When it opened in 1984, the Costco on West Dimond Boulevard in Anchorage did not seem like the future of food. A glorified shed the color of stale coffee, the warehouse offered the sort of products and deals Alaskans go crazy for: mammoth quantities of staples like peanut butter and tomato sauce, along with local favorites such as caribou sausage. The state’s extreme environment and the need to travel hours or even days for groceries made it a hit right off the bat.

1984年開業時，安克拉治市西戴蒙德大道上的Costco似乎並不代表食品的未來。這座倉庫本質上就是個棚屋，顏色像不新鮮的咖啡，它提供的是阿拉斯加人為之瘋狂的那種產品和折扣：大份量的日常食物，比如花生醬和番茄醬，以及馴鹿香腸等當地人的最愛。阿拉斯加的環境極為惡劣，人們需要花費數小時甚至數天的時間出行購買食品雜貨，這使得Costco一經推出就大受歡迎。

Today the parking lot, full of jacked-up, Thuled-out 4x4s on studded tires and mobile homes that look more like mobile fortresses, has a bit of an edge for a grocery store. There’s something edgy about the inventory, too: neoprene survival suits, meat grinders, gun safes.

如今，這裡的停車場有點雜貨店的味道，到處都是經過加高改裝、帶有外挂車架和防滑輪胎的四輪驅動車，以及看起來更像移動堡壘的移動房屋。這裡賣的東西也很特別：氯丁橡膠救生服、絞肉機、槍枝保險箱。

Inside the vast store, overloaded shopping carts seemingly pilot themselves down the aisles. One was pushed by Gabriella Pelesasa, a teenager who was buying, among other things, a pair of whole pigs, at 45 pounds each.

在巨大的商店內部，一輛輛滿載的購物車看上去就像是自己在過道裡行駛著。加布裡埃拉·佩萊薩就推著這樣一輛推車，這個十來歲的少年要買的東西包括兩頭全豬，每頭20公斤。

As her sister sat on the cart eating a Costco hot dog, Ms. Pelesasa reported simply, “They have bigger versions of what we want.”

佩萊薩輕描淡寫地說，「我們想要的東西，他們都有更大的版本。」與此同時，她的妹妹正坐在推車上吃著Costco熱狗。

Though the Anchorage location, one of the retailer’s first, once seemed like a survivalist outlier, today it shows how visionary Costco was.

作為這家零售商的首批分店之一，安克拉治的分店一度看起來像是一個專注於末世求生的異類，但如今它顯示了Costco的遠見卓識。

“In 2020, about one-quarter of the population stockpiled nonperishable foods,” said Jennifer Mapes-Christ of the market research firm Packaged Facts. Today, more than half do. Ms. Mapes-Christ said that while the pandemic was an accelerant, the trend began before that, driven by anxieties about climate change and economic instability.

「2020年，大約四分之一的人口囤積了不易腐爛的食品，」市場研究公司Packaged Facts的珍妮佛·梅普斯-克里斯特說。今天，超過一半的人在這樣做。梅普斯-克里斯特說，雖然疫情是一個加速器，但是這種趨勢在此之前就開始了，其驅動力是對氣候變化和經濟不穩定的擔憂。

In 2019, one quarter of U.S. consumers shopped at Costco. Today it is nearly one-third. Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, behind only Amazon and Walmart.

2019年，四分之一的美國消費者在Costco購物。如今，這一比例接近三分之一。Costco是世界第三大零售商，僅次於亞馬遜和沃爾瑪。

But the success of Costco goes far beyond hoarding. The company has hacked the psyche of the American consumer, appealing to both the responsible-shopping superego (“Twelve cans of tuna for $18!”) and the buy-it-now id (“I deserve that 98-inch flat screen”).

但Costco的成功遠不止於囤貨。該公司抓住了美國消費者的心理，既能吸引精打細算的超我（「18美元12罐金槍魚！」），也能吸引衝動購物的本我（「那台98寸平板電視我值得擁有」）。

Ostensibly, Costco is a discount store, a place to save money and stretch your grocery dollar, but it is also an aspirational shopping experience, feeding that most American of appetites: conspicuous consumption.

