Costco supermarkets, with their presence in several countries, are part of the same company, Costco Wholesale Corporation, and that is beneficial for their customers: using your membership card you can shop at any Costco store in the world, without any problems.
Although there may be some differences in the products and services offered at individual Costco locations in different countries, the company operates as a single entity and maintains a consistent brand identity and business model across all of its locations. Currently, it has over 100 locations un Canada.
Are Canadian Costco stores the same as in the US?
Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Canada for work, and I took the chance to see what the Costco stores were like in that beautiful neighboring country. One would imagine that there are some interesting and different products that you wouldn’t see in Miami or Los Angeles stores, and that’s partially true.
If you ever go to Costco Canada, do not miss out its food court!Specifically, I visited the location in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and I took my time to go through their shelves and unveil their secrets. On the outside, the store is practically the same as many others I have visited in the United States. Inside, its design is an open space, with low shelves that allow you to see in the distance through the gigantic warehouse with very high ceilings. Nothing new here: it looks like many stores, not only from the USA, but from other countries such as Mexico or Australia.
You can see on their shelves a great variety of specialized products for winter (I traveled in November, so the cold was coming), and we all know that the winter cold in the north is really strong and badass. I saw a great variety of jackets for the cold, for rain and snow, and other accessories to survive every year like gloves, earmuffs and such.
An interesting difference is that the price tags are in English and in French, because both languages are official in Canada (more than 20% of the Canadian population is francophone).
Many products are of local origin, but you will also see a lot of items that come from the United States. In meats, for example, the majority are Canadian products: from bison burgers to Wagyu beef, Canadian Costco stores prefer to display local on their shelves over imported. Now, if you want to buy American meat, you can see Chicago steaks and bone-in pork chops imported from various US locations.
A great food court that made me envy
The Costco hot dog combo is one of its stars in stores in the United States. Along with the gigantic pizza, the Costco food court is an obligatory stop when we go shopping with my girlfriend to grab a bite to eat.
But in Canada, the food court is quite fascinating: the local menu offers chicken strips, several ice cream options and, yes, poutine, the French-Canadian dish très populaire of French fries topped with curd cheese and brown sauce.
Beyond those differences, in general the Canadian Costco stores and the ones at the US are quite similar. If you ever move to live in Canada and you feel nostalgic, all you have to do is take a walk around the nearest Costco and you will feel at home.