Staples vs Costco
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
Largest US office supplies retailer with ~916 stores. Pivoting to services (printing, shipping, passports) and in-store partnerships with Verizon and Party City.
About
Staples is the largest office supplies retailer in the United States, founded in 1986 in Brighton, Massachusetts. The company pioneered the office superstore format and built its brand on the promise of making office supply purchasing convenient and affordable for businesses and consumers alike. Staples was taken private by Sycamore Partners in 2017 and has since been undergoing a significant strategic transformation away from commodity product retail toward services-led revenue.\n\nStaples operates approximately 916 US retail stores and a large B2B commercial division serving businesses directly. The company's retail stores have evolved into multi-service destinations offering printing, shipping, passport photo services, and in-store partnerships with Verizon and Apple — making stores a hub for business services rather than just product sales. The B2B commercial division, which serves small businesses and enterprise accounts with recurring supply contracts, has become the more strategically important revenue stream as retail foot traffic has declined.\n\nStaples generates substantial revenue across its retail and commercial segments, though the company does not disclose detailed financials as a private entity. Its 2025–2026 strategy focuses on growing the services footprint in stores, expanding the B2B commercial business through direct sales and e-commerce, and differentiating from Amazon Business through the combination of physical presence, service offerings, and category expertise. The pivot to services represents a credible response to the existential challenge that e-commerce has posed to traditional office supply retail.
NASDAQ: COST warehouse club at $249.6B FY2024 revenue with 73.4M cardholders and $50B+ Kirkland Signature; 90%+ renewal rate with $65/$130 membership fee competing with Sam's Club for warehouse retail.
About
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an Issaquah, Washington-based membership warehouse club — listed on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: COST) — operating 897 warehouse locations globally (as of mid-2025) across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Australia, Spain, France, China, and Iceland, providing paid members (73.4 million cardholders representing 136.8 million authorized users as of fiscal year end 2024) with bulk merchandise, groceries, electronics, appliances, tires, optical services, pharmacy, and the Kirkland Signature private label brand at prices consistently below traditional retail channels. Costco generated $249.6 billion in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 (ended September 2024, +5% year-over-year), with membership fee revenue of $4.83 billion providing the financial foundation that enables Costco's famously low product margins.
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