從表面上看，Costco是一家折扣店，是一個省錢和精打細算購買雜物的地方，但它也是一種令人嚮往的購物體驗，滿足了大多數美國人的慾望：炫耀性消費。

Few companies have greater influence over what we eat (or wear, or fuel our cars with, or use for personal hygiene). Costco dominates multiple categories of the food supply — beef, poultry, organic produce, even fine wine from Bordeaux, which it sells more of than any retailer in the world. It is the arbiter of survival for millions of producers, including more than a million cashew farmers in Africa alone. (Costco sells half the world’s cashews.) Its private label, Kirkland, generates more revenue than towering brands like Nike and Coca-Cola.

很少有公司對我們的飲食（乃至穿著、汽車燃料或個人衛生用品）擁有如此大的影響力。Costco主宰著食品供應的多個類別——牛肉、家禽、有機農產品，甚至是波爾多的優質葡萄酒——其銷量超過了世界上任何一家零售商。它掌握著數以百萬計生產者的生死——其中，僅在非洲，它就擁有100多萬名腰果種植者。（Costco的腰果銷量佔全球的一半。）它的自有品牌科克蘭為它帶來的收入超過了耐吉和可口可樂等大品牌。

For all its success, the company is not well understood. The top brass are insular and secretive. And beyond quarterly reports, Costco rarely discloses anything of its inner workings.

儘管取得了巨大的成功，人們對這家公司的了解並不多。其高層官員顯得封閉、神秘。除了季度報告，Costco很少披露其內部運作情況。

But to Charlie Munger, the billionaire investor and Warren Buffett’s right hand at Berkshire Hathaway, the balance sheet speaks for itself. In one of his last interviews before he died last year, he was succinct: “It is a perfect damn company.”

但在億萬富翁投資者、沃倫·巴菲特在伯克希爾哈撒韋公司的得力助手查理·芒格看來，Costco的資產負債表已經說明了一切。在他去年去世前的最後一次採訪中，他直接了當地說：「這是一家完美的公司。」

Costco has often been likened to a cult, in part because once members — 134 million worldwide — enter the fold, they rarely leave.

Costco經常被比作一種小眾信仰，這一定程度上是因為會員一旦加入（全球有1.34億人），就很少離開。

Indeed, devotion to the brand is so avid it has inspired tributes on social media, bits on late-night shows by celebrities hoping to seem relatable and even a book, “The Joy of Costco.”

事實上，人們對這一品牌的狂熱激發了社群媒體上的致敬活動，深夜節目中希望自己顯得接地氣的名人們說和它有關的段子，甚至還有一本關於它書——《Costco的快樂》(The Joy of Costco)。

At a time when Americans increasingly view big brands as predatory monopolies or fumbling, broken-down legacies, Costco is revered for its high wages, attentive customer service and “deep commitment to integrity,” said Jeremy Smith, the president of Launchpad, an Oregon-based food brand incubator that specializes in placing products at Costco.

如今，美國人日益認為大品牌是掠奪性的壟斷企業，或者是殘破的遺存，然而Costco卻因其高工資、周到的客戶服務和「對誠信的堅定承諾」而受到尊敬。位於奧勒岡州的食品品牌孵化器Launchpad的總裁傑瑞米·史密斯說，Launchpad專營在Costco的產品投放。

Whether Costco is a cult or not, its spiritual founder was a Bronx-born lawyer with utopian ideals and strict morals.

不管是不是小眾信仰，Costco的精神創始人是一位出生於布朗克斯的律師，有著烏托邦式的理想和嚴苛的道德準則。

Sol Price, born in 1916, was the son of garment workers from Minsk, and belonged to the generation of displaced Jews and other Europeans who thrived in New York’s small businesses — the delis, candy shops and pawnshops of the Depression and postwar years. In the 1920s, the family moved to San Diego, where he went to high school.

