'Tis the Season for ... Costco?

In the harried, time-pressed days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are perhaps few better places to experience the hot breath of American consumerism than the Costco Warehouse at Pentagon City.

ARLINGTON, VA -- In the harried, time-pressed days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are perhaps few better places to experience the hot breath of American consumerism than the Costco Warehouse at Pentagon City. Long lines of shoppers begin lining up at the doors each morning before 10, looking to pile high their carts with every manner of product, from holiday shrimp platters to jumbo packs of toilet paper.

On a recent pre-Holiday morning, Recession-gripped shoppers pushed Smart Car-size carts, political junkies perused the stack of bargain-priced Ted Kennedy books, and Sunday football afficianados awed the $499 big-screen TVs. Long tables were loaded down with extra-large bags of potatoes, Michael Kors microfiber jackets, 10-pound bags of organic carrots and packaged perfume sets.

Long lines of shoppers begin lining up at the doors each morning before 10, looking to pile high their carts with every manner of product, from holiday shrimp platters to jumbo packs of toilet paper.

Jim Sinegal co-founded Costco with Jeffrey Brotman in 1983, with a philosophy that's hard to beat: Keep prices so low that other stores can't compete. Most Costco items are marked up an average of just 10.5 percent, creating razor-thin profit margins of less than 3 percent. Still, those tiny margins are compounded enough times for the Seattle-based chain to turn a $1.3 billion profit in fiscal 2008.

The 170,000-square-foot shopping mecca at Pentagon City is the second busiest Costco on the eastern seaboard, racking up yearly sales in excess of $100 million.

Membership costs $50 per year, which gives shoppers the right to shop the no-frills warehouse composed of cinder blocks and corrugated metal. “Our 10 busiest days of the year are the 10 days before Christmas,” said John Rohr, the warehouse manager and a 22-year Costco veteran. “We have the busiest bakery in the entire company.”

On a typical weekday in the weeks before Christmas, holiday sheetcakes and meat-and-cheese platters by the thousands fly out of the store, with each receipt dutifully checked off by a loss prevention clerk at the exit.

By Thanksgiving, Costco Pentagon City moves into high gear, running its bakery and kitchens 24 hours a day to meet demand, staffing up to 400 workers who unload a half dozen 18-wheelers a day filled with goods.
“The driving force is parties at the Pentagon,” Rohr said. He then chuckles, “They’re supposed to be protecting the country, but in the weeks before Christmas they seemed to be having a lot of parties.”

Sixteen-dollar chocolate mold centerpieces of the Pentagon and Capitol Hill are hot sellers during the Holiday season, as are cases of Burgundies and Chardonnays, and sheetcakes by the thousands.

“It seems like everyone comes in here in a frenzy,” Rohr said. Embassy chefs, catering company owners, social doyennes and cooks from high-end restaurants come in wearing their white aprons with insignias, often looking frazzled and desperate for that missing ingredient to the menu or holiday party.

A Black Friday line in front of Costco, in search of the first Wii off the shelf.

One day recently, former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey was seen loading his cart with palettes of bottled water, as his security detail stood dutifully by his side.

Former President Bill Clinton caused an even bigger frenzy at the store in October, 2007, when thousands lined up to have him sign his new book, “Giving.”  Former President Jimmy Carter was in a week later for a book signing, and Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Walters and Tom Brokaw conducted book signings here in the past year.

“Democratic politicians appear to score the most visitors,” Rohr said. “But I think Hillary sold a few more of her books than Bill. Either way, President Clinton caused a real frenzy. It was almost cult-like.”

The cult-like appeal of Costco appears to be the haphazard way in which the goods are lined up, with thousand-dollar HDTV's placed across the aisle from giant boxes of cheese curls. “We do the best job on the high-end of the customer base,” Rohr boasts, pointing at $110 bottles of Chateau Margaux, a hot seller. “Our customer is very discriminating.”

On a recent afternoon, litigation specialist R.T. Traib of Alexandria was cruising the aisles in a snappy pinstripe suit, his cart filled with a smorgasboard of items.

The carts lined up at Costco.

“I usually come in for diapers, but if I see something like this I’ll buy it,” said Traib, selecting four vintage 1999 Dom Perignon champagne gift bottles he picked up for $110 apiece. “I plan to give French truffles and champagne to my clients to thank them. I do this about four times a year.”

Traib then pauses, and turns to Rohr. “Do you have any gummy bears?”
Email the writer at jarundel@localkicks.com