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Ever wondered about the differences between Costco in the USA and Costco in the UK?
I’ve got an entire article on whether there even is Costco in the UK (yes), but in this guide, we’re diving deep into the differences between the American Costcos and British Costcos so you know what to expect if you’re shopping in a different country!
We’ll cover the one big membership difference, food court differences, and more!
1. Pronunciation
In the UK (as a vast generalization), Costco is usually pronounced with the “t” more enunciated – so it sounds like COST-CO (which admittedly is basically what it is).
However, in the USA, we tend to drop our “t’s” more, so I say it like COS-CO, with a very low (if even there) “t” sound.
It’s a small difference, but it’s interesting when you start to hear how people say Costco in their British vs American accent!
2. Costco History
Costco is an American wholesale corporation with membership-only big box retail stores.
It’s headquarted in the suburbs of Seattle and it actually dates back to a store called Price Club that opened in 1976.
Price Club targeted small business owners, selling items in bulk for a discounted price with a membership fee.
The first Costco Warehouse was opened separately in 1983 and actually went public in 1985 with 17 warehouses nationally with the same sort of idea – wholesale distribution.
In 1993, Costco and Price Club merged and it then became PriceCostco and you could use your membership at either Price Clubs or Costco, but one year later the Price family peaced out to go do their own thing called “PriceSmart” that is open in Central America and the Caribbean.
By 1997, Costco reverted back to just using the Costco name and rebranding all of the PriceClubs to Costcos.
Now, Costco is not just open in America – it has warehouses in places like Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Korea, Spain, and of course, the UK.
The UK has 29 Costco locations, with the first opened in 1993, though at the time, according to this article from the Herald, it was challenged by companies like Sainsbury and Tesco because they didn’t want Costco stealing all of their customers.
It was overruled because Costco is a different concept to a regular supermarket, operating as a wholesaler rather than a retail operator.
Also sidenote, but I love how this article from 1993 tries to explain wholesale clubs to the reader by saying, “warehouse clubs offer their members the opportunity to buy in bulk a range of goods from baked beans to video recorders.”
It’s just such a random pair of things to mention, but also I love how it appeals to a British audience’s desire to clearly buy tons of baked beans in bulk.
3. Membership Differences
Back in the days of Price Club, in the US, there were restrictions on who could shop at Costco – again, it was for businesses, essentially, acting as a wholesaler.
But once Costco became the Costco it is today in the late 90s, anyone who could pay the yearly membership fee could shop at Costco and be a member.
There are no restrictions on employment or whether you do or don’t own a business.
Anyone can join, and thus, Americans don’t view Costco as “exclusive” in the same way they do in the UK, though of course you do have to pay the fee, but many, many, many families will have a Costco membership and I could walk right into any American Costco and get a membership right now too.
In the UK, due to wholesale trading laws, this isn’t the case.
In order to be allowed to open as a wholesaler, the UK Costco cannot just sell to the general public in competition with regular resale stores.
They have to restrict who can shop there, and it is restricted to businesses and individuals who are employed in one of a variety of professions including local government, banking, post office, airlines, and more (full list here).
That being said, in the UK you are allowed to bring guests in on a Costco membership so if you know someone with a Costco card, they can bring you in to shop, and a US Costco membership is allowed to be used to shop in a UK Costco.
4. Items for Sale in Costco UK vs USA
So what’s sold in a UK Costco vs a US Costco?
Very similar items, but of course geared a little bit towards the local market.
Because Costco is an American company, many American expats in the UK love going to UK Costco because they can find some American branded food products that they wouldn’t find in regular UK supermarkets.
The Kirkland brand, the Costco name brand or generic brand, is available in both the US and UK and they have everything from giant bags of almonds to toilet paper.
Costcos around the world really do sell almost everything, from food to books to clothes to electronics to gym equipment to gardening stuff to…the list goes on forever, it’s Costco!
I have very fond memories of being allowed to hang out in the TV section looking at all of the big screens while my parents shopped for food when I was a teenager.
5. Samples
There’s nothing like feeding your children dinner made up of Costco samples, a true American pastime, and I LOVED Costco samples as a kid and still do.
If you’ve never been in a Costco, essentially they will be promoting a certain food product by having kind looking people stand at a cart preparing individual samples for you to try for free to try and entice you to buy.
You can kind of just walk around the aisles collecting samples and there isn’t actually an obligation to buy the product.
Samples are offered in both UK and US Costco, but from my general research, it seems that samples at UK Costcos are more on the weekends while US Costcos still do it throughout the week as well, though it is down to the individual store and their “rush hour” times when you’ll find the most samples, ie they want to get you when you’re hungry!
6. Costco Food Courts in Britain vs America
If you haven’t filled up on samples, then it’s time to head to the Costco food court, which is clearly the best part of a Costco.
But there are different options in each country!
In fact, if you’re really fascinated by Costco food courts, there’s a great write up on Wikipedia that goes in depth into Costco food court history, with information like, “Diced onion was discontinued in March 2020 but returned as a topping in May 2023.”
For the purposes of this article, I’ll just go over some main differences between UK vs US Costco food courts, which is that they do have some exclusive options, like in the UK there is baked beans, jacket potatoes, and cottage pie, while in the US you’ve got churros.
They both sell the iconic Costco pizza, all beef hot dogs, ice cream, and chicken bakes.
And, fun fact, the “hot dog and soda” combo is a famous loss leader for Costco, and has been the same price for decades without going up due to inflation – it’s $1.50 in the US and 1 pound 50 in the UK!
The food courts in both look relatively similar, as seen in this Business Insider article, with classic red and white Costco colors, but the food courts in the US tend to be more spacious than in the UK with more space between tables but that basically describes all of America compared to the UK so no surprise there.