Costco recently opened 10 new locations, seven of them in just ten days! Each location had a lucky employee winning a cash prize for sheer guess work. The night before the opening, there’s a VIP night where employees, their families, company leaders, and local representatives gather at the new warehouse.
A Costco worker posted a TikTok on 18 November, 2023, about the opening of the Newark, California, store. The video showcased a company tradition where employees write their names and estimate the first-day sales on a dollar bill. The dollars are collected in an envelope, and the person with the closest guess gets to keep all the cash.
Workers mentioned that the usual prize ranged from $300 to $500, considering most warehouses have around 250–300 employees. This is more than two days’ pay for someone earning the starting wage of $18.50, which was raised in September. On TikTok, they guessed $1,000,500.99, but the actual total, according to the employee, turned out to be $1.8 million.
The employees mentioned that first-day sales tend to be higher than usual because Costco offers items not typically sold, such as jumbo teddy bears and specialty liquor bottles. While only two locations are currently slated for opening in 2024, Costco generally opens about 24 locations annually, with details usually announced in December. With 870 locations globally, Richard Galanti, CFO, Costco, aims for 30 new openings per year, evenly split between the US and overseas.