The plan
Every single one
Susan and David Schwartz visited more than 250 Costcos in 46 states and 13 countries and wrote The Joy of Costco. Nobody seems to have visited all of them. That’s the part that hasn’t been done, and the plan is below. And of course, we’re checking Costco Travel along the way.
Sep 2026
~22% of the list
RI · WV · WY
East Lyme, CT
How it happens
Sorted by how far away it is
Every distance is measured from our town to Costco’s own locations for all 648 Costcos, straight-line and multiplied by 1.22 to approximate the road. The median one is 1,754 road miles away, half the list is farther than Denver. So we’re going by distance instead of planning a route.
Close enough to come home fromunder 600 miles106
- 34 Within 120 road milesan afternoon
- 31 121 to 250 milesa long Saturday
- 41 251 to 600 milesa weekend with a hotel
Everything elsethe actual project542
- 96 601 to 1,000 milesa long weekend
- 432 Over 1,000 milesa week-long trip
- 14 Alaska and Hawaiia flight, and the last to go
Two things bend those numbers. Each year our family travels south to the Carolinas, and a handful of warehouses sit close enough to the route to come off the list two or three at a time without a trip of their own. And the 14 in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico come last, once the trip pays for itself. What the project costs comes straight off these numbers.
The cost
$285,000 to $300,000
Our best guess, made at the start, and deliberately on the high side. And it only happens with your support. Here’s where the guess comes from. The 106 warehouses within a weekend’s drive cost about $14,000 and get done first. Five a year ride along with a drive we typically make to the Carolinas. The other 542 need a plane, and that’s where the money goes: two or three week-long trips a year, five long weekends, roughly forty nights a year away from home. Four seats is $2,000–$3,000 before anyone sleeps anywhere. The food court is the cheapest line on the page at about $13 a visit.
The count
What is on the list, and what is not
Costco has 648 locations open in America: 617 warehouses, 26 business centers, 5 home showrooms. All 648 are the list. Not every one has a food court: home showrooms have none, and only two of the 26 business centers do. So 29 of the stops are a Costco with no hot dog at the end of the drive, and we go to those anyway.
Costco keeps opening new ones, so the list grows while we work. Another 10 are announced and not open yet. They go on the list the day they open, and none of them counts until then.
Puerto Rico has 5 and they are not in the 648. The project is every Costco in America. If we get to San Juan we will write those up like anywhere else, but we are not counting something we have not promised. They are on the map all the same.
Then there is the rest of the world. Costco counts 939 warehouses worldwide; 292 of them are outside the United States. That leaves 647 in the United States and Puerto Rico, and it reconciles with the 648 above rather than contradicting it. Costco counts warehouses and business centers and does not count home showrooms, which are not warehouses, and its figure includes the four warehouses in Puerto Rico. Ours counts the 5 home showrooms and leaves Puerto Rico out: 617 plus 26 plus 5 is 648. Not soon. Maybe eventually.
Locations, warehouse numbers and opening dates from Costco’s own published sitemap and new-locations page. Map positions from OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Country counts from Costco’s August 2026 sales release, published September 2, 2026.
The travel
Price Costco first, then shop it
We price every flight, rental car and hotel at Costco Travel, then check it against everyone else the same day. We book whichever is cheaper and publish both numbers. Gas is the one firm rule: Costco pumps only, except where there’s no Costco.
Every leg gets a same-day price check: Costco Travel against everyone else, both screenshots saved, win or lose. When Costco loses, we book elsewhere and say so. Nothing to show yet, we haven’t booked a thing. The first overnight trip fills this in.
The Signature
The next Costco, in your inbox.
One email per Costco. The receipt, what was on the menu board, what it cost, and the strangest thing we found in the aisles. Free, and it stops the moment you say so.