BedVoyage Bamboo Sheets at Costco Roadshow. What is a Costco Roadshow?
Costco allows brands to set up a display in which we promoted Bamboo Sheets at Costco, to the members as they walked by. The brands are allowed to showcase their products with signage and racks of products for members to purchase. A sales representative is there to demonstrate how to use the product or point out key features and benefits. These demos or pop-ups are given a specific floor space and timeframe in which they can sell. The Costco roadshows usually run for 10 days. They go over 2 weekends so that a majority of members may have an opportunity to walk past the display.
One perk of Costco membership is that it allows members to see brands and products that they may not have even seen before. Costco calls this a Treasure-Hunt. They rotate the brands through their warehouses in different cities, in order to introduce members to new products. It allows members to get Costco deals because there is a reduced price.
Brands that get the benefit of having 16,000 to 20,000 members walk into the warehouse over any given weekend. That’s a lot of brand awareness and an opportunity to talk to prospective customers! BedVoyage often sold between $15,000 to $80,000 of luxury bamboo sheets and towels per Costco roadshow. That would depend on the foot traffic of each warehouse. Many of the members had never seen or felt bamboo sheets before. It was great fun to introduce bamboo as an alternative for Costco sheets and towels.
Costco Roadshow Return Policy:
Costco has a very lenient return policy, