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Flashback photos show Costco when it opened in 1983 - and the small detail that will infuriate today's shoppers
When Costco opened to much fanfare in September 1983, the very first members flocked to the very new style of shopping - where goods were stacked up warehouse-style,
Archive images taken at the grand opening of the original Seattle store show shoppers with carts full to the brim of bulk packs of toilet roll, cleaning products and giant TVs.
The historic photographs of the 100,000 square foot store show shelves and tables stacked high with brown boxes of merchandise.
Others reveal offers cordless home telephones and Panasonic 19-inch televisions - items that seem outdated with today's smartphones and giant 65inch flat screen sets.
Eagle-eyed observers will notice the surprisingly low membership costs visible in a picture of the first membership kiosk desk.
Shoppers flood into the first Costco, opened in Seattle in 1983
A display of Costco's phone and television products at its opening in the 80s
Longtime Costco executive Cynthia Glaser pictured at the opening in 1983
The original cost of a so-called 'business' membership was just $25 a year. This was aimed at smaller shops, bars and restaurants buying wholesale. It is not offered today.
A gold membership - which is the same today's entry level tier going by the same name - was $30.
At first that might seem cheap - infuriating members today who pay much more.
Costco membership rises in a few weeks to $65 for the standard gold, and it is $130 for the 'executive' level. This tier, which offers cashback and perks, was not around in the 1980s.
But in fact they were not as cheap as they seem. Adjusted for inflation those costs would be $79 and $95, according to the Federal Reserve Bank's inflation calculator.
The membership-based warehouse opening kicked off with a business show on September 15, 1983.
Pamphlets from the time read: 'Costco Wholesale Club comes to Seattle.'
'Membership cash and carry wholesale, lower costs for merchandise than you currently pay,' it promised.
'We didn't have many of the enhancements that we've added to the business since then,' co-founder Jim Sinegal told the Motley Fool in 2013.
'It was clearly a warehouse; an open-beam ceiling and cement floors and industrial steel and forklifts moving around in the facility,' he recalled.
Archive images show shoppers pushing red trolleys around, much the same as in today's stores, full of bulk items of recognizable staples such as Tide washing powder.
Unlike Price Club Costco offered membership to individuals as well as businesses
The original cost of a standard membership was just $25 a year and $30 for gold membership
Crates in the first Costco opened in Seattle in 1983
A crowd flocks to take advantage of the discounts offered by Costco in 1983
Archive photos show what Costco looked like when it first opened in 1983
'It was clearly a warehouse; an open-beam ceiling and cement floors and industrial steel and forklifts moving around in the facility,' co-founder Jim Sinegal said of the opening
Costco's storied history
Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brotman conjured up the idea of Costco in 1982, modelling it on European style 'hypermarkets.'
Sinegal was a retail executive who had cut his teeth working for Sol Price, founder of Price Club.
San Diego-based Price Club opened in 1976, offering membership to local business owners.
Sinegal and Brotman wanted to adapt the same wholesaler membership idea, but open it up to non-business members too.
Company sales in its first year reached $101 million, and membership fees alone topped $1.3 million, according to SEC filings.
The popularity of the store spread and Costco's second and third locations were soon opened in Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington.
As rival's such as Walmart's Sam's Club continued to rise, Costco pushed to expand.
'When Walmart announced it was going into the discount warehouse business, we had to compete and grow quickly,' Brotman told CNN in 2009.
'That's why we expanded as fast as we did,' he explained.
By 1985 Costco had opened twelve stores and had six more scheduled to open during that year.
Company sales in its first year reached $101 million, and membership fees topped $1.3 million
By 1985 Costco had opened twelve stores and had six more scheduled to open during that year
In less than six years sales went from nothing to $6 billion, the company told Business Insider.
The company went public in 1985, selling shares for an initial $10.
In 1993 Sol Price decided to retire and the companies decided to merge, becoming PriceCrostco, before renaming itself simply Costco in 1997.
The company then boasted 206 locations and $16 billion in annual sales.
After forty years in the business Costco has more than 800 locations, nearly 129 million membership cardholders, $237.7 billion in revenue last year.