FOOD NEWS
Costco's Kirkland Brand Was Almost Called Something Way Different
By Elias Nash
Costco is beloved for the high quality products under its Kirkland Signature brand, but the brand wasn’t always called that. Originally, the store brand varied by product, and even when then-CEO Jim Sinegal decided to bring all its house brands under a single name, he didn’t originally call it Kirkland.
Having founded the store in Seattle, Washington, Sinegal wanted to call the brand "Seattle Signature," but he failed to clear a trademark for it. The natural second choice turned out to be Kirkland, a suburban city of around 80,000 residents located just east of Seattle on the shores of Lake Washington, where Costco’s flagship warehouse was also based.
Costco actually considered changing the brand name again when the company moved its headquarters to Issaquah, Washington shortly thereafter, but Sinegal decided against it, because he thought the name Issaquah would be too complicated to spell. In the end, it was for the best, as no other name could have been totally associated with the brand the way Kirkland is.