Want a 27-pound bucket of macaroni and cheese? Costco has it
This wholesale giant stocks several large items that attract the attention of many customers.
america today
This article was originally published on September 26, 2025 and is republished in its original form.
Few people love Costco as much as Max Ellinger. The proof is carved into his right arm. His only tattoo is the logo for Kirkland Signature, Costco’s house brand for everything from rotisserie chicken to laundry detergent.
Ellinger got the cake in 2019 after a friend told the staff that Ellinger was a big fan and had a tattoo, and convinced them to make a cake with the company’s logo at the Costco bakery. When Costco asked for a photo, Ellinger slipped into a chair at the tattoo parlor and turned a small white lie into an eternal reality.
Like many Costco members, Ellinger’s passion comes from weekly shopping trips with her parents. After leaving home, he found solace in wandering the familiar warehouse aisles of his new city. He became known around the school as the guy who protected his college classmates there.
Ellinger’s online dating profile had one rule: “No Sam’s Club members.” His future husband knew their relationship was serious not when they decided to get married, but when he became Ellinger’s plus-one with a Costco membership. And Ellinger gave the go-ahead for the company’s recent move to Champaign, Illinois, after first confirming there was a Costco 12 minutes away.
“Kirkland Signature stands for quality, value, integrity and treating others well, and that resonates with me,” said Ellinger, who works at a content marketing agency. “It means a lot more than a bunch of tattoos.”
Ellinger isn’t the only one wearing Costco.
Tom Sorakoff, who worked at Costco before starting his career in graphic design, got a tattoo of Costco’s $1.50 hot dog and soda deal in appreciation of the way the company treated its employees. A photo of his tattoo received more than 23,000 likes on Instagram and more than 17,000 upvotes on the Costco subreddit.
Rise of retail fans
Beyond Swifties, groupies are no longer just for celebrities. “Superfans” develop unusually strong bonds with national brands, flaunting their loyalty with tattoos and other symbols of that connection.
Celebrities are also fans of the brand. Musician Ed Sheeran famously has a tattoo of a Heinz ketchup bottle on his arm.
“We’ve always had fandoms, we’ve always had brand fandoms, but now that fandom has grown and gotten stronger,” said Paul Booth, a professor of media and popular culture and fandom at DePaul University.
Once the nerdy realm of science fiction, fandom has vaulted from Star Trek conventions into the mainstream through the Internet, providing a gathering place for people to celebrate their collective love for something, whether it’s a video game, a television show, a musical act, or a sports team.
About 85% of Americans identify as fans, said Susan Kreznicka, a cultural anthropologist who studies fandom in the corporate sector.
Fandoms are a way to communicate our identity to others and bond with like-minded people, Kresnicka said.
Super fan of Buc-ee’s, Trader Joe’s, and Aldi.
Increasingly, who we are is expressed by where we shop and what we buy, not just mega-brands like Apple that feed us pop culture juice.
No longer a boring staple of the retail world, grocery stores have developed personalities that reflect how shoppers see themselves, what they value, and what they believe.
On social media, “Wawa fams” are proclaiming their love for the Pennsylvania-based convenience chain known for its hot turkey, gravy, stuffing, Thanksgiving rolls stuffed with cranberry sauce, and hoagies like gobblers.
Die-hard Aldi treasure hunters greet each other like crows over Aldi Finds, a rotating selection of inexpensive impulse buys in the German grocery chain’s “Aisle of Shame” aisle.
Believers at Buc-ee’s, the Texas mega-convenience store and gas station chain known for its clean restrooms, barbecued brisket and beaver statues, camp out overnight to be the first through the doors of a new store, much like Apple groupies who line the sidewalks for days to be the first to get a new iPhone.
Fans of Wegmans, a family-owned New York chain, call themselves “Wegmaniacs.” Shortly after the supermarket chain opened its first store in Massachusetts in 2011, a local high school staged a musical about local excitement, including an in-store marriage proposal.
Trader Joe’s “Stans” line up for hours to get their hands on the much-talked-about mini tote bags emblazoned with the grocery chain’s name and logo.
Fandom experts say this brand of unity can bridge divides and bring people together in a time of extreme polarization and increasing isolation.
“When someone sees your Costco T-shirt or your Trader Joe’s bag, their eyes light up because people know that they hit it off and that they have something pretty basic in common on some level,” Kreznicka said. “It can be the beginning of a relationship where you get to know each other and actually trust each other.”
costco cult
Even in a world where supermarkets can cause a frenzy, Costco fans are almost obsessive.
