In order to attract potential users, Costco acquiesced to all members in the first week, and they were free to come in and spend, and on the first day, if the consumption reached a certain amount, they could get a certain percentage of coupons for nearby gas stations.

In this country on wheels, where gasoline is forever hard currency, and even dollar bills are tied to oil, who wouldn't want to come and participate in cheap shopping and get gasoline discounts?

As for how it was advertised? Naturally, through the most primitive methods: advertising and leaflets.

American TV stations, like the mainland in later generations, also have local TV stations, such as Los Angeles, there are several local channels, but under pure commercial competition, the ratings of local TV stations are not as good as NBC, CBS and other local TV stations, the gap is very large, and because the current TV channels are charge-based, so many people will not open local channels, only some packages will come with some gifts, so the effect of advertising on local TV stations is very low, but the price is not expensive, Pierce arranged seven or eight advertising positions at different times every day, and they played non-stop.

As for the big TV stations, I didn't think about it at all, Red Bull is suitable for advertising on big TV stations like NBC in the United States, and regional supermarkets are counted, unless one day, all kinds of supermarkets are spread over most of the United States, it makes sense.

In addition to TV, it is natural to be a newspaper, and the Los Angeles daily newspaper, which has the highest local sales, has been advertising Costco's opening for many days, but the price of the advertising page is too high, and it only plays a role in publicity.

Chen Zhiwen's strategy is to hire local high school students to make money, many of them just want to earn a pocket money to buy condom, they don't know enough about society, and it is cheaper, but Pierce stopped because he has a more economical way.

Pierce arranged for someone to find a newspaper delivery person in Los Angeles and directly put them in charge of distributing the flyers to every family who ordered a newspaper, in the United States, basically anyone with a little financial ability will order a newspaper, which has almost covered the non-poor people in Los Angeles, and at the same time, because the newspaper delivery person has to deliver things to every household every day, and one more leaflet is only a little more burden.

Originally, Chen Zhiwen planned to spend a budget of $30,000 on flyers, but he changed this trick and got it for $5,000, Jiang is still old and spicy, of course, Chen Zhiwen didn't expect this, and it may also be because he doesn't understand the operation of American society, because in Hong Kong, newspapers are bought by themselves.

The purchase of goods inside the supermarket is naturally responsible for the Pierce team, mainly using the previous fedmart suppliers, and a few are cheap clothing from Hong Kong, such as socks, hats, slippers, toys, etc., these Hong Kong goods are cheap, even according to Costco's pricing, it is also a very big discount for many people, especially socks, a dozen (12 pairs) are sold, many are only $0.69, and the quality is very good.

Everything is ready, on November 11, 1974, the day that Chen Zhiwen specially chosen, Costco in Los Angeles, California, USA, officially opened, and it was also the first in the world to open.

There is no crackling of firecrackers, cultural differences are secondary, mainly crackling anywhere in the United States, which can scare everyone into jumping and fleeing everywhere, like the end of the world.

Cheap items can always attract people, in order to ensure the flow of people, Peirce deliberately launched a lot of limited cheap products, such as high-end red wine, well-known brand electrical products, etc., only a few hundred or thousands a day, which is enough to force everyone to rush over early, because once it is late, it will be gone.

At 8:55, a group of people had gathered outside the gate of Costco, fortunately, Los Angeles in November was neither hot nor cold, with an average temperature of more than ten degrees, otherwise the thief would suffer.

Several security guards crowded into the crowd sweating profusely to maintain order, and the words shouted could not be transmitted at all, and after a while, they were covered by the boiling voices.

"Good guys, there are more people in this crowd than the opening of supermarkets in Hong Kong, I thought Americans were very rich and wouldn't care about this little cheapness?" Anqi, who was on the second floor, looked at the dense crowd below and couldn't help but say.

"There are a lot of rich people, but there are even more poor people, and I really think that the United States is full of gold." Chen Zhiwen smiled and shook his head and said.

Compared with other non-developed countries, the living standards of Europe and the United States are naturally much higher, but this is only the reason for the early development of global wealth and science and technology obtained under a large number of ZM economies in the past century, and the improvement of overall productivity has benefited the people at the bottom, but no matter what society is a big fish eating small fish, the good life of the people at the bottom is also controlled by the upper class, and the upper class must suck blood from the small fish with all its strength in order to make more profits, which is not only material, but also spiritual.

Credit card culture, which is the current enjoyment of spending the future, is actually a higher way to suck blood, because the existing blood of the small fish can no longer satisfy the big fish.

In the past, the economy was very good, and everything was balanced, but after the oil crisis, the manufacturing industry collapsed, and GDP growth was negative.

Many people have no concept of GDP growth, to put it simply, in the future generations, the annual GDP growth of 8% can make many people very comfortable, and once it drops to 4%, there will be countless people who feel that business is difficult to do, prices are soaring, and GDP plummets, that is hell on earth.

Of course, this comparison is for the previous life, from luxury to frugality, people who are used to living a luxurious life, life is a little sad, they feel that they are not as good as Africa, and Europe in a certain year in the future, in fact, it is not that there is no natural gas, but you can't eat popsicles in the house in winter like before, but various protest marches have attracted the attention of the global media, and at the same time, there was a famine in Africa in southern Europe, and tens of thousands of people starved to death, but no one in the international community knew about it.

The current economic situation of the United States is worse than that of Europe in 2022, with inflation skyrocketing, a large number of micro-profit companies failing, and many people falling into bankruptcy crisis while spending their future income, and have to start cutting back on food.

At this time, it is the best time for the retail industry to change, and people's living habits never care about price, care about service convenience, and enjoy real pragmatism, which is the opportunity for Walmart and Costco.

It was 9 o'clock soon, the supermarket door opened, and a group of people rushed in, some ran to buy red wine, some ran to buy cheap clothes, some went to buy food, but more people rushed to the daily necessities area, and toilet paper was robbed.

“？？？” Chen Zhiwen has a question mark on his face, although the price of toilet paper is a little cheaper, you don't have to be so crazy, right?