I found this great interview with Jim Sinegal, Costco CEO, at CNN Money.  In the video he talks all about how Costco came to be and how they were able to amazingly grow to $1 Billion in just three years.  Basically, they started out in 1983 trying to clone the Price Club concept in the Northwest because competition was low in that part of the country.  What is funny, is that he originally thought they could grow to about 12 Costco stores in the Northwest and average about $80 million in sales.  Co-Founder Jeff Brotman says he doesn’t remember that limitation.  In any case, I’ve got to think they far surpassed all expectations they might have had in 1983.  At the end of the video he also tells a story about some great free advertising Costco got on opening day in Seattle when a reporter interviewed a shopper.  I’m not going to give it away, you’ll have to watch the video to see it, but it is something that everyone on my blog will laugh and think “I would have said that too.”