, and they opened their first warehouse in Seattle in 1983.

Both Price Club and Costco quickly expanded the number of warehouse locations they operated, and revenue grew just as fast. By 1984, Price Club’s sales exceeded $1 billion.

In 1993, the merged entity became PriceCostco, but the retailer was later truncated simply to Costco.

Costco prides itself on taking care of its customers as well as its employees. Costco offers three types of memberships: Business ($65), Gold Star ($65), and Executive ($130), with varying perks, all valid for use at any location worldwide. With more than 145,200 members at the end of its fiscal 2025, that’s more than double its biggest rival, Sam’s Club, with around 69 million.

While the prices for goods and services provided by Costco have risen over the years, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed, and it’s subsidized by the revenue generated from its sales and membership fees. Costco’s price for a large hot dog and a 20-ounce soda combo has remained the same—at $1.50—despite rising costs from inflation since the combo was introduced in 1985.

Costco says its warehouses carry about 4,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) compared to the 30,000 found at most supermarkets, and it carefully selects the products it carries based on quality, price, brand, and features.

Related: W. Craig Jelinek’s net worth: How much Costco’s retired CEO made at the big-box chain

Costco has had only three CEOs since the company was formed from the merger of two companies in 1993. Two of its CEOs were decades-long employees who rose through the ranks.

James Sinegal was a Costco founder. In his almost three decades of managing and leading the company, the retailer has experienced significant growth. Sinegal is credited for leading many of Costco’s initiatives: exponential growth in the number of stores, employees, sales, and membership. The retailer initially expanded in North America before pursuing further growth in Europe and Asia.

Taking over Costco from Sinegal, W. Craig Jelinek continued the global expansion of Costco’s business model. In 2013, sales exceeded $100 billion, and its market capitalization reached $50 billion. Jelinek guided Costco through the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, resulting in a spurt of significant growth in sales and membership.

Ron M. Vachris succeeded Jelinek as CEO on Jan. 1, 2024. Ambitious plans under his leadership include continued expansion in the U.S. and globally. The retailer’s targets range from opening 28 new stores in the U.S. and major international markets in 2026 and “more than 30 sites each year for the foreseeable future,” as part of a $6.5 billion expansion strategy.

Vachris’s plans also included increasing the number of gas stations, expanding parking lots, relocating stores to bigger spaces, and raising the pay for in-store employees.

More on Costco:

Here is a timeline of key events in Costco’s 50-year history. Parts of this timeline are listed on the company’s website, while others come from public and financial records.

1976: Price Club opens its first location in a converted airplane hangar on Morena Boulevard in San Diego.

1979: Price Club turns an annual profit of $1 million from two locations with 900 employees serving 200,000 members.

1980: Price Club goes public.

1983: Costco’s first warehouse location opens in Seattle. Two additional stores open in Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington.

1984: Costco serves 200,000 members across five states.

Price Club’s sales exceed $1 billion. Price Club undertakes its first stock split, at 2–for–1.

1985: Costco goes public with an initial public offering at $10 a share, and its stock gets listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market on December 5, 1985.

Costco’s first hot dog cart opens. The price for a hot dog and a soda is $1.50. This price remains unchanged today despite the inflation that has occurred over the four decades since the combo’s introduction.

1987: Price Club and Costco open their first Optical Labs, while Costco opens its first produce and bakery departments.

1988: Costco ceases operations in the Midwest to focus on the West and East Coast markets.

1991: Costco implements its first stock split, 2–for–1.

1992: Costco’s first expansion outside the U.S. is a warehouse in Canada, in Burnaby, British Columbia. Its next international expansion (under Price Club) is a joint venture in Mexico City.

1993: Costco and Price Club merge, and the combined company is named PriceCostco, which has 206 locations and has $16 billion in annual sales.

PriceCostco opens its first warehouse in the U.K., in West Thurrock, Essex, England

1994: PriceCostco’s first expansion in Asia is in Seoul, South Korea. Costco’s locations outside the U.S. account for about a third of all stores worldwide. Key international markets include Japan, China, Spain, France, and Australia. About half of its warehouses outside the U.S. are in Canada and Mexico.

1995: PriceCostco establishes its own private label brand, Kirkland Signature, which sells products ranging from coffee and peanuts to toilet paper, batteries, and pet food. Kirkland is estimated to account for about a third of total revenue today.

