Kerry Tasker for The New York TimesWhen 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年开业时，安克雷奇市西戴蒙德大道上的Costco似乎并不代表食品的未来。这座仓库本质上就是个棚屋，颜色像不新鲜的咖啡，它提供的是阿拉斯加人为之疯狂的那种产品和折扣：大份量的日常食物，比如花生酱和番茄酱，以及驯鹿香肠等当地人的最爱。阿拉斯加的环境极为恶劣，人们需要花费数小时甚至数天的时间出行购买食品杂货，这使得Costco一经推出就大受欢迎。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，这里的停车场有点杂货店的味道，到处都是经过加高改装、带有外挂车架和防滑轮胎的四轮驱动车，以及看起来更像移动堡垒的移动房屋。这里卖的东西也很特别：氯丁橡胶救生服、绞肉机、枪支保险箱。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.在巨大的商店内部，一辆辆满载的购物车看上去就像是自己在过道里行驶着。加布里埃拉·佩莱萨就推着这样一辆推车，这个十来岁的少年要买的东西包括两头全猪，每头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.”佩莱萨轻描淡写地说，“我们想要的东西，他们都有更大的版本。”与此同时，她的妹妹正坐在推车上吃着Costco热狗。Though the Anchorage location, one of the retailer’s first, once seemed like a survivalist outlier, today it shows how visionary Costco was.作为这家零售商的首批分店之一，安克雷奇的分店一度看起来像是一个专注于末世求生的异类，但如今它显示了Costco的远见卓识。“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，大约四分之一的人口囤积了不易腐烂的食品，”市场研究公司Packaged Facts的詹妮弗·梅普斯-克里斯特说。今天，超过一半的人在这样做。梅普斯-克里斯特说，虽然疫情是一个加速器，但是这种趋势在此之前就开始了，其驱动力是对气候变化和经济不稳定的担忧。安克雷奇市的一家Costco店。 Kerry Tasker for The New York TimesIn 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，四分之一的美国消费者在Costco购物。如今，这一比例接近三分之一。Costco是世界第三大零售商，仅次于亚马逊和沃尔玛。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的成功远不止于囤货。该公司抓住了美国消费者的心理，既能吸引精打细算的超我（“18美元12罐金枪鱼！”），也能吸引冲动购物的本我（“那台98寸平板电视我值得拥有”）。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.从表面上看，Costco是一家折扣店，是一个省钱和精打细算购买杂物的地方，但它也是一种令人向往的购物体验，满足了大多数美国人的欲望：炫耀性消费。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.很少有公司对我们的饮食（乃至穿着、汽车燃料或个人卫生用品）拥有如此大的影响力。Costco主宰着食品供应的多个类别——牛肉、家禽、有机农产品，甚至是波尔多的优质葡萄酒——其销量超过了世界上任何一家零售商。它掌握着数以百万计生产者的生死——其中，仅在非洲，它就拥有100多万名腰果种植者。（Costco的腰果销量占全球的一半。）它的自有品牌科克兰为它带来的收入超过了耐克和可口可乐等大品牌。安克雷奇的10号仓库于1984年开业。Kerry Tasker for The New York TimesFor 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.尽管取得了巨大的成功，人们对这家公司的了解并不多。其高层官员显得封闭、神秘。除了季度报告，Costco很少披露其内部运作情况。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.”但在亿万富翁投资者、沃伦·巴菲特在伯克希尔哈撒韦公司的得力助手查理·芒格看来，Costco的资产负债表已经说明了一切。在他去年去世前的最后一次采访中，他直接了当地说：“这是一家完美的公司。”‘Everything was about trust’“一切都与信任有关。”Costco has often been likened to a cult, in part because once members — 134 million worldwide — enter the fold, they rarely leave.Costco经常被比作一种小众信仰，这一定程度上是因为会员一旦加入（全球有1.34亿人），就很少离开。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.”事实上，人们对这一品牌的狂热激发了社交媒体上的致敬活动，深夜节目中希望自己显得接地气的名人们说和它有关的段子，甚至还有一本关于它书——《Costco的快乐》(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，美国人日益认为大品牌是掠夺性的垄断企业，或者是残破的遗存，然而Costco却因其高工资、周到的客户服务和“对诚信的坚定承诺”而受到尊敬。位于俄勒冈州的食品品牌孵化器Launchpad的总裁杰里米·史密斯说，Launchpad专营在Costco的产品投放。Whether Costco is a cult or not, its spiritual founder was a Bronx-born lawyer with utopian ideals and strict morals.不管是不是小众信仰，Costco的精神创始人是一位出生于布朗克斯的律师，有着乌托邦式的理想和严苛的道德准则。在开业的第一年，索尔·普莱斯的FedMart亏损了75万美元。2009年，普莱斯93岁去世时，他的净资产已达五亿美元。Courtesy of CostcoSol 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.