索爾·普萊斯出生於1916年，是來自明斯克的制衣工人的兒子，屬於流離失所的猶太人和其他歐洲人那一代，他們靠著紐約的小生意成長起來——大蕭條和戰後的熟食店、糖果店和當鋪。20世紀20年代，全家搬到聖地亞哥，他在那裡上了高中。

After law school at the University of Southern California, Mr. Price started his career representing grocers and other merchants. With the temperament of a shopkeeper who obsesses over his customers and fusses over the smallest of details, in the 1950s Mr. Price began converting empty San Diego warehouses into members-only bazaars where for a small fee, shoppers could get everything from hosiery to cigarettes at wholesale prices. The key to the business, called FedMart, was simple: keep members renewing year after year.

從南加州大學法學院畢業後，普萊斯的第一份工作是代理雜貨店和其他商人。他擁有一種店主的氣質，對顧客非常關注，斤斤計較哪怕最小的細節。20世紀50年代，他開始把聖地亞哥的空倉庫改造成會員制集市，顧客只需交一小筆費用，就能以批發價買到從襪子到香煙等各種商品。這家名為FedMart���公司經營的關鍵很簡單：留住會員，讓他們年復一年地續費。

In 2003, Mr. Price described his philosophy to Fortune magazine as “How do we sell stuff at the lowest markup?” The overriding goal, he said, was “to look at everything from the standpoint of, is it really being honest with the customer?”

2003年，普萊斯向《財富》雜誌描述了他的理念：「我們如何以最低的價格銷售產品？」他說，最重要的目標是「從這樣一個角度來看待一切：它真的對客戶誠實嗎？」

Mr. Price had a gift for connecting with shoppers at a time of exploding prosperity and social change, but paradoxically, one of his rules was not making too much money.

在經濟繁榮和社會變革的時代，普萊斯有一種與購物者建立聯繫的天賦，但矛盾的是，他的原則之一是不要賺太多錢。

“He grew up in a family of socialists. He was a capitalist. He liked to make money, but he was pro-union, pro-labor, pro-little guy,” said David Schwartz, who co-wrote “The Joy of Costco” with his wife, Susan. “Everything was about trust. He would rather lose your business than your trust.”

「他成長在一個社會主義者的家庭。他是個資本家。他喜歡賺錢，但他支持工會、支持勞工、支持小人物，」戴維·施瓦茨說。他和妻子蘇珊共同撰寫了《Costco的快樂》一書。「一切都與信任有關。他寧願失去你的生意，也不願失去你的信任。」

Through a series of mergers over the years, Sol Price’s FedMart became what we know as Costco in the 1990s. To an uncanny degree for a modern corporation, the company, now headquartered in Issaquah, Wash., has remained true to Mr. Price’s vision. It is still relationship-minded, and members seem satisfied, renewing at a rate of 93 percent. Last quarter, the membership fees accounted for $1.12 billion, about two-thirds of Costco’s $1.68 billion total net income. The dependence, in other words, remains mutual.

經過多年的一系列合併，索爾·普萊斯的FedMart在20世紀90年代變成了我們所知的Costco，總部如今位於華盛頓州伊薩誇。作為一家現代公司，它對普萊斯願景的忠誠達到了驚人的地步。它仍然注重同會員的關係，會員似乎很滿意，續費率為93%。上個季度，會員費收入為11.2億美元，約佔Costco的16.8億美元總凈利潤的三分之二。換句話說，雙方的互相依賴仍然存在。

Four thousand miles south of Anchorage, in Sugar Land, Texas, no one flies in by bush plane to shop. But in this swampy Houston suburb, life orbits around Costco just the same.

在安克拉治以南6400公里的得克薩斯州的舒格蘭，沒有人會開著荒野飛機來這裡購物。但在這個遍布沼澤的休士頓郊區，生活同樣圍繞著Costco運轉。

The site of a former prison farm for the sugar industry, Sugar Land has transformed in recent years into an interlocking complex of master-planned communities. In June, Costco opened Warehouse No. 882, its third in the area, on a prime piece of land.

