Name: コストコが巨大な「会員制」小売店になった経緯 (How Costco Became A Massive "Members Only" Retailer)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T11:23:42.000Z
Duration: 22 min 2 s
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Costco is a retailer that has figured out how to get its customers to

pay for the privilege of shopping there, and its members decide the

privilege is worth the cost year after year after year.

The now global chain of warehouse stores counts more than 55 million

members around the world, and around 90% of them renew their

If you want a 25-pound bag of beans, a bucket of soy sauce or a crate

full of bananas, Costco is the place to go.

While you are there, you can buy a flatscreen TV, a pair of

eyeglasses, some gourmet cheese and a few pairs of sweat socks.

You might be astonished at how little each item costs, and yet you

might end up spending much more than you planned to.

Costco developed a retail recipe that might have sounded crazy when

the company was founded, charging people a fee to allow them to spend

But it works, in part because Costco is a company that is run very

much for the pleasure of its members, and its members are fiercely

Younger generations of consumers have grown up shopping online and

companies such as Amazon have taken some of Costco's secrets and

applied them to e-commerce, all while making shopping online a matter

Add that to the downstream effects of the coronavirus.

Sales fell in April for the first time in a decade, largely due to

But the company, meanwhile, had to spend $283 million in

Covid-related safety and sanitation costs during the third quarter of

Furthermore, Costco wants or even arguably needs shoppers to

Long lockdown periods around the country and general anxiety about

contracting the coronavirus led many shoppers to stay home and buy

The company is highly dependent on membership fees for its profits,

meaning it needs to keep giving customers reasons to pay a minimum of

Costco also raises membership fees every few years.

Subscriptions and memberships are often some of the household

expenses first to go when budgets tighten and consumers, faced with a

wide array of subscription services for gyms, streaming services,

meal delivery and other things, may be deciding what they ought to

Costco's membership numbers held steady and even increased during the

But it remains to be seen just how resilient its business is this

time around. Costco declined to participate in this story.

What is today called Costco actually grew out of a merger of two

The first was called Price Club, and it was started in 1976 in a

converted airplane hangar in San Diego, California.

The store took its name from founder Sol Price, a Bronx-born attorney

who, in many ways, pioneered the club warehouse retail model more

than two decades before starting Price Club.

Price had learned a great deal about the world of business through

his legal work, helping clients with bankruptcies, real estate deals

and partnerships. But he had never run a store before.

He entered the retail business as a way to find a use for a

warehouse he helped his mother-in-law acquire as an investment in

1953. While searching around for a purpose for this property, Price

heard about a company called FedCo, a large warehouse store in Los

Angeles that sold a variety of goods at very low prices.

It was open only to members, run in a manner similar to a

co-operative and had been primarily created to serve U.S.

Postal Service workers and their families.

After trying unsuccessfully to partner with FedCo in his San Diego

At FedMart, Price developed the idea of selling goods at very low

The company became tremendously successful and inspired other large,

Sam Walton said many of his ideas for Walmart came from Price's

store. FedMart went public in 1959 on the American Stock Exchange.

The company was bought by a German retailer in 1975, but the new

owners failed to maintain Price's success, and FedMart closed its

Price then founded the Price Company in 1975 and opened Price Club in

The chain of stores had much the same model as Price's previous

venture. A few years later, two men named Jeff Brotman and Jim

Sinegal founded Costco in the Seattle, Washington area in 1983.

Like Price, Brotman was a lawyer with commercial ambitions, who

ventured into the club warehouse business at the urging of his

The other Costco founder, Jim Sinegal, had spent years working

closely with Price at both FedMart and Price Club.

Costco grew rapidly from nothing to $3 billion in sales in under

Price Club and Costco merged in 1993 and were initially named

PriceCostco. The company became just Costco in 1997.

Since that merger, Costco has attained explosive growth.

In 1993, the company reported $15.5 billion in sales.

In 2019, its sales totaled $152.7 billion.

The company went public on December 5th, 1985.

Since then, shares have risen more than 19,000% from an IPO price

before stock splits of $10 per share to $344 per share

A basic Costco membership costs $60 per year.

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コストコが巨大な「会員制」小売店になった経緯 (How Costco Became A Massive "Members Only" Retailer)

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