The typical Costco member earns approximately $125,000 in annual household income — 70% above the US median — despite Costco offering the lowest prices of any major US retailer.
Where this was said
At 1:19:46 · chapter starts 1:19:00
The Kirkland Signature origin story is delightfully accidental: the brand was named after the city where Costco happened to be headquartered, chosen in part because the name cleared trademark registration across all the countries Costco was entering. By the time the brand launched, Costco had moved to Issaquah — but 'Issaquah Signature' was a non-starter. Over time, Kirkland Signature has evolved from a generic house label into something with genuine brand equity: wine snobs buy Kirkland Signature wine; Kirkland Signature batteries are made by major manufacturers; Kirkland Signature's $52 billion in annual sales — excluding gas — makes it the world's largest consumer packaged goods brand by revenue, exceeding Nike by about $1 billion. Ben also notes that Kirkland Signature's shelf advantage is profound: in a store with 3,800 SKUs, it often appears as the only brand in a category rather than competing against five others as at traditional retailers. International expansion, meanwhile, defies expectations in dense Asian markets — Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and eventually China all embrace the warehouse model, because 'value' is a universal proposition.
Kirkland Signature was named after Costco's then-headquarters in Kirkland, Washington — chosen partly because it could clear trademark registration across all the countries Costco operated in. It now generates $52 billion in annual sales, exceeding Nike by about $1 billion, making it the world's largest consumer packaged goods brand by revenue. Costco uses it not to capture extra margin (15% cap vs 14% for branded goods) but to provide better products at lower prices.
Despite months of meticulous preparation, Starter Story's initial launch attracted zero users — a humbling reminder that building alone guarantees nothing.
A single Reddit link post quickly drove 100 visitors to the Starter Story website, igniting the founder's belief in social traffic.
After reformatting content as a native self-post (no direct link spam), the post exploded with hundreds of upvotes and thousands of readers.
By posting again and again with the native-content strategy, the founder's posts repeatedly hit Reddit's front page, reaching millions of readers.
Before Reddit banned his domain, the founder converted his viral traffic into an email list of tens of thousands — a self-owned audience independent of Reddit.
Redditors eventually organized a petition to ban starterstory.com posts, effectively ending the Reddit growth channel — but the email list was already built.
The Reddit attention strategy ultimately served as the foundation for a million-dollar business, proving that free distribution channels can replace paid marketing.
The key tactic was keeping content fully on-platform (no direct link spam), then adding a small link at the post's end for users who wanted more.
With a thriving email list and a self-owned audience, the founder quit his six-figure New York City salary job to go all-in on Starter Story.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.