These people love Costco more than you do. They have the tattoos to prove it.
Few people love Costco as much as Max Ellinger. The proof is inked on his right arm. His only tattoo is the Kirkland Signature logo – the Costco house brand for everything from rotisserie chicken to laundry detergent.
Ellinger got it in 2019 after a friend convinced the Costco bakery to make a cake with the company logo by telling the staff Ellinger was such a big fan, he had a tattoo. When Costco asked for a photograph, Ellinger slid into a tattoo parlor chair and turned the little white lie into a permanent reality.
Like many Costco members, Ellinger’s devotion comes from weekly shopping treks with his parents. Roaming the familiar warehouse aisles in a new city comforted him after he left home. He became known around school as the guy who shepherded his college classmates there.
On his online dating profile, Ellinger had only one rule: No Sam’s Club members. His future husband knew their relationship was serious, not when they decided to get married but when he became Ellinger’s plus one on his Costco membership. And Ellinger only greenlit their recent move to Champaign, Illinois, after first confirming there was a Costco 12 minutes away.
“Kirkland Signature represents quality, value, integrity and treating other people well and that is resonant with me,” said Ellinger, 33, who works for a content marketing agency. “It carries a lot more meaning than a lot of tattoos.”
Ellinger isn’t the only one who wears Costco on his sleeve.
Tom Solakov, a 42-year-old from Toronto, Canada, who worked for Costco before starting his graphic design career, got a tattoo of Costco’s $1.50 hot-dog-and-soda deal because he appreciated how the company treated its staffers. A photo of his tattoo got more than 23,000 likes on Instagram and 17,000 upvotes in a Costco subreddit.
The rise of retail fandom
Move over Swifties, groupies aren’t just for celebrities anymore. “Super fans” are forging unusually tight bonds with national brands, flashing their loyalty with tattoos and other symbols of that connection.
Even celebrities are brand fans. Musician Ed Sheeran famously has a tattoo of a Heinz Ketchup bottle on his arm.
“We have always had fandoms and we have always had brand fandoms but they are growing and stronger now,” said Paul Booth, a media and popular culture professor at DePaul University who researches fandom.
Once the nerdy domain of sci-fi, fandom leapt from Star Trek conventions into the mainstream via the internet, giving people a gathering place to celebrate their collective love for something – be it videogames, TV shows, musical acts or sports teams.
Some 85% of Americans identify as a fan, according to Susan Kresnicka, a cultural anthropologist who studies fandom in the corporate sector.
Fandom has become a means of signaling our identity to others and bonding with like-minded spirits, Kresnicka said.
