Tim Talevich, Seattle 425-313-6759
ttalevich@costco.com
Lorelle Gilpin, Ottawa 613-221-2009
Lorelle.Gilpin@costco.com
Sue Knowles, London 011-44-1923-213113
sknowles@costco.co.uk
Raymond Kyunghwan Kim, Seoul 82-2-2630-2703
khkim@costcokr.com
SENIOR EDITOR T. Foster Jones
Tod.Jones@costco.com
ONLINE EDITOR David Wight David. Wight@costco.com
ASSISTANT EDITOR Jacquelyn Jin, Seoul
jjin@costcokr.com
REPORTERS
Will Fifield
wfifield@costco.com
Stephanie E. Ponder
sponder@costco.com
Mark E. Stroder
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Dorothy Strakele 425-313-6899
connection@costco.com
COPY EDITOR Miriam Bulmer
CONTRIBUTORS
Wally Amos, Brian Basset, David Horowitz,
Joyce Tellier Johnson, Jonathan Lowe, Jennifer Pirtle, Valerie Ryan,
Marc Saltzman, Eva Shaw, Claire Sykes, Pat Volchok
ART DIRECTOR Doris Winters
dwinters@costco.com
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR
Lory Williams
lwilliams@costco.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Ken Broman, Bill Carlson, Susan Detlor, Chris Rusnak,
David Schneider, Dawna Tessier
PRODUCTION MANAGER Pam Sather
psather@costco.com
ASSISTAN T PRODUCTION MANAGER
Antolin Matsuda
amatsuda@costco.com
PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR, OTTAWA
Elaine Emond
Elaine.Emond@costco.com
COLOR TECHNICIAN MaryAnne Robbers
mrobbers@costco.com
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Jane Klein Shucklin 425-313-8277
jshucklin@costco.com
ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGER
Kathi Tipper-Holgersen 425-313-6581
ktipper@costco.com
ADVERTISING COORDINATORS
Deborah Lipman, London 011-44-1923-830481
dlipman@costco.co.uk
Isabel Levasseur, Ottawa 613-221-2394
Isabel.Levasseur@costco.com
Steve Trump, Seattle 425-313-6969
strump@costco.com
ADVERTISING / PROMOTION COPYWRITER
Bill Urlevich
BUSINESS MANAGER Janet Burgess
CIRCULATION MANAGER Rossie Cruz 425-313-6715
rcruz@costco.com
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTAN T
D. Ted Harris 425-313-2937
dtharris@costco.com
COSTCO WHOLESALE
P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088
999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, Washington 98027
Fax: 425-313-6718
E-mail:
connection@costco.com
For information on warehouse hours and more:
1-800-774-2678 costco.com
The Costco Connection is published by Costco Wholesale. All
facts, opinions and statements appearing within this publication
are those of the writers and editors themselves, and are in no
way to be construed as statements, positions or endorsements
by Costco Wholesale or its officers. Publishing offices are located
at 999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, WA 98027. Information in The
Costco Connection is gathered from sources considered to be
reliable, but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed. Copyright © 2006 Costco Wholesale. Products advertised
may not be available at all locations at time of publication.
Signature™ is all about. As you’ll read in our cover story
beginning on page 21, Kirkland Signature, or KS as we Ginnie Roeglin is Senior Vice
often call it around here, is Costco’s private-label brand. President, E-Commerce and
I’ve always steered clear of most other retailers’ Publishing, and Publisher of
house or plain-label brands because I assume that I’ll The Costco Connection.
get what I pay for, meaning low price and low quality.
from the publisher’s desk
Ginnie Roeglin
AT COSTCO, we are passionate about delivering value
to our members. That is our main mission and reason
for being. And value—that wonderful combination of
top quality at a great price—is exactly what Kirkland
Kirkland Signature delivers the lower price, but not the lower quality. In fact, if an item I need
is available under our Kirkland Signature label, I’ll buy it, hands down, because I know the
quality is the same as or better than that of the national brand at a fraction of the price—
an overall great value. In fact, it has to be or it wouldn’t have made it on the shelf.
As the cover story explains, all Kirkland Signature products must meet a strict set of
requirements before they receive CEO Jim Sinegal’s signoff (“green ink”) and our KS label.
Today, you’ll find more than 300 food and non-food Kirkland Signature products in our
warehouses. We’ve highlighted a few of our buyers’ favorites in the story.
My home is filled with a much longer list of Kirkland Signature favorites, such as our
new makeup and skin-care products, my husband’s dress shirts and pants, shampoo and
conditioner, albacore tuna, bottled water, mixed nuts, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and even our new wine, to name just a few. Try some during your next visit to Costco!
June marks the beginning of our annual S*u*m*mer Passport. This year, we will be handing out our popular coupon book in our warehouses. Inside, you’ll find valuable coupons
for savings on a wide variety of food and non-food products, services and travel available
in our warehouses and on costco.com from June 5 to August 27. Be sure to stop in a warehouse and pick up your Passport so you don’t miss out on the savings! C
from the editor’s desk
David W. Fuller
IS IT JUST ME or is it getting harder these days to make
decisions? Rephrasing: Are we being presented with
closer calls to call?
A good case in point would be the question posed in
this month’s Debate (page 12): Should cell-phone use be
David W. Fuller is Assistant allowed in airplanes? The experts we asked and the
Vice President, Publishing, and Costco members we polled make excellent points on both
Editor of The Costco Connection. sides. Half of me agrees with half of them; the other half
of me agrees with the other half of them. What to do?
We seem to be awash in so much detailed information and privy to the advice of so
many knowledgeable people (a good portion of this due to the Internet) that there seems
to be a pretty solid pro for every solid con. Time was when there were a few virtually undeniably “credible” sources of information—the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Associated
Press, The World Almanac. Today we have Wikipedia, the blogosphere and People’s
Almanac, all ready to provide counter-interpretations of what we used to consider fact.
I do believe that, because of this proliferation of voices, the decision-making process
has become more complex, whether we are at the polls, picking a team to back or in the
aisle of a store.
That’s why I see the Kirkland Signature approach to product creation as something
truly significant. Like so much of Costco, this approach to private-label products is simplicity practiced to the extreme. As Anita Thompson explains in the piece beginning on
page 21, each of these products must meet or exceed the quality standards of the competing national brand, must be a better value for members and must be produced with
the utmost attention to efficiency, the environment and social concerns.
In my book, Kirkland Signature simplifies the decision-making process for people
like me. The hard calls have been made by our diligent, knowledgeable staff of buyers
and product manufacturers. Do I still have to think before I pick up a Kirkland
Signature product? Yes ... but not so darned much! C
