The purchase order that makes your year can also empty your bank account. Here’s how to get the first without the second.

There is a moment every founder dreams about. The phone rings, and it’s a Costco buyer.

Champagne. Phone calls to Mom. A LinkedIn post with the word “humbled” in it, which is what people write when they mean “thrilled.”

Then the purchase order arrives, and the founder reads the number, and the room goes very, very quiet.

Because a Costco order isn’t a bigger version of a supermarket order. It’s a different animal. It can make a small brand’s year. Handled badly, the exact same order can sink it. Not because Costco did anything wrong. Costco is one of the best-run retailers on earth. It sank it because the brand wasn’t built for what it just said yes to.

First, the vocabulary

George Carlin would want to start with the words, and Costco has some beauties.

“Treasure hunt.” That’s how Costco describes the experience of shopping there, and it’s brilliant. You walk in for paper towels and leave with a kayak, a cashmere sweater and forty pounds of salmon. The magic is that items come and go, so you’d better buy it now. Now read that sentence again as a brand. Items come and go. You are not the treasure hunter. You might be the treasure. And treasure, by definition, eventually disappears.

The asterisk. Longtime Costco shoppers will tell you that a little asterisk in the corner of a price sign usually means the item isn’t being reordered. Think about that. In most of the world, an asterisk means “see footnote.” At Costco it can mean “see you never.” It’s the only punctuation mark in retail that works as an obituary.

“Member.” You’re not a customer at Costco. You’re a member. Members pay $65 or $130 a year for the right to shop there. Which means the people walking past your product already paid a cover charge, and they came in expecting a deal.

Why it’s such a prize

The numbers are why everybody wants in. Costco did nearly $300 billion in sales last fiscal year, through more than 900 warehouses. And each warehouse carries fewer than 4,000 items. Most supermarkets carry around 30,000. Those are Costco’s own numbers.

Sit with that for a second. Getting into Costco is like getting one of fewer than 4,000 seats in a stadium where everybody else is standing outside. Every item on that floor has to move, and move fast, because there is no room for anything that doesn’t.

And the margins Costco takes for itself are famously thin. It’s widely reported that Costco caps its markup at about 14% on branded items and 15% on its own Kirkland Signature line. Kirkland, by the way, did about $90 billion in sales last year. That’s roughly a third of the whole company. Keep that in mind. We’ll come back to it.

Where the trouble starts

The pack. Costco rarely sells the same item you sell at the supermarket. It sells a club pack: bigger, multiples, often its own packaging, its own barcode and its own pallet setup. That means new packaging design, new printing and maybe new equipment, all paid for before the first unit ships.

The production. One Costco region’s order can be bigger than everything you sold last year. That means your co-packer needs a slot, you need ingredients and packaging bought in advance, and you need to pay for all of it weeks or months before a single dollar comes back. Plenty of brands have discovered that the most dangerous thing in this business isn’t a “no.” It’s a “yes” you can’t afford to fill.

The roadshow. Often, before Costco commits more broadly, it’ll test you with a roadshow: you set up in a warehouse for several days, usually Thursday through Sunday, and sell your product to the members who walk by. According to Nosh, a warehouse can see 4,000 to 7,000 members a day. That’s a dream crowd. But the brand pays for the people, the travel, the samples and the shipping. What doesn’t sell, you haul back out at closing time. And as one marketing veteran told Nosh: you do not get a second shot at Costco.

The price leak. Your Costco price, per ounce, is going to be the cheapest price for your product anywhere. Every other buyer you sell to can do that math. The grocery buyer who has been supporting you for two years walks into Costco on a Saturday, sees your twelve-pack, takes out his phone, and divides. Now you have a conversation you weren’t planning on.

The neighbor. Remember Kirkland Signature, roughly a third of Costco’s sales? It sits in an awful lot of categories. That’s not a conspiracy. It’s a strategy, and it’s written right on the label. But it means your real competition on that floor isn’t just the other brands. It’s the house brand, at a house price, with the most trusted name in the building. So the question you need to answer before the roadshow, not after, is simple: why would a member pick you over the store’s own product sitting next to you? “We’re better” is not an answer. A flavor Kirkland doesn’t make, a story Kirkland can’t tell, a format nobody else has. Those are answers.

The exit. Remember the treasure hunt. Items rotate. If your sales slow, you may get deleted, which is the industry’s lovely word for “removed.” Brands that hired staff, signed leases and bought equipment based on Costco volume can wake up with all of the overhead and none of the orders.

Stack it up

Lewis Black, who has been sitting quietly with his hands shaking, would like to add it all up now.

New packaging, before the first sale. A co-packer slot, before the first sale. Ingredients and boxes, paid in advance. A roadshow crew in four cities, plus hotel rooms, plus samples, plus freight. A price that every other retailer you have can see. A grocery buyer who’s now annoyed. A bank account that’s drained in March for money that comes back in June. And then an asterisk on a sign in Tucson. You got the order of your dreams, and it nearly fucking killed you.

Nobody did anything wrong. Costco did exactly what it said it would. The brand just said yes before it did the math.

The verdict

Costco is a fantastic account, for brands that are ready for it. And being ready is mostly common sense.

Model your cash before you accept the order, not after. Know exactly how much money goes out, and when, and how long until it comes back. Build a club pack that makes sense next to your supermarket pricing, so your other buyers see a different product, not a cheaper one. Treat a roadshow as a test you staff properly, not a weekend you wing. And treat Costco volume as an event, not a salary: don’t build permanent overhead on a business that rotates by design.

Brands do this successfully all the time. It’s possible. It is rarely easy. And the brands that pull it off almost always had someone in the room who had been through it before.

That’s what we do at Cascadia. If a club buyer just called, or you want one to, talk to us first. We’ll help you make sure the best day of your year stays that way.

Sources & Receipts

1. Costco fiscal 2026 net sales of about $297 billion (52 weeks ended August 30, 2026) and 939 warehouses: Costco Wholesale, “Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2026 Operating Results,” September 24, 2026.

2. Fewer than 4,000 active items per warehouse: Costco Wholesale, Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, Item 1. About 30,000 items at most supermarkets: Costco, “Company Information,” costco.com.

3. Kirkland Signature sales of about $90 billion in 2025: Costco 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, January 2026, reported by Chowhound, February 6, 2026. “Roughly a third” is our calculation against Costco’s net sales.

4. Markup caps of about 14% (branded) and 15% (Kirkland Signature): widely reported, including by TheStreet; not a published Costco policy. Membership fees of $65 and $130, raised September 2024 and unchanged as of October 2026.

5. Roadshow format (typically Thursday through Sunday), warehouse traffic of 4,000 to 7,000 members a day, brand-paid staffing, samples and logistics, and “you do not get a second shot at Costco”: Nosh, “Road Warriors: Tips for Winning Your Costco Roadshow,” 2023.

6. Costco’s limited assortment and regional buying process: Tinuiti, “The Costco Vendor Guide for Beginners.”

7. The “treasure hunt” description of the Costco shopping experience: Costco’s own description, used in company reports.

8. The asterisk on price signs indicating an item may not be reordered: widely reported by shoppers and former employees; not an official Costco policy statement.

In the new Cascadia blog:

→ The club pack you pay for before the first sale

→ The production bill that comes due months before the money does

→ Roadshows, the price leak, and the house brand next to you

→ How to treat Costco volume as an event, not a salary

Read it here: cascadiafoodbev.com/blog

Founders who’ve been through a Costco roadshow: what do you wish you’d known going in?

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