Costco annual revenue

Costco has been growing every year and Survivor has been shrinking every year, and between 2010 and 2023 the two numbers have produced an almost perfect inverted graph (r = -0.958) suggesting America has decided it would rather buy its food in bulk than watch it be scarce on TV. The warehouse expands; the Tribal Council thins. Jeff Probst will outlast both, probably.

Costco's annual revenue grew from $78 billion to over $242 billion in the window, passing Kroger to become the second-largest grocer in the US; Survivor's average viewership fell from about 14 million per episode in 2010 to around 5 million by 2023, following the broader decline of network broadcast as cable cord-cutting, streaming, and DVR time-shifting fragmented the audience. Both are symptoms of the same two decades of consumer relocation — away from mass-audience broadcast television toward individualized consumption, away from small grocery runs toward monthly bulk trips — and the Costco Kirkland brand has, not coincidentally, outlasted several network rivals.

The bulk pallet moves. The network cuts to commercial. Both appeal to a nation that has mostly stopped watching live together.