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I’ve always had a gut feeling that Costco’s customers represent a broader swath of socioeconomic diversity than most other stores. Don’t know how true that is a

I’ve always had a gut feeling that Costco’s customers represent a broader swath of socioeconomic diversity than most other stores. Don’t know how true that is and would love to learn if there’s real data behind it.

caymanjim 4y ago
Minor anecdotal evidence, but I live in a small semi-rural/semi-suburban town in NJ, and Costco appears to have a full cross-section of people. It does seem slightly more economically-diverse than the regular grocery and retail stores, in that you'll see a lot more rich people (by virtue of driving Porsches and Mercedes) at Costco than you will at Walmart.
insightcheck 4y ago
Business Insider hired an analytics firm named Numerator to create a report that finds on the average Costco customer [0]. I couldn't find the original data or report in Business Insider's summary, but from its article: "Numerator found that Costco's typical shopper in the US is an Asian American woman between 35 and 44 years old who is married and living in a city in the Pacific Northwest. (Costco was founded in Seattle and is based in Washington.) She typically has a four-year degree or higher level of education and earns more than $125,000 a year." I'm not sure whether the income of the "typical shopper" was defined based on a median or mode, so there could well be a large variance of customers with a lower socioeconomic status. A separate article by Investopedia [1] also asserts that Costco mostly opens stores in affluent suburban areas, and originally targeted college-educated and financially wealthier customers. So, Costco's customers are likely skewed to have a higher socioeconomic status, based on the location of most of its stores in wealthier suburban areas and findings from an analytics report (with some skepticism towards the article about the report, as the raw data and methods weren't shared, as far as I could see). [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-costco-shopper-demographic-asian-american-woman-earning-high-income-2021-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-costco-shopper-demog... [1] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/061516/whats-average-costco-consumer-cost.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/061516/whats-...
- divbzero 4y ago
  I couldn’t find the original data either. Numerator offers snapshots of customer distribution [2] that go beyond just a median or mode, but does not share it publicly for Costco. [2]: https://www.numerator.com/snapshots https://www.numerator.com/snapshots
- TheRealNGenius 4y ago
  that doesn't make sense. It says that the "typical shopper" is one very specific gender/age/income/racial category. What the heck does that mean? Am I supposed to believe that the most common category of people are that category, or that those attributes are the more common ones? I'm positive I see an almost even split of male/female when I go to Costco. Otherwise, that wording is jacked by any metric.
  - lallysingh 4y ago
    Assume statistical mode for enums, mean for floats.
    - TheRealNGenius 4y ago
      no thanks
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  > A separate article by Investopedia [1] also asserts that Costco mostly opens stores in affluent suburban areas, and originally targeted college-educated and financially wealthier customers. This is obvious simply by searching for Costcos on a map. Or the fact that any time your total is less than $100, the cashier and the customer joke about how lucky and rare the sub $100 receipt is.
jedberg 4y ago
The median Costco shopper makes over $125,000.
- listenallyall 4y ago
  No, according to a dubious "research firm" that provides no data, the "typical" Costco shopper (define typical however you want) earns 125k. The same firm also states the typical Wal-Mart shopper earns $80k, same as both Whole Foods and Target. You can decide how close their numbers are to reality. https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-walmart-shopper-demographic-white-woman-earning-middle-income-2021-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-walmart-shopper-demo...
  - lallysingh 4y ago
    That's one faang employee and two broke people. Wal Mart has stuff you can't get at WF or Target.

caymanjim 4y ago

Minor anecdotal evidence, but I live in a small semi-rural/semi-suburban town in NJ, and Costco appears to have a full cross-section of people. It does seem slightly more economically-diverse than the regular grocery and retail stores, in that you'll see a lot more rich people (by virtue of driving Porsches and Mercedes) at Costco than you will at Walmart.

insightcheck 4y ago

Business Insider hired an analytics firm named Numerator to create a report that finds on the average Costco customer [0]. I couldn't find the original data or report in Business Insider's summary, but from its article: "Numerator found that Costco's typical shopper in the US is an Asian American woman between 35 and 44 years old who is married and living in a city in the Pacific Northwest. (Costco was founded in Seattle and is based in Washington.) She typically has a four-year degree or higher level of education and earns more than $125,000 a year." I'm not sure whether the income of the "typical shopper" was defined based on a median or mode, so there could well be a large variance of customers with a lower socioeconomic status. A separate article by Investopedia [1] also asserts that Costco mostly opens stores in affluent suburban areas, and originally targeted college-educated and financially wealthier customers. So, Costco's customers are likely skewed to have a higher socioeconomic status, based on the location of most of its stores in wealthier suburban areas and findings from an analytics report (with some skepticism towards the article about the report, as the raw data and methods weren't shared, as far as I could see). [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-costco-shopper-demographic-asian-american-woman-earning-high-income-2021-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-costco-shopper-demog... [1] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/061516/whats-average-costco-consumer-cost.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/061516/whats-...

divbzero 4y ago
I couldn’t find the original data either. Numerator offers snapshots of customer distribution [2] that go beyond just a median or mode, but does not share it publicly for Costco. [2]: https://www.numerator.com/snapshots https://www.numerator.com/snapshots
TheRealNGenius 4y ago
that doesn't make sense. It says that the "typical shopper" is one very specific gender/age/income/racial category. What the heck does that mean? Am I supposed to believe that the most common category of people are that category, or that those attributes are the more common ones? I'm positive I see an almost even split of male/female when I go to Costco. Otherwise, that wording is jacked by any metric.
- lallysingh 4y ago
  Assume statistical mode for enums, mean for floats.
  - TheRealNGenius 4y ago
    no thanks
lotsofpulp 4y ago
> A separate article by Investopedia [1] also asserts that Costco mostly opens stores in affluent suburban areas, and originally targeted college-educated and financially wealthier customers. This is obvious simply by searching for Costcos on a map. Or the fact that any time your total is less than $100, the cashier and the customer joke about how lucky and rare the sub $100 receipt is.

jedberg 4y ago

The median Costco shopper makes over $125,000.

listenallyall 4y ago
No, according to a dubious "research firm" that provides no data, the "typical" Costco shopper (define typical however you want) earns 125k. The same firm also states the typical Wal-Mart shopper earns $80k, same as both Whole Foods and Target. You can decide how close their numbers are to reality. https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-walmart-shopper-demographic-white-woman-earning-middle-income-2021-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-walmart-shopper-demo...
- lallysingh 4y ago
  That's one faang employee and two broke people. Wal Mart has stuff you can't get at WF or Target.