舒格蘭曾是經營製糖業的監獄農場，近年來已轉變為一個環環相扣的總體規劃社區綜合體。今年6月，Costco在一個黃金地段開設了882號倉庫，這是該公司在該地區的第三家倉庫。

Like Anchorage, Sugar Land is home to a rapidly growing Asian American population (largely Indian and Pakistani American in Sugar Land), which Costco is eager to serve, despite the challenge of operating across a nation of wildly varying local tastes and traditions.

和安克拉治一樣，舒格蘭也是快速增長的亞裔美國人的家園（主要是印度裔和巴基斯坦裔），儘管在一個各地口味和傳統千差萬別的國家開展業務面臨挑戰，但Costco還是渴望為這裡的居民服務。

“Costco knows what’s going on in Texas because they have an office there,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s very astute. They’re one of the few retailers that will allow a brand to go into just one building and test their product.”

「Costco了解得州的情況，因為他們在那裡有辦公室，」史密斯說。「這很精明。他們是少數幾家允許品牌只進入一個門店並測試其產品的零售商之一。」

As a result, Costco is able to pick up on trends and send intel back to Issaquah. “It’s a giant ecosystem,” said Mr. Smith, if also one dependent on human capital — the expertise of warehouse managers. Costco tends to promote from within, inculcating personnel with the company’s idiosyncratic culture for decades, if not entire careers. Many of the company’s top employees began as baggers or food handlers.

因此，Costco能夠把握趨勢，並將情報發回伊薩卡。「這是一個巨大的生態系統，」史密斯說，但它也依賴人力資本——倉庫經理的專業知識。Costco傾向於從內部提拔員工，在數十年乃至整個職業生涯中，向員工灌輸獨特的企業文化。該公司的許多高級員工都是從包裝工或食品搬運工開始的。

That limited Costco’s expansion in the past. For many years the company declined to open new warehouses at the rate Wall Street wanted, because of management concerns that the facilities were too challenging to operate.

過去，這樣的做法限制了Costco的擴張。多年來，該公司一直拒絕按照華爾街要求的速度開設新倉庫，因為管理層擔心這些設施的運營難度太大。

This concern seems to have waned, however. Costco now opens about 30 warehouses a year, with a growing number abroad. “Overseas expansion is where the growth is coming,” Susan Schwartz said. “Right now they’ve got seven warehouses in China. But they could have 150.”

然而，這種擔憂似乎已經減輕。Costco現在每年開設大約30個倉庫，海外的倉庫數量還在不斷增加。「海外擴張是增長的來源，」蘇珊·施瓦茨說。「目前，他們在中國有七個倉庫。但他們可以開出150個。」

East Asia has indeed been fertile for Costco, with openings this year in Japan (where it already has 33 warehouses), South Korea, Australia and China. That experience has yielded dividends at home. Expertise in Taiwanese and South Korean shopping preferences translated into the availability in the United States of products like braised abalone in brown sauce, giant red sea cucumber and Chinese-style bacon — and brand loyalty from Asian Americans.

對Costco來說，東亞確實是一片沃土，它今年在日本（在那裡已經有33個倉庫）、韓國、澳洲和中國都開設了新倉庫。這些經驗在國內也帶來了好處。對台灣和韓國購物偏好的專業了解，讓Costco在美國有了紅燒鮑魚、大號紅海參和中式熏肉等產品，也讓亞裔美國人對Costco產生了品牌忠誠度。

Yutack Kang, a content creator from Milpitas, Calif., with 463,000 TikTok followers, posts frequently about “sus foods at Costco you’re too afraid to try.” One of his latest: frozen durian pulp produced by Lucky Taro, a Los Angeles-based importer.

“The Asian food selection is superb,” Mr. Kang wrote in an email.

「亞洲食物的選擇非常棒，」康在一封電子郵件中寫道。

By and large, Americans do not trust corporations. But when asked which companies they do trust, they consistently rank Costco near the top.

“They’re selling the same food everyone else is selling,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s not like the products are magical. But they created a culture.”

