Buy Big, Spend Small: Treasure Hunting at Costco

There's been some minor buzz around Costco Wholesale Corporation, the American retail warehouse, constructing its first gas station in Taiwan. Scheduled for completion in Taoyuan's Zhongli district in 2017, the station will offer the lowest fuel prices in the country. This venture into fuel sales is but one example in Costco's long history of expanding its scope to draw in additional customers.

Costco's roots can be traced back to 1976 when Sol Price opened the first wholesale retailer, Price Club. Within four years, the company went public. By 1983, one of Price's proteges, Jim Sinegal, jumped ship and cofounded a splinter company, Costco. Price Club and Costco continued butting heads and expanding until 1993, when they horizontally merged into PriceCostco. The company then developed outside of North America, opening warehouses in the U.K. and South Korea. In 1997, the company rebranded to Costco Wholesale Corporation and opened its first Taiwanese location in Kaohsiung.

Each Costco warehouse offers diverse product category selections, ranging from grocery and household goods to jewelry, tire repair, pharmaceuticals and eyewear, with Costco Optical being America's fifth-largest optical company in 2015. Costco also sells its own high-quality private label, Kirkland Signature, which nets Costco approximately US$15 billion a year in sales. According to Kantar Worldpanel, Kirkland's Taiwanese consumer reach point (CRP) rose 81 percent between 2014 and 2015, making it one of the 10 fastest growing brands in Taiwan.


花小錢買很大──好市多尋寶去

美國零售倉儲量販店好市多在最近掀起了小小的話題，那就是他們正在建造其台灣的首間加油站。計畫 2017 年於桃園中壢區完工，這座加油站將提供全台最低油價。在好市多悠久的歷史中，這項販售汽油的投資僅是其拓展營業範圍以吸引更多顧客的一個例子。
好市多的源頭可回溯至 1976 年，當時索爾．普萊斯開了第一間批發零售店 Price Club。四年之內，Price Club 公開上市。到了 1983 年，普萊斯的其中一個門徒——吉姆．辛尼格跳槽並聯合創立了分支公司——好市多。Price Club 與好市多繼續纏鬥及拓展營運，直至 1993 年兩家公司水平購併為普來勝公司。這間公司接著往北美以外的地區發展，在英國與南韓開設倉儲量販店。1997 年更名為好市多公司，並在高雄設立台灣的第一個營運據點。
每一間好市多倉儲量販店皆提供多樣化的產品類別，從食品雜貨和家用品，到珠寶、輪胎修理、藥品以及眼鏡都有，好市多光學在 2015 年名列全美第五大光學眼鏡公司。好市多也販售高品質的 Kirkland Signature 自有品牌商品，讓好市多一年約賺進一百五十億美元的銷售額。根據凱度消費者指數調查，Kirkland 的台灣消費者觸及數在 2014 年和 2015 年間，增加了 81%，使其成為台灣十大快速成長品牌之一。