Costco Does Not Sell Products With Its Name

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Popular Kirkland products from Costco's wholesale warehouses account for a large portion of the company's sales and sometimes even fierce competition for well-known brands that sell similar products at higher prices within those warehouses.

From dishwashing detergent to clothing, frozen food and vodka, Costco offers a huge variety of Kirkland products that are a favorite with many for their quality. But have you ever wondered why Costco does not sell products under its own name?

The answer is simple, but curious. The joke is that in 1995 Costco asked one of its major suppliers to sell its popular products at a lower cost to sell in bulk at hundreds of Costco stores in the country. But the company - whose name has not been released - flatly refused.

Jon Van Guilder, an employee of Costco, told the Quora site that said supplier “laughed” at the request, but that when Costco replaced its products with ones from its own line, it only remained for him to come “hat in hand offering the Lower possible cost for your products”.

Thereafter Costco decided to start its own product line under the name of Kirkland, which is the town in Washington state where the headquarters of the company was located in those years.

And they put it that way instead of Costco because that name would be more attractive to their customers than a 'Costco brand'. According to the mentioned site, this practice is quite common in large companies such as Macy's, which has Charter Club, INC or Alfani. In this way, people feel that they are not sacrificing quality when buying a product that is not a well-known brand.