Costco , the warehouse shopping club , continued to grow in 2019 with 782 locations worldwide at year 's end . The U.S. is still home to the vast majority of the American retailer 's warehouses , but it has expanded into 11 other markets . With the expansion in store count comes an increase of members , and at the end of 2018 Costco could boast over 98 million cardholders . Costco is headquartered in Washington state in the United States and opened its first warehouse in Seattle in 1983 . Today , the company is the second largest retailer in the world , behind only Walmart . In 2019 , the company had net sales of over 149.35 billion U.S. dollars and a brand value of over 17 billion . Costco 's customers According to a recent survey , over 10 percent of Americans did their main grocery shopping at Costco and over 22 percent of households did at least some of their shopping with the retailer . Costco seems to be pleasing these customers , as it took the top spot in a consumer satisfaction survey regarding department and discount stores in 2018 .