索尔·普莱斯出生于1916年，是来自明斯克的制衣工人的儿子，属于流离失所的犹太人和其他欧洲人那一代，他们靠着纽约的小生意成长起来——大萧条和战后的熟食店、糖果店和当铺。20世纪20年代，全家搬到圣地亚哥，他在那里上了高中。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.从南加州大学法学院毕业后，普莱斯的第一份工作是代理杂货店和其他商人。他拥有一种店主的气质，对顾客非常关注，斤斤计较哪怕最小的细节。20世纪50年代，他开始把圣地亚哥的空仓库改造成会员制集市，顾客只需交一小笔费用，就能以批发价买到从袜子到香烟等各种商品。这家名为FedMart的公司经营的关键很简单：留住会员，让他们年复一年地续费。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，普莱斯向《财富》杂志描述了他的理念：“我们如何以最低的价格销售产品？”他说，最重要的目标是“从这样一个角度来看待一切：它真的对客户诚实吗？”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.在经济繁荣和社会变革的时代，普莱斯有一种与购物者建立联系的天赋，但矛盾的是，他的原则之一是不要赚太多钱。“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.”“他成长在一个社会主义者的家庭。他是个资本家。他喜欢赚钱，但他支持工会、支持劳工、支持小人物，”戴维·施瓦茨说。他和妻子苏珊共同撰写了《Costco的快乐》一书。“一切都与信任有关。他宁愿失去你的生意，也不愿失去你的信任。”第一家Costco门店于1983年在西雅图开业。十年后，索尔·普莱斯的普莱斯俱乐部与Costco合并。Courtesy of CostcoThrough 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.经过多年的一系列合并，索尔·普莱斯的FedMart在20世纪90年代变成了我们所知的Costco，总部如今位于华盛顿州伊萨夸。作为一家现代公司，它对普莱斯愿景的忠诚达到了惊人的地步。它仍然注重同会员的关系，会员似乎很满意，续费率为93%。上个季度，会员费收入为11.2亿美元，约占Costco的16.8亿美元总净利润的三分之二。换句话说，双方的互相依赖仍然存在。‘A giant ecosystem’“一个巨大的生态系统”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.在安克雷奇以南6400公里的得克萨斯州的舒格兰，没有人会开着荒野飞机来这里购物。但在这个遍布沼泽的休斯顿郊区，生活同样围绕着Costco运转。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.舒格兰曾是经营制糖业的监狱农场，近年来已转变为一个环环相扣的总体规划社区综合体。今年6月，Costco在一个黄金地段开设了882号仓库，这是该公司在该地区的第三家仓库。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. 和安克雷奇一样，舒格兰也是快速增长的亚裔美国人的家园（主要是印度裔和巴基斯坦裔），尽管在一个各地口味和传统千差万别的国家开展业务面临挑战，但Costco还是渴望为这里的居民服务。“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了解得州的情况，因为他们在那里有办公室，”史密斯说。“这很精明。他们是少数几家允许品牌只进入一个门店并测试其产品的零售商之一。”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能够把握趋势，并将情报发回伊萨卡。“这是一个巨大的生态系统，”史密斯说，但它也依赖人力资本——仓库经理的专业知识。Costco倾向于从内部提拔员工，在数十年乃至整个职业生涯中，向员工灌输独特的企业文化。该公司的许多高级员工都是从包装工或食品搬运工开始的。飓风贝丽尔过后，休斯敦地区有200多万人断电，布鲁斯·怀特在附近的糖地Costco购买生活必需品。Danielle Villasana/Getty ImagesThat 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.过去，这样的做法限制了Costco的扩张。多年来，该公司一直拒绝按照华尔街要求的速度开设新仓库，因为管理层担心这些设施的运营难度太大。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，这种担忧似乎已经减轻。Costco现在每年开设大约30个仓库，海外的仓库数量还在不断增加。“海外扩张是增长的来源，”苏珊·施瓦茨说。“目前，他们在中国有七个仓库。但他们可以开出150个。”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.对Costco来说，东亚确实是一片沃土，它今年在日本（在那里已经有33个仓库）、韩国、澳大利亚和中国都开设了新仓库。这些经验在国内也带来了好处。对台湾和韩国购物偏好的专业了解，让Costco在美国有了红烧鲍鱼、大号红海参和中式熏肉等产品，也让亚裔美国人对Costco产生了品牌忠诚度。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.来自加州米尔皮塔斯的内容创作者宇塔克·康（音）在TikTok上拥有46.3万粉丝，他经常发布“Costco里你不敢尝试的可疑食品”的帖子。他发布的最新内容之一是洛杉矶进口商Lucky Taro生产的冷冻榴莲果肉。“The Asian food selection is superb,” Mr. Kang wrote in an email.“亚洲食物的选择非常棒，”康在一封电子邮件中写道。‘Costco would never’“Costco绝不会这么做”By and large, Americans do not trust corporations. But when asked which companies they do trust, they consistently rank Costco near the top.总的来说，美国人不相信大公司。但当被问及他们信任哪些公司时，他们一直把Costco排在前列。“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.”“他们卖的食物和别人卖的一样，”史密斯说。“他们的产品又没有什么魔力。