Costco Membership Card
notes: label: Description
content: Price Club, the first members-only discount warehouse store in the United States, opened in San Diego, California, in 1976. Its founder, Sol Price (1916-2009), envisioned a retail model that slashed overhead costs: the enormous, no-frills store carried a limited inventory that was not promoted with paid advertisements. At first, Price Club membership was available only to business owners, a strategy that proved unprofitable. Once general consumers were allowed to become members, the business flourished and, by 1993, Price Club owned 94 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
label: Description
content: Price’s model was copied and adapted by others, including Costco, established in Seattle in 1983. In 1993, Price Club and Costco merged, becoming “Price Costco” until 1997, when the business became simply “Costco.”
label: Description
content: This membership card for “Price Costco” was issued to Margaret (Peggy) Hackman, who used it at the Costco warehouse store in Gaithersburg, Maryland, from the early 1990s until she donated it to the museum in 2011.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
label: See more items in
content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Margaret (Peggy) Hackman
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2012.0159.01
label: accession number
content: 2012.0159
label: catalog number
content: 2012.0159.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: card
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/8 in x 3 3/8 in x 1/16 in; 5.3975 cm x 8.5725 cm x .15875 cm