Numbers

$254B

3rd-largest retailer in the world

[Costco 2024 10-K + Acquired episode Costco] · as of 2024-09

• Ben:Costco has grown revenue right about 10% for over 30 years in a row.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite
• Ben:Their revenue per square foot of their warehouses belongs more in a conversation with Tiffany than Walmart.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite

~$4.8B

approximately equal to total net operating income — the fees ARE the business

[Costco 2024 10-K] · as of 2024-09

~80%

$25.7B returned vs ~$37.4B cumulative net income — 4 special dividends ($14.4B total) + regular dividends ($11.5B) + modest buybacks ($4.5B). Including the Dec 2023 $15/share special pushes the ratio above 85%.

[Acquired episode Costco (citing Alex Morris / The Science of Hitting) + Costco 10-K filings FY2014-FY2023] · as of 2023-12

• Ben:There's this crazy stat from The Science of Hitting that the company has returned 80% of net income to shareholders in the last decade rather than reinvesting it in growth.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Capital allocation]
  EpisodeCite
• Backup research (parallel research subagent, 2026-05-25): computed cumulative shareholder returns of ~$25.7B against ~$37.4B cumulative net income across FY2014-2023 → ~69%. Adding the Dec 2023 special ($15/share = ~$6.7B) pushes the ratio to ~87%. The Acquired '80%' framing falls inside this range depending on the exact decade boundary.
  [SEC EDGAR — Costco 10-K filings]
  SourceCite
• Alex Morris's original computation — The Science of Hitting newsletter (paywalled). The Acquired hosts cite this as the source of the 80% figure.
  [The Science of Hitting — The Costco Snowball]
  SourceCite

73M+

Executive (Gold Star) renewal rate ~93% in US/Canada

[Costco 2024 10-K] · as of 2024-09

890+

across 14 countries — US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, France, China, Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden

[Costco 2024 10-K] · as of 2024-09

~12%

vs ~25% industry average for retail — INTENTIONALLY low to defend the membership thesis

[Costco 2024 10-K + Acquired episode Costco] · as of 2024-09

• Ben:They have decided internally that they are not allowed to markup anything more than 14% above what the suppliers sell it to them for. Things like electronics, they actually can only mark up 6%, 7%, 8%. Maximum is 14%.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Margin Cap]
  EpisodeCite
• Ben:The only exception to this is Kirkland Signature, where they cheat a little bit and let themselves go up to 15%. Quite indulgent.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Margin Cap]
  EpisodeCite

~4,000

vs Walmart's ~142,000 — the constraint produces the buying power

[Acquired episode Costco] · as of 2024

~30%

private label outsells every brand-name competitor across categories

[Acquired episode Costco + 2024 investor disclosures] · as of 2024

• Ben:Kirkland Signature does more revenue alone, not including anything else in the store, than all of Nike.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite
• Ben:Their $52 billion a year that they sell, which inches by Nike by just about a billion dollars, doesn't even include the Kirkland Signature gas.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite
• David:I think Kirkland Signature as a unified brand might be the largest brand in the world by revenue.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite

$1.50

unchanged since 1985 — Sinegal: "if you raise the price of the f***ing hot dog, I will kill you"

[Acquired episode Costco; 2018 Costco shareholder remarks (Jelinek)] · as of 1985-present

• David:Sol calls up Hebrew National hotdogs and asks them if they can supply them with hotdogs to sell at the stores. Hebrew says, not only will we sell you hotdogs to sell, we'll supply the cart too. Thus, the Costco $1.50 hot dog and soda deal is born. Still to this day, it's $1.50 47 years later.
  [Acquired Costco, ch. Price Club origin]
  EpisodeCite