Here’s what Costco looked like when it first opened in 1983

• Costco has existed in some form since 1976.
• That’s because the modern-day company is the product of a 1993 merger between Costco and Price Club.
• The first warehouse bearing the name Costco, however, opened in Seattle in 1983.
• Costco provided Business Insider with historical photos of the chain’s inaugural warehouse.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Costco is a staple of the big-box-store landscape. It’s been around for a while and has attracted a devoted flock of members thanks to its low prices and bulk sizes.

But the wholesale retailer’s origin story is a bit complicated. You see, modern-day Costco is actually the result of a 1993 merger between Price Club and Costco. Price Club kicked off in 1976, and Costco followed suit seven years later.

Read more: 50 foods that Costco employees and members love

Costco provided Business Insider with a number of photos of the company’s first warehouse.

These images provide a glimpse into what making a Costco run would've looked like back when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and "Maniac" was topping the Billboard charts.

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Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brotman first dreamed up the idea for Costco Wholesale in 1982. Brotman, who died in 2017, was an attorney who was inspired to open a European-style wholesaler after taking a trip to France.

Source: "Service Management: The New Paradigm in Retailing"

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Brotman told CNN in 2009 that he ended up cold-calling Sinegal, and the two hit it off.

Source: CNN

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Sinegal was a retail executive who'd previously worked under the businessman Sol Price at a warehouse club called FedMart.

Source: "Service Management: The New Paradigm in Retailing"

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Price had founded his own chain, Price Club, on July 12, 1976, in San Diego. Price Club exclusively offered memberships to small-business owners.

Source: Costco

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Sinegal and Brotman later told CNN that they planned to essentially "clone Price Club" when they launched the first-ever Costco in Seattle in 1983.

Source: Costco

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Years later, Price Club and Costco merged to become the Costco we all know and love today.

Source: Microsoft

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But the first warehouse bearing the Costco name kicked off its grand opening with a business show on September 15, 1983.

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Back when it first opened its doors, Costco offered business owners memberships for a $25 annual fee.

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Meanwhile, "Group Gold" Costco members could shell out $30 a year to gain access to the warehouse chain.

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Sinegal told the Motley Fool that the chain's first 100,000-square-foot warehouse was a "pretty simple facility" that lacked "many of the enhancements that we've added to the business since then."

Source: Motley Fool

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In 2009, he also told CNN that the "crowds weren't overwhelming" at first, but "business built up" gradually. Sinegal served as Costco's CEO from 1983 until his retirement in 2011.

Source: CNN

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Costco's low-priced, bulk-size offerings ended up catching on with shoppers.

Source: CNN

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Less than a year after it was founded, Costco began to expand across the Pacific Northwest ...

Source: Costco

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... launching stores in Portland and Spokane in 1983.

Source: Costco

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Sinegal explained the chain's rapid expansion to the Los Angeles Times in 1985, saying, "We are working to get established in certain markets, to preempt those markets."

Source: The Los Angeles Times

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The emergence of Sam's Club, Walmart's answer to the influx of members-only warehouse clubs, also spurred further expansion.

Source: Sam's Club

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"When Walmart announced it was going into the discount warehouse business, we had to compete and grow quickly," Brotman told CNN in 2009.

Source: CNN

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"That's why we expanded as fast as we did," the Costco cofounder said.

Source: The Los Angeles Times

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By the end of 1984, 200,000 Americans had become Costco members.

Source: Costco

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That same year, The Associated Press dubbed both Price Club and Costco as "key players" in the wholesale-retail game.

Source: Newspapers.com

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Costco filed for an IPO on December 5, 1985, according to the company's website. Price Club had already gone public back in 1980.

Source: Costco

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Investopedia calculated that anyone who bought 100 shares of Costco — at $10 a pop — would have made $138,768 by December 1, 2018.

Source: Investopedia

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Just three years after opening its doors, Costco was a $1 billion company, Sinegal told CNN.

Source: CNN

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At that point, the chain boasted "17 locations, 1.3 million members, and 3,740 employees," according to Costco's website.

Source: Costco

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Costco and Price Club merged in 1993. Initially, the new company went by PriceCostco, ultimately switching to the name Costco Companies Inc. in 1997.

Source: Costco

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A former employee who started at Price Club in 1984 and stayed with the company for 20 years told Business Insider that initially after the merger, there was a slight divide between "red" Costco warehouses and "blue" Price Club warehouses.

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"When I was a corporate auditor for the company, the first thing the folks at the warehouse would ask me is, 'Are you red or blue?'" he said.

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But he added that employees eventually got on the same page. "It wasn't really a bad thing," the former employee said. "Price Club had evolved into a different animal, and Costco really took us back to bare bones."

Are you a current or former Costco employee with a story to share? Email [email protected].