「他們賣的食物和別人賣的一樣，」史密斯說。「他們的產品又沒有什麼魔力。但是他們創造了一種文化。」

Sol Price wanted Costco members to feel respected and smart. The company remains known for its no-questions-asked return policy, high-quality products and cheerful customer service. Employees are paid significantly better (an average of $26 per hour) than their counterparts at major retailers (an average $17 per hour). That helps create “a stable, motivated, capable team,” said Zeynep Ton, a professor at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management.

索爾·普萊斯希望讓Costco的會員覺得自己是受尊重的，是有頭腦的。該公司一直以無條件的退貨政策、高質量的產品和熱情的客戶服務而聞名。員工的工資（平均每小時26美元）明顯高於大型零售商的同行（平均每小時17美元）。這有助於打造「一個穩定、積極、能幹的團隊」，麻省理工學院斯隆管理學院教授澤伊內普·頓說。

Perhaps most important is Costco’s abiding reputation for low prices.

也許最重要的是Costco一直以來的低價聲譽。

For Kirkland products, for instance, Ms. Ton said “they don’t mark up anything more than 14 or 15 percent.” This includes Costco’s flagship product, the wildly popular $1.50 hot-dog-and-soda combo, which has cost the same since 1985. It’s not publicly known whether the company makes money on the 200 million hot dogs it sells each year, but the pricing is widely seen as brilliant marketing.

以柯克蘭的產品為例，湯恩說，「他們的利潤不會超過成本的14%或15%。」這包括Costco的旗艦產品，廣受歡迎的1.5美元熱狗和蘇打水套餐，自1985年以來價格一直保持不變。該公司每年銷售的兩億隻熱狗是否能夠賺錢，只有他們自己知道，但這種定價被普遍認為是一種高明的營銷手段。

Another, less obvious way Costco keeps faith with its members is by not selling shelf space. “Many retailers ask suppliers to pay for a position in a store,” said Mark Stovin, a former Costco executive who now works for OSMG, a leading food broker. “Costco would never do that.”

Mr. Stovin said Costco also does something almost none of its competitors do: restrain itself in mining customer data. “They have a number for every member, which could be trackable, traceable, and they could certainly dive into that,” Mr. Stovin said. “They really haven’t.”

斯托文說，Costco還做了一件幾乎所有競爭對手都不會做的事情：限制自己挖掘客戶數據。「他們有每個成員的編號，可以用來追蹤、追溯，他們當然可以深入挖掘這些數據，」斯托文說。「他們確實沒有這樣做。」

Costco remains reluctant to embrace technology — it was a latecomer to e-commerce, for instance — which may be attributable to the spirit of Mr. Price, who commanded managers to step away from their computers.

Costco仍然不願意接受技術——例如，它很晚才進入電子商務領域——這可能是由於普萊斯的態度，他命令經理們遠離電腦。

“If you’re a senior manager, your job is to interact with members,” Mr. Schwartz said. “They expect senior people to be on the floor all the time.”

「如果你是一名高級經理，你的工作就是與會員互動，」施瓦茨說。「他們希望高層人士一直在現場。」

That ethos goes all the way to the top.

這種精神一直延續到高層。

At the Sugar Land opening, Ron Vachris, who in January became Costco’s chief executive, just the third in the company’s 42-year history, could be seen chatting with floor personnel and inspecting the frozen tilapia. Hundreds of Costco employees, who are known for exuberant loyalty, had driven from as far away as Baton Rouge, La., to celebrate and shake hands with their new boss.

今年1月，榮恩·瓦克里斯成為Costco公司42年歷史上的第三任首席執行官。在得州舒格蘭的開業典禮上，人們可以看到他與現場工作人員聊天，並檢查冷凍羅非魚。數百名以忠誠著稱的Costco員工，從路易斯安那州巴吞魯日遠道而來，與新老闆握手慶祝。

Mr. Vachris, who started as a forklift operator in 1982, greeted employees and customers warmly, seemingly willing to hang out all morning. Approached by a reporter, however, he handed over his business card and retreated into a corporate cadence. (“Texas has been a great state to us. We’re excited to have another building here.”) Subsequent requests for an interview were declined.