但是他们创造了一种文化。”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.索尔·普莱斯希望让Costco的会员觉得自己是受尊重的，是有头脑的。该公司一直以无条件的退货政策、高质量的产品和热情的客户服务而闻名。员工的工资（平均每小时26美元）明显高于大型零售商的同行（平均每小时17美元）。这有助于打造“一个稳定、积极、能干的团队”，麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院教授泽伊内普·顿说。Perhaps most important is Costco’s abiding reputation for low prices.也许最重要的是Costco一直以来的低价声誉。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.以柯克兰的产品为例，汤恩说，“他们的利润不会超过成本的14%或15%。”这包括Costco的旗舰产品，广受欢迎的1.5美元热狗和苏打水套餐，自1985年以来价格一直保持不变。该公司每年销售的两亿只热狗是否能够赚钱，只有他们自己知道，但这种定价被普遍认为是一种高明的营销手段。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.”Costco令会员保持信心的另一种不太明显的方式是，它从不出售货架空间。“许多零售商要求供应商为商店的货架位置付费，”马克·斯托文说，他曾是Costco的高管，现在为领先的食品经纪公司OSMG工作。“Costco绝不会这么做。”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.”斯托文说，Costco还做了一件几乎所有竞争对手都不会做的事情：限制自己挖掘客户数据。“他们有每个成员的编号，可以用来追踪、追溯，他们当然可以深入挖掘这些数据，”斯托文说。“他们确实没有这样做。”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仍然不愿意接受技术——例如，它很晚才进入电子商务领域——这可能是由于普莱斯的态度，他命令经理们远离电脑。“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.”“如果你是一名高级经理，你的工作就是与会员互动，”施瓦茨说。“他们希望高层人士一直在现场。”Costco每年卖出大约两亿个热狗，比美国职业棒球大联盟所有球场的销量总和还要多。Patrick T. Fallon/Getty ImagesThat ethos goes all the way to the top.这种精神一直延续到高层。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，罗恩·瓦克里斯成为Costco公司42年历史上的第三任首席执行官。在得州舒格兰的开业典礼上，人们可以看到他与现场工作人员聊天，并检查冷冻罗非鱼。数百名以忠诚著称的Costco员工，从路易斯安那州巴吞鲁日远道而来，与新老板握手庆祝。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年以叉车操作员的身份入职的瓦克里斯热情地招待员工和客户，似乎愿意在这里待一上午。然而，当记者走近他时，他递上自己的名片，开始用大企业的腔调说话。（“得克萨斯对我们一直很好。我们很高兴能在这里再建一栋大楼。”）随后的采访请求都被拒绝了。'Treasure Hunt Atmosphere’ “寻宝氛围”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.坐落在一家倒闭的脱衣舞俱乐部、布鲁克林的工业滨水区和一条喧闹、满是污泥的高架高速公路之间的318号仓库，虽然没有什么亮点，但却充满了狂热的活力。日落公园门店似乎为布鲁克林的所有移民群体预留了货架空间。除此之外，它可能和任何地方的Costco都差不多。这正是Costco的优势所在。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.)要打动会员由价值驱动的超我，Costco的一个方法就是仓库的展示非常简单。电线暴露在外，没什么日照，也没有Spotify的播放列表，毕竟，仓库就是仓库，荧光灯的照明，糟糕的室内声学，一切都是为了能加快建造的速度。（例如，占地1.4公顷的舒格兰大楼只花了四个月的时间就建好了。）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.这种朴实无华的展示方式传递了一种令人放心的善意信号：我们不是在引诱你。而这本身就是一种诱惑。“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.’”“顾客一进门，马上就会产生一种很值的感觉，”《我们为什么购买——购物的科学》(Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping)一书的作者帕科·昂德希尔说。“这种感觉意味着，当一个人走进店里的时候，他的可自由支配消费行为就会呈现出一种不同于在Kroger、Target或梅西百货时的样子。人们会说，‘我从来没想过要买这个。但如果我想买，那就会在这里买。’”典型的Costco顾客每次消费100到150美元。Kerry Tasker for The New York TimesStrictly 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. 严格来说，Costco仍然可以用“是”来回答索尔·普莱斯的那个问题——“它真的对顾客诚实吗？”不过如今他的这条准则可能已经失去精神，只剩下字面意义。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.很难说Costco的买家不知道自己买下的是些什么。毕竟，他们必须推着装有两米高的人造树、太阳能电池板、钢制宠物棺材和够吃三个月的比利时迷你奶油泡芙的手推车，把里面的东西搬回自己车上。“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.”“我们的想法是，你不会觉得这些是诱惑，”芝加哥大学布斯商学院的行为心理学家阿耶莱特·菲什巴赫说。“你觉得很划算。”But, she added, “The question is, Do you actually need this? You probably don’t.”但是，她补充说，“问题是，你真的需要这个吗？可能不需要。”