They don’t shop. They have a cult-like loyalty to their favorite places. They rush into Costco several times a week and cruise the aisles munching on samples. They’re collecting logo merchandise, monitoring new drops on TikTok, and dressing their pets in Kirkland signature hoodies. They spend hours online debating everything from the ethics of Costco returns to the food court’s giant cookies and churros.
Alyssa Munoz’s family goes to Costco so often that she jokes that she lives there. The mother of three, who lives in San Jose, sometimes has playdates at Costco, loading the kids in one cart and the groceries in another. What can you do after checking out? Ice cream at the food court.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Munoz has been shopping for others, snapping photos of bargains and cool new products on her camera roll. So she started a Facebook group for Costco members in the Bay Area so they could see what was on the shelves at local stores and exchange trending tips. That’s how she found her friends at Costco, she says. Five years later, the Facebook group has 169,000 members.
“I don’t want to say Costco defined me, but Costco defined me,” Munoz said.
Rebecca Zhen Hui Wang, associate professor of marketing at Lehigh University, said customers don’t just shop at Costco, they take pride in interacting with Costco.
“Costco functions like a club in many ways. It offers status and community, but rather than expensive luxury prices, membership fees reward you with reliable products and a consistently positive shopping experience,” Wang said.
Marketing experts say the carefully selected product range, from Wagyu beef and Dubai chocolates to soap and toilet paper, is the secret sauce to the shopping experience and makes people feel rich.
“We’re loyal to a company when it consistently serves us and we’re excited about it,” says Lauren Beitelspatcher, a marketing professor at Babson College. “Part of it comes from the idea of discovering something new, but it also comes from the comfort of knowing what you’re getting.”
For enthusiasts, this combination has powerful psychological benefits. Jasmine Pack, a content creator in Anaheim, California, says Costco is her way of self-care.
“I’m an avid Costco shopper,” Park said. “Sometimes I go to Costco and don’t buy anything. I come to cheer myself up. There’s something about the atmosphere at Costco that gives me peace.”
Content creator Claudia Chee, known as “Costco Claudia” on Instagram, calls the store a “safe space.” She travels abroad every year to look at Costco warehouses in other countries.
“If it wasn’t for Costco, I wouldn’t go there,” she said. “That’s literally my standard.”
“My favorite place on earth”
For Costco enthusiasts, the warehouse aisles are more than just a place to shop. It’s a place to celebrate life’s milestones.
Tiffany Remington said when planning her two children’s birthday parties last year, she and her husband tried to come up with a theme that would get them excited. What’s the answer? Costco.
My daughter, Faye, and son, Kai, go grocery shopping every week and love eating the free samples and wandering the aisles. Thor Remington, a content creator from Portland, Oregon, created junior executive member-themed cards for guests and a customized menu poster with photoshopped children next to chicken bakes and hot dogs.
The carts had a variety of snacks for kids to “shop”, including samples of egg rolls in muffin liners and food court staples like Costco pizza.
When Katie Staley dreamed of her husband’s 40th birthday party in 2024, she thought about the most important things in her life, family, and then Costco.
Adam Staley, who visits his local store at least four days a week for samples and special deals, says he’s addicted to Costco, even though it’s good for his family’s health and finances. His favorite wardrobe item is a well-worn, pepper-stained Kirkland logo hoodie. When the family recently moved, a big selling point of their new home in Kansas City, Missouri, was its proximity to Costco, less than a five-minute drive away.
So Katie Staley sent secret messages to friends and family, inviting them to meet at Costco and spread out around the store to pretend they were running into Adam. Then, after checking out, everyone gathered in the food court with Costco pizza and sheet cake to surprise the father of three. People at the food court also joined in singing “Happy Birthday.” A passing shopper was getting a cake.
“I wasn’t expecting that. All my friends and family are at my favorite place on earth, Costco,” Adam Staley said.
Even by these standards, the enthusiasm of some Costco fans is next level.
After numerous dates wandering the aisles of Costco during executive hours and eating food court pizza and hot dogs, Beth and Alec Hurworth decided there was no better place for their engagement photos.
Staff granted the couple access to the warehouse in Overland Park, Kansas, during after-hours hours, where a photographer captured them gazing lovingly at each other atop a shopping cart loaded with 100 packs of Keurig pods, posing in front of rows of houseplants and walking across the store on bright orange flatbeds.
The assistant general manager “was really calm about it,” Beth Hurworth said. “He walked around with a leaf blower and made sure there was no trash and that all the boxes were full.”
The Hurworths used their engagement photo in a save-the-date invitation designed to look like a Costco food court menu, and served a Costco cake at their wedding.