1982年以叉車操作員的身份入職的瓦克里斯熱情地招待員工和客戶，似乎願意在這裡待一上午。然而，當記者走近他時，他遞上自己的名片，開始用大企業的腔調說話。（「得克薩斯對我們一直很好。我們很高興能在這裡再建一棟大樓。」）隨後的採訪請求都被拒絕了。

Situated between a defunct strip club, Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront and a raucous, sludge-oozing elevated expressway, Costco Warehouse No. 318 is low on sparkle but hums with manic energy. The Sunset Park location seems to have set aside shelf space for every immigrant group in Brooklyn. Beyond that, though, this could be a Costco anywhere. That works to Costco’s advantage.

坐落在一家倒閉的脫衣舞俱樂部、布魯克林的工業濱水區和一條喧鬧、滿是污泥的高架高速公路之間的318號倉庫，雖然沒有什麼亮點，但卻充滿了狂熱的活力。日落公園門店似乎為布魯克林的所有移民群體預留了貨架空間。除此之外，它可能和任何地方的Costco都差不多。這正是Costco的優勢所在。

One way the company strokes the value-driven superegos of its members is simply with the presentation of its warehouses. With their exposed wiring, minimal sunlight and nary a Spotify playlist, the warehouses are, well, warehouses, with fluorescent lighting and bad acoustics, designed to be built in a hurry. (The 3.5-acre Sugar Land building, for example, took only four months to assemble.)

要打動會員由價值驅動的超我，Costco的一個方法就是倉庫的展示非常簡單。電線暴露在外，沒什麼日照，也沒有Spotify的播放列表，畢竟，倉庫就是倉庫，熒光燈的照明，糟糕的室內聲學，一切都是為了能加快建造的速度。（例如，佔地1.4公頃的舒格蘭大樓只花了四個月的時間就建好了。）

That no-frills presentation transmits a reassuring signal of benign intent: We’re not trying to seduce you. Which is its own kind of come-on.

這種樸實無華的展示方式傳遞了一種令人放心的善意信號：我們不是在引誘你。而這本身就是一種誘惑。

“The customer walks in the door, and immediately there is a perception of value,” said Paco Underhill, the author of “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.” “The perception of value means that as someone walks in, discretionary purchases take on a different mantle than they might at Kroger, Target or Macy’s. People go, ‘I would never think about buying that. But if I did, this is the place to get it.’”

「顧客一進門，馬上就會產生一種很值的感覺，」《我們為什麼購買——購物的科學》(Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping)一書的作者帕科·昂德希爾說。「這種感覺意味著，當一個人走進店裡的時候，他的可自由支配消費行為就會呈現出一種不同於在Kroger、Target或梅西百貨時的樣子。人們會說，『我從來沒想過要買這個。但如果我想買，那就會在這裡買。』」

Strictly speaking, Costco can still answer Sol Price’s question “Is it really being honest with the customer?” with a “Yes.” But at this point the spirit of his edict may have been lost to its letter.

嚴格來說，Costco仍然可以用「是」來回答索爾·普萊斯的那個問題——「它真的對顧客誠實嗎？」不過如今他的這條準則可能已經失去精神，只剩下字面意義。

It would be hard to argue that Costco buyers don’t know what they are getting into. After all, they have to ferry the cart with the seven-foot artificial tree, the solar panel, the steel pet coffin and the three-month supply of Belgian mini-cream puffs back to the car.

很難說Costco的買家不知道自己買下的是些什麼。畢竟，他們必須推著裝有兩米高的人造樹、太陽能電池板、鋼製寵物棺材和夠吃三個月的比利時迷你奶油泡芙的手推車，把裡面的東西搬回自己車上。

“The idea is that you don’t feel that these are temptations,” said Ayelet Fishbach, a behavioral psychologist at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. “You’re getting a great deal.”

「我們的想法是，你不會覺得這些是誘惑，」芝加哥大學布斯商學院的行為心理學家阿耶萊特·菲什巴赫說。「你覺得很划算。」

But, she added, “The question is, Do you actually need this? You probably don’t.”

但是，她補充說，「問題是，你真的需要這個嗎？可能不需要。」