« Home
Our History
The WDS story. Short and sweet
Although founded in 1989 as an independent and separate company, WDS' history is closely linked to that of Costco's.
In 1983 Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman opened their first Costco warehouse in Seattle. Along the way they merged with Jim’s former employer, Price Club and doubled in size as Price/Costco. They changed the name to Costco Wholesale in 1997. Today Costco boasts over 54 million member customers and racked up a $71 billion sales record last fiscal year.
Success didn’t come without effort.
At first national retailers were loath to trust their brands to a retail concept that was so daringly different. Demonstrations were started to prove to members that Costco’s products were of major brand quality. Originally vendors themselves performed the demonstrations, but Costco wanted better quality and consistency. They turned to Ken Chamberlin, then servicing Costco as an in-house broker. Ken started WDS, Warehouse Demo Services, in 1989.
Today major brands scramble to be in Costco where companies like Kraft, General Mills, P&G and others compete for the attention of Costco members. Product demonstrations are part of the Costco shopping experience and a key to attracting the interest and keeping the loyalty of Costco members for their featured brands.
At WDS we continue today as an exclusive, independent contractor to Costco with responsibility for all Costco demo services performed in its Northwest, Bay Area and Los Angeles service regions which also include locations in Alaska and Hawaii. Headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, we have over 7,000 employees. We have a great time at our jobs and value our personal relationships with wonderful vendors, our terrific Demonstrators, one another, and of course with our inseparable partner, Costco.
And as for history—after two decades we keep making it.
Although founded in 1989 as an independent and separate company, WDS' history is closely linked to that of Costco's.
In 1983 Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman opened their first Costco warehouse in Seattle. Along the way they merged with Jim’s former employer, Price Club and doubled in size as Price/Costco. They changed the name to Costco Wholesale in 1997. Today Costco boasts over 54 million member customers and racked up a $71 billion sales record last fiscal year.
Success didn’t come without effort.
At first national retailers were loath to trust their brands to a retail concept that was so daringly different. Demonstrations were started to prove to members that Costco’s products were of major brand quality. Originally vendors themselves performed the demonstrations, but Costco wanted better quality and consistency. They turned to Ken Chamberlin, then servicing Costco as an in-house broker. Ken started WDS, Warehouse Demo Services, in 1989.
Today major brands scramble to be in Costco where companies like Kraft, General Mills, P&G and others compete for the attention of Costco members. Product demonstrations are part of the Costco shopping experience and a key to attracting the interest and keeping the loyalty of Costco members for their featured brands.
At WDS we continue today as an exclusive, independent contractor to Costco with responsibility for all Costco demo services performed in its Northwest, Bay Area and Los Angeles service regions which also include locations in Alaska and Hawaii. Headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, we have over 7,000 employees. We have a great time at our jobs and value our personal relationships with wonderful vendors, our terrific Demonstrators, one another, and of course with our inseparable partner, Costco.
And as for history—after two decades we keep making it.
“Our products deliver on taste and WDS is able to put that right into the Costco members’ hands. That’s the front line of our ability to introduce our product to the consumer and it has proven very successful for us.”