COVER STORY
Docklands, Australia warehouse
TIMOTHY BURGESS
Expanding frontiers
At the 1983 Seattle opening of Costco's first warehouse, the founders envisioned that if they were successful, the venture could perhaps grow to a dozen locations. Few could have predicted that one day Costco Wholesale would be a name familiar to people all across the world.
by Will Fifield, Dan Jones, T. Foster Jones
The idea for Costco came in the early 1980s, after Seattleite Jeff Brotman, whose family had deep roots in the retail business in that area, was urged by his father to check out the bustling Price Club warehouses in California. The younger Brotman immediately flew down to California and quickly realized he was in agreement with his father: There was nothing similar in the Pacific Northwest.
Looking for somebody with experience to help start and run the new business, Brotman asked around among his contacts and was told there was really only one guy for the job, a man who had worked with Price Club and understood this new warehouse model: Jim Sinegal.
The first Costco warehouse, located in Seattle.
COURTESY OF COSTCO WHOLESALE
Jim Sinegal (left) and Jeff Brotman at the opening of the first Costco warehouse in Seattle in 1983
COURTESY OF COSTCO WHOLESALE