Costco in Two Minutes – Everything you need to know about the store giant

Costco has around 800 stores worldwide and is already present in a number of European countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Iceland. According to Icelandic media, nearly half of Icelanders visited the store three weeks after opening in 2017, and the low-priced giant in a short time competed with local stores. Even here in Sweden, where Costco opens next year, the US trade is respected.

They are potentially a bigger threat than Amazon, Rusta CEO Goran Westberg says in an interview with Market.

Here’s (almost) everything you need to know about the new competitor:

• Concept: Member-based supermarket trade that targets businesses and consumers alike. Its wide range includes, among other things, groceries, fashion, sports and entertainment, home electronics, home equipment, home furnishings, health and self-care. The range of services includes automobile service, installation services, craft services, and insurance. It operates its own manufacturing industry in areas such as food, optics, and jewelry.
• membership: In the United States, Costco has two levels of membership for consumers: Gold Star and Gold Star Executive. The Gold Star costs $ 60 (about 500 kr) a year and gives the right to shop at Costco stores and two membership cards per household. The Gold Star Executive costs $ 120 (1,000 kronor) and gives a 2 percent refund annually plus additional benefits and offers compared to the Gold Star standard. For companies, the structure has the same pricing, but membership is instead called Business and Business Executive.
• Net sales*: $ 163.2 billion (149.4), which equates to about 1392 billion Swedish kronor (1274).
• Membership fee *: $ 3.5 billion (3.4), about 30.2 billion Swedish kronor (28.6).
• Operating profit *: $ 5.4 billion (4.7), about 46.4 billion Swedish kronor (40.4).
• Involved: Costco is listed on the stock exchange. The share price has increased by 20 percent in the past year.
• Vd: W. Craig Jellenkick, 68, has been President and CEO since 2012. Member of the Operational Management Team since 1995.
• Number of Employees*: 273,000 (254,000).
• Number of supermarkets: 805 (3/11 2021).
• Markets and number of stores in each market: United States of America, 559. Canada, 103. Great Britain, 29. Taiwan, 14. Korea, 16. Japan, 27. Australia, 12. Mexico, 39. Spain, 3. Iceland, 1. France, 1. China, 1 .
• Store Size: 7400 – 21,400 sq. Ft. An average of 13,600 sq.m.
• Average sales per store: $ 192 million, about 1.6 billion kronor.
• Number of members: 108.3 million cardholders, 59.7 million households (2/14 2021).
• brief history: In 1976, Sol and Robert Price Klopp founded a converted hangar in San Diego, California. In 1982, he met Jeff Brotman and Jim Signal, who began drawing a new concept for the supermarket and the following year he opened the first Costco department store in Seattle. In 1993, Price Company and Costco merged into PriceCostco. 1998 Costco opens e-commerce. In the following years, the chain continued to expand, both in the United States and around the world. It has been ranked since 2015 as the second largest global retail company in the world. It reached over 100 million members in 2019.

* Fiscal year 2020, which ended on August 30.