The first PriceCostco gas station opens in Tucson, Arizona.

1996: PriceCostco moves its headquarters from Seattle to present-day Issaquah, Washington, a suburb 17 miles away.

1997: PriceCostco stores begin operating under the shortened Costco name, but the entity changes its corporate name to Costco Companies. Two years later, the company’s name changes again to its present name, Costco Wholesale.

Costco introduces Executive Membership. Three years later, it offers a 2% annual reward program that gives each member 2% back on most Costco purchases.

Costco’s market capitalization exceeds $5 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap.com.

1998: Costco introduces e-commerce via Costco.com. Five years later, the website would generate $226 million in sales, and by 2007, it would generate more than $1 billion.

Costco’s market cap rises to more than $10 billion.

1999: Average annual sales per warehouse reach $100 million.

2000: Costco goes for a 2–for–1 stock split. It hasn’t split its stock since then. Locations worldwide total 349 stores.

Annual sales exceed $31.6 billion, and revenue from membership fees reaches over $500 million.

Costco’s Travel Business begins operations. By 2005, more than 57,000 vacation packages will have been booked.

2002: Costco has 40.5 million members and 98,000 employees in its fiscal year ending September 1.

2004: Costco pays its first quarterly dividend at 10 cents a share on May 31.

Costco ranks 29th on the Fortune 500. It is also the fifth-largest retailer in the U.S. and the 11th-largest in the world.

2005: Revenue from membership fees exceeds $1 billion for the first time. Net income reaches $1 billion for the first time.

2006: Costco’s market capitalization exceeds $25 billion, based on data compiled by CompaniesMarketCap.com.

2007: A typical warehouse generates $130 million in sales. Costco operates 529 stores in the U.S. and internationally. Sales reach $63 billion, and revenue from membership fees reaches $1.3 billion.

2008: Costco opens an office in Sydney, Australia, and opens its first warehouse in the country in Melbourne a year later.

2010: Costco operates 582 locations in the U.S. and abroad, and the retailer employs 147,000. Cardholders total 58 million. Sales exceed $76 billion, and revenue from membership fees totals $1.69 billion. Earnings total $1.3 billion.

2012: Annual revenue from membership fees exceeds $2 billion for the first time.

2013: Annual sales exceed $100 billion for the first time. Market capitalization exceeds $50 billion. In five years’ time, in 2018, its market value more than doubles to over $100 billion.

2015: Costco has 698 stores and 205,000 employees globally. Cardholders total 81.3 million. Sales reach $113 billion, and revenue from membership fees totals $2.5 billion. Net income reaches $2.37 billion.

2020: The COVID-19 pandemic hits globally, and Costco–like many retailers—sets shopping and social-distancing protocols. Customers buy in bulk and order essential items such as cleaning products, medication, and groceries online, resulting in a 50% increase in e-commerce sales. Global sales of its Kirkland Signature products exceed $50 billion for the first time.

Costco buys a logistics supplier, Innovel, which it renames Costco Wholesale Logistics. It also takes a minority stake in Navitus, a pharmacy benefit manager, to help reduce healthcare costs for customers.

2021: Costco experiences rapid growth in revenue. Sales reach $192 billion, up 16% from 2020 and more than a quarter from 2019, before COVID. Net income reaches $5 billion for the first time. In 2022, sales would total $222 billion, exceeding $200 billion for the first time, and net income rises to $5.8 billion.

Revenue from membership fees climb to $3.87 billion from $3.5 billion in 2020, and $3.3 billion in 2019. In 2022, fees would exceed $4 billion for the first time—reaching $4.22 billion.

Costco’s market capitalization exceeds $200 billion. Stores globally total 828.

2023: Costco starts selling gold bars, $100 million in reported sales in the first quarter the bars are available. Sales of other precious metals, including platinum, follow.

2024: Ron Vachris, who started as a warehouse forklift operator and rose through the ranks, becomes Costco’s third CEO.

2025: Costco’s market value tops $475 billion, data compiled by CompaniesMarketCap.com show. Sales total almost $250 billion, and revenue from membership fees totals $5.3 billion. Net income exceeds $8 billion.

Costco operates 923 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and 13 foreign countries. The number of employees reaches 341,000. Cardholders total 145,200.

Related: Costco shop cards & how they work: Everything you need to know

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.