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Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world based on sales volume, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, United States, with its flagship warehouse in nearby Seattle. more...
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Costco's Canadian operations are based in Ottawa, Ontario, and British Columbia.
History
Founded by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman, Costco opened its first warehouse in Seattle, Washington, on September 15, 1983. Sinegal had started in retailing by working for Sol Price at both FedMart and Price Club. Brotman, an attorney from an old Seattle retailing family, had also been involved in retailing from an early age.
In 1993, Costco merged with Price Club (called Club Price in the Canadian province of Quebec). Costco’s business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which was founded by Sol and Robert Price in 1976 in San Diego, California. Thus, the combined company, PriceCostco, was effectively double the size of each of its parents. Just after the merger, PriceCostco had 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales. PriceCostco was initially led by executives from both companies, but then Sol and his son Robert Price founded Price Enterprises and left in 1994.
In 1997, the company changed its name to Costco Wholesale.
Costco today
The main competitor in the membership warehouse space is Sam's Club. Although Sam's Club has more warehouses than Costco, Costco has higher total sales volume. Costco employs about 132,000 full- and part-time employees, including seasonal workers, and for fiscal year 2006, ended on September 3, 2006, the company's store sales totaled $60.2 billion of which $1.1 billion was net profit. Costco is #32 on the Fortune 500.
As of November 23, 2007, Costco has 523 locations.
388 in the United States and Puerto Rico;
71 in Canada;
30 in Mexico (50-50 joint venture);
19 in the United Kingdom;
6 in Japan;
5 in South Korea;
Costco has announced that it will begin to open stores in Melbourne, Australia in 2008. Membership will be below A$100 on an annual basis. ;
In the United States, Costco is closed on the following holidays (most other major retailers stay open on all of these dates except Thanksgiving and Christmas):
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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