Who Chooses The Wine Selection At Costco?

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Despite having a large warehouse format, Costco is quite selective with the products it chooses to carry. Costco reports that shoppers can expect to find 4,000 SKUs in its stores, while the average supermarket carries 30,000. Therefore, deciding which wines make it into Costco warehouses is no small task. And the wines that make the cut are far from random: Costco employs a team of beverage buyers who oversee wine, beer, and spirits selections across its U.S. locations.

Highly knowledgeable and experienced in their field, regional buyers identify wine that clearly offers value while appealing to local tastes. The buyer-curated selection includes familiar wine brands that members expect to find, but also regional favorites and lesser-known wines that add variety to the shopping experience. Depending upon the location, you might find an incredible $8 bottle of Kirkland Signature Côtes de Provence Rosé, not far from rare and expensive wines, like a $6,000 three-pack of Screaming Eagle 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon.

The beverage team is also responsible for maintaining Costco's reputation for affordable wines. Former Costco beverage executive Annette Alvarez-Peters told Forbes in a 2017 interview that the goal is to price products about 20% below competing retailers whenever possible. That combination of competitive pricing, quality, and unique bottles attracts everyone from budget-conscious shoppers to Bordeaux-wine-seeking celebrity chef José Andrés.

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As you may already be well aware, Costco's wine selection isn't limited to bottles and well-known brands already on the market. When the company's beverage buyers can't find a wine that meets their quality and price standards, they find a solution through Costco's private label, Kirkland Signature.

Rather than operating its own vineyards or production facilities, Costco works with established producers around the world to create Kirkland-branded wines. This is beneficial to winemakers because it guarantees that Costco will purchase a large quantity of their wine. And when marketing often accounts for 80% of a bottle's price, as the chairman of the Sommelier Society of America told Marketplace, Costco can sell its branded wine at lower prices because the company spends little, if anything, on advertising Kirkland products. The exact wineries behind Kirkland wines can change, and buyers evaluate potential partners and sample products before deciding which wines to sell under the Kirkland name.

The Kirkland Signature program also gives Costco more flexibility. The private label approach helps Costco fill gaps in its offerings; for example, if the buyers don't find a crisp sauvignon blanc that meets current consumer preferences, Costco standards, and a certain price point, they can go directly to wineries to create a Kirkland-branded bottle that checks all the boxes.