What is Costco?
[[Image:Costco Wholesale logo 2010-10-26.svg|thumb|Logo]] '''Costco Wholesale Corporation''' ({{NASDAQ|COST}}), which is '''Costco''' for short, is an [[United States|American]] operator of discount stores known as warehouse clubs or wholesale clubs. Abundance of products are sold with deeply discounted prices to club members who need to pay annual membership fees. Costco is based in [[Issaquah, Washington|Issaquah]], [[Washington]] and one of the largest retailers in the world.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kim|first=Jae-Jin|date=2019-03-31|title=The Entry and Growth Strategy of Multinational Retail Warehouse in Korea Market: The Case of Costco Wholesale|journal=International Business Review |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.21739/ibr.2019.03.23.1.53|volume=23|issue=1|pages=53–79|doi=10.21739/ibr.2019.03.23.1.53|s2cid=201442658 |issn=1598-4869}}</ref> == History == Costco has a history of over 40 years. Date back to 1976, Sol Price, a pioneer in warehouse club retailing, opened the first Price Club which an airline hangar was remodeled in [[San Diego]], [[California]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Photograph critical of social media, Los Angeles, February 2017, by Alex Cho|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11537055.cmp.77 |doi=10.3998/mpub.11537055.cmp.77 }}</ref> In 1983 [[Jeffrey Brotman|Jeffrey H. Brotman]] and [[James Sinegal|James D. Sinegal]] opened the first Costco in [[Seattle]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]]. Ten years later, The Price Company and Costco merged into Price/Costco. They changed it into Costco Wholesale Corporation on October 30, 1999. Costco spread and was constructed in several countries, the [[United States]], [[Canada]], [[Mexico]], [[Europe]], the [[Far East]], and [[Australia]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Cottrell|first=Marilyn|title=Costco Wholesale|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412964289.n239|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Business in Today's World|year=2009 |place=Thousand Oaks, California|publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc.|doi=10.4135/9781412964289.n239 |isbn=9781412964272 |access-date=2022-04-11}}</r