Its stock is traded on the NASDAQ, so it's definitely a business: https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/cost https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stoc

Its stock is traded on the NASDAQ, so it's definitely a business: https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/cost https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/cost As far as I can tell it was always structured as a normal business, albeit one requiring an annual membership fee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco Co-ops are different: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative