Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. Costco's worldwide headquarters are in Issaquah, Washington , an eastern suburb of Seattle, although 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 It was founded three months earlier by Sol Price and his son, Robert, following a dispute with the new owners of FedMart , Price's previous membership-only discount store.
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. Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey H.
Brotman [ 24 ] opened the first Costco warehouse in Seattle on September 15, Costco moved its headquarters from Kirkland to Issaquah in It chose to build a new headquarters campus next to a warehouse store to allow buyers to check sales and merchandise.
The company began testing store conversions to Costco branding across the Southwestern United States in late It officially reverted to using the Costco name and stock symbol in February , with all remaining Price Club locations subsequently rebranded as Costco. In March , Costco announced the acquisition of Innovel, a logistics company, for one billion dollars. The first Costco warehouse in Seattle was replaced with a new building on an adjacent lot to the north in March ; [ 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.
In , Costco was the third largest retailer in the United States. Costco announced the opening of 29 new locations in , the most in one year since Costco opened its first warehouse in China on August 27, , in Shanghai. The store attracted so many customers that it had to close after only a couple of hours. From December , Costco's board of directors was chaired by co-founder Jeffrey H. On August 1, , Jeffrey Brotman died.
