Advertisement
Trending

‘Costco members rejoice’: People are discovering how Kirkland’s elite 1% rule makes the brand ‘literally the best’

“Kirkland is *literally* the best.”

Photo of Lindsey Weedston

Lindsey Weedston

Photo collage image of the Kirkland Signature logo glowing in from of a heavenly background.

People hungry for deals amid rising grocery prices were thrilled to learn about the 1% better policy of the Kirkland brand from Costco. According to a Reddit thread populated by alleged Costco experts, the well-known Kirkland Signature brand attracts retailers with a strategy requiring them to make the generic version of their products, but slightly better.

Featured Video

Outside sources suggest that these Redditors know what they’re talking about. Costco’s methods not only convince suppliers to create their generic products for them, the result is that Kirkland is one of the most trusted generic brands in the U.S.

Costco and the Kirkland 1% better policy

Comments in a Reddit thread from 2020 explain how Costco requires Kirkland Signature products to be at least 1% better than their industry-leading counterparts. Both a marketing expert and a worker for a large Costco supplier outlined this policy.

Advertisement

“The Kirkland brand is known for their quality — in fact, they won’t put their name on a product unless independent market and product research shows it meets or exceeds whatever the industry leader is,” says user min2themax. “Everything has to be better than the top-rated brand or it isn’t good enough for the Kirkland label.”

Tweet with a screenshot of Reddit comments and text reading 'Reddit thread on branded vs generic/ store-brand drugs, clothing, food, etc. Interesting tid bit on Costco/Kirkland: suppliers have to create Kirkland lines at least '1% better' than the supplier's premium product based on an identifiable metric. Kirkland is *literally* the best.'
@singareddynm/X

In a response to the above comment, the supply worker revealed just how specific this strategy is.

“If you have what they deem to be the premium product on the market, they will actually ask you to make the Kirkland brand,” writes reasonableliberty. “They catch is that it has to be at least 1% better than your product. Thats not a joke. They’ll identify a metric in which their Kirkland branded product has to be slightly better than your market leading product.”

Advertisement
Tweet reading 'Other insights from the thread: Grey Goose was bottom shelf liquor that did a great rebrand Walgreens batteries are exact same batteries as Duracell Medical suppliers love to mark up (e.g. $300 for a mesh metal glove sold, same product at Bass Pro Shop for $12).'
@singareddynm/X

These comments spread to X (then Twitter) days later via screenshot, where Costco fans were excited to learn that their favorite warehouse store wasn’t ripping them off. In 2024, as grocery prices continue to rise and executive orders from President Donald Trump increase consumer anxiety, the X thread is catching renewed interest.

How the generic brand became the better choice

According to Britannica, starting from its launch in 1995, Kirkland Signature designed its products “to be of equal or better quality than national brands.” While shoppers often assume generic products to be of lesser quality than the name-brand options due to their lower price, Costco worked to prevent that assumption among their customers.

Advertisement

Costco was able to ensure their Kirkland products were not just equal, but superior to others by approaching industry leaders like Duracell and Keurig Green Mountain and partnering with them to make both parties are happy. This strategy benefits Costco in numerous ways.

“Similar to other retailers, Costco’s private label allows for the firm to control more of the supply chain, and in turn, the costs associated with production and transport,” research analyst Michael Del Monte told Luckbox Magazine.

“Costco has dynamic pricing baked into retail prices to ensure customers pay the lowest possible price for items sold at locations. The Kirkland branding allows for even tighter margin control as the firm has more control over production, quantity, quality and timing.”

Meanwhile, making sure that Kirkland products are at least a little better resulted in high consumer confidence. According to Nasdaq, Kirkland Signature generated a quarter of all Costco’s sales in 2019, creating $39 billion in revenue for the company.

Advertisement

The 1% metric claimed by the Redditor might not be the exact Costco policy, but the overall policy appears to be real.

Consumers crave lower prices

With the costs of living being what they are, social media users loved the news about Kirkland in 2020 and they’re just as happy in 2024, years after grocery prices spiked.

Quote tweet reading 'I had got my first Costco card last year because it was cheaper to buy a truck battery from them, get their card, and install it myself then anywhere else. Happy to start shopping there even more now.'
@Ellensama/X
Advertisement

Product prices, especially when it comes to groceries and other necessities, were high on the list of voter concerns leading up to the 2024 presidential election. These concerns remain into the second week of the second Trump presidency in spite of his promises to bring prices down. Some worry that his flurry of executive orders will only make the problem worse.

Quote tweet reading 'People shit on Costco…do your HW'
@pej31/X

Although Trump did sign an order telling “all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief,” the document lacks specific directions and has left experts with low confidence that the price of eggs will fall any time soon.

“Trump’s cost of living order fails to address the root causes of inflation, namely corporate profiteering and broken supply chains,” economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative director Lindsay Owens told CBS News. “This order is a talking point, not a plan.”

Advertisement
In Body Image
@overglobe/X

At the same time, his actions on immigration that have already resulted in raids across the country are causing many agricultural workers to stay home instead of tending to U.S. crops.

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

 
The Daily Dot