30 Things You Never Knew About Costco

It’s no surprise why Kirkland Coffee is highly rated — it comes from a brand we already know and love. The 32-ounce bag of Kirkland Signature House Blend Medium Roast (or Espresso Blend Dark Roast) is custom-roasted by Starbucks. It’ll save you a few dollars without losing that quality taste.

Most prices for items throughout the store end with $.99. Ending in $.97 means that the item has been marked down nationally and can drop even lower. An asterisk on a price tag means that the item won’t be restocked, so you should get it while you can.

Walking down the aisles, you’ll find signature pieces from respected brands like Calvin Klein, Champion, and FILA. At Costco, you won’t pay an absurd amount of money — a Champion T-shirt is only $13.99.

In a recent interview, Costco’s CEO, Craig Jelinek, revealed that Kirkland batteries are made by Duracell. A 72-pack of AA Kirkland batteries is $19.99, whereas a 40 pack of AA Duracell batteries at Costco is $16.99. That’s right — you can still get that name brand at a wholesale price.

Besides Costco’s Optical Center and Pharmacy, they also have a Hearing Aid Center, which offers a free hearing exam. It’s definitely worth exploring the numerous discounts, including hearing aids, from their in-house brand Kirkland Signature.

Costco keeps its famous hot-dog-and-soda combo priced at $1.50 because it gets people in the door. The combo is a loss leader, and Costco is willing to lose money on it with the hopes that it'll make a profit on items customers buy once they're in the store.

The rotisserie chicken, which is always $4.99, is also a considerable loss leader. Costco estimates it loses $30 to $40 million a year to keep its chicken prices that low.

Even though it's a loss leader, Costco continues to sell a ton of rotisserie chickens. Every day the store sells 157,000 chickens around the globe.

You might not think of Costco as a pizza chain, but it's one of the biggest in the U.S. With 400-plus stores, Costco is only a bit behind Cicis and Chuck E. Cheese in quantity of retail locations.

One of the reasons Costco can make its pizza so fast (and so good) is the sauce dispenser. This sauce robot evenly distributes pizza sauce quickly and effectively, and makes the process of creating a pizza much smoother.

Costco pays their employees way more than the competition. According to a profile by Bloomberg, Costco workers make an average of $20.89 an hour versus Walmart's $12.67.

But the people who give out samples are rarely Costco employees. These workers are contracted through third parties and are often paid much less.

The first Costco was started in an airplane hangar in 1976. Then known as Price Club, the store spanned six hangars originally owned by Howard Hughes. The store is still open today, and you can visit it in San Diego.

You don't need a member card for everything. Depending on what state you live in, Costco is required to allow you to use the pharmacy and optician without a membership.

You also (usually) don't need a membership to buy alcohol. If there's a separate door for the liquor store at your Costco, you can just walk in. If not, you can ask for a Temporary Alcohol Shopping Pass at the customer service desk.

There are no labels on the aisles for a reason. Part of Costco's business strategy is that it moves staple goods around in its stores often and doesn't have signage labeling where everything is.

This means customers spend more time looking for items, which makes it that much more likely that they'll pick up something they weren't planning on buying along the way.

Costco doesn't spend much on advertising. Instead, the company lets word-of-mouth do the work, and saves a bundle by doing so.

You can buy some major survival kits from Costco. For $4,999 you can get a massive kit with 3,986 individual servings of food, which can feed one person three times a day for a whole year.

If you happen to visit the Costco in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, you'll see some unique parking. Since the area has a large population of Amish, this Costco location has established parking spots for horses and buggies.

Robert and Meredith Bonilla were the first (and pretty much only) couple to get married in a Costco frozen food section. The couple met at Costco and was able to get special permission from corporate to hold the ceremony there.

The best-selling item at Costco is toilet paper. From just this item alone, the company made $400 million in sales in 2015.

You can get caskets on the cheap at Costco. Unfortunately, they're mail-order only, so you can't make any impulse buys in that department.

If you have a few hundred thousand dollars lying around, you can spend it on one item from Costco. The store offers a 10-carat diamond ring made of platinum for $419,999.99.

As a Costco member, you can bring up to two guests shopping with you into the store. This is a great way to let someone try before they buy their own membership.

You can shop at Costco without a membership if someone gives you a Costco cash card. The cash card can be loaded up just like any other gift card, and you're allowed to use it even if you aren't a member.

Costco also sells cars. In fact, the company sold 400,000 of them in 2014. But it doesn't make a profit from this service. Instead, it serves as an intermediary for its customers, as a perk of being a member.

In addition to car sales, Costco helps provide other lower-cost services to its customers. You can save on cruises, theme-park tickets, and rental cars through Costco.

There's a Costco magazine, and it has a larger circulation than any other in the U.S. Almost 13 million people receive Costco Connection each month, and it continues to thrive when traditional print is in decline.

Many Costcos also offer gasoline to members. Like Kroger and Walmart, the gas is often cheaper and is just one more thing that makes a membership worth the price.

Costco is surprisingly the biggest seller of wine in the U.S. As a result, its house wine is of remarkably high quality.