Where Costco tells vendors to start
Costco's Vendor Inquiries page splits prospective vendors in two. For non-food or sundry items, you contact the corporate office. For food and sundry items, you contact the appropriate division office. In the US those regions are:
- Northwest
- Northern California
- Los Angeles
- San Diego
- Texas
- Midwest
- Northeast
- Southeast
The page lists the address and phone number of each office. Pick the region where you make the product and where your first customers are, and send a short, complete pitch: what the product is, the case pack, your price, your capacity and your food safety credentials.
Costco's Supplier Inclusion Program for small brands
Costco says its buying teams often look for small businesses and diverse suppliers to bring unique items into its warehouses, as part of the "treasure hunt" its members know. Those items have appeared in warehouses in US regions and online at Costco.com.
- You start with an intake form on Costco's Supplier Inclusion page, which checks your eligibility for the program
- The form opens by asking whether your company is owned and operated in the US
- Costco asks you to meet all program qualifications before you apply, because it can't process requests that don't
- A member of the merchandising team contacts you if they need more information
- Every supplier has to meet Costco's standards for quality, value and service
Get retail-ready before you pitch
A Costco buyer is looking at a product that can ship by the pallet next month, not a recipe. Three things have to be in place first.
- A licensed kitchen. Cottage food laws are built for selling to consumers, and many rule out stores entirely: Michigan's cottage food rules, for example, don't allow sales to restaurants or grocery stores
- FDA food facility registration for the plant that makes or packs your food, unless it is exempt. The retail food exemption doesn't fit a supplier, because FDA counts only sales to consumers, and businesses aren't consumers
- Production under FDA's good manufacturing practice rules for human food, 21 CFR 117
Working with a co-packer is often the fastest way to get there: their registered, inspected plant makes your recipe, and your label says "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by" with your company name.
Co-Packer →FDA Food Facility Registration →The FDA label on a Costco package
Every package needs the full federal label: the name of the food, net quantity, ingredients in order of weight, the major allergens, your name and address, and Nutrition Facts.
Don't count on the small business exemption from Nutrition Facts. It covers food offered for sale by a person who sells directly to consumers and has small sales. In a Costco warehouse, the business selling to the shopper is Costco. A small manufacturer may still qualify for the low-volume exemption, with a notice to FDA, but it disappears once a nutrition claim or nutrition information appears on the label or in your ads.
Club-size packs and multipacks
Warehouse clubs sell big. Two FDA rules decide how the Nutrition Facts panel looks on those packs:
| Pack | What FDA requires | In our tool |
|---|---|---|
| A box of single-serve packs, each carrying its own complete label | The serving size on the outer box is 1 unit | Make the unit label, then the box label with 1 unit as the serving |
| A single package holding two to three times the reference amount | A second column for the whole package next to the per-serving column | Dual column format |
| A large package with many servings | Servings per container from the net weight | Enter what one package holds, in ounces or grams |
A variety pack that mixes different products is a different case. Our tool makes a label per product, not the combined variety-pack layout, so plan that panel with your designer.
Dual Column Nutrition Label →Bring the label and its paper trail
Buyers, co-packers and quality teams ask where your numbers come from. Our tool gives you a vector PDF that prints at actual size, an SVG your packaging designer can place, and a calculation report: the recipe, which USDA FoodData Central entry each ingredient came from, and the rounding behind every number. FDA itself notes that USDA FoodData Central may be used to develop nutrient information for foods.
Nutrition Label Documentation: The Calculation Report →Start your label free →