Costco Wholesale

Pharmacy, Optical Department, Tire Shop Center, Hearing Aid Center, Whole Foods.

The company's first location, opened in 1976 under the Price Club name, was in a converted airplane hangar on Morena Boulevard in San Diego. The company found it could achieve far greater buying power by serving small businesses and a select audience of non-business members. With that, the growth of the warehouse club industry was off and running. In 1983, the first Costco warehouse location opened in Seattle. Costco became the first company to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in less than six years. When Costco and Price Club merged in 1993 to become PriceCostco, it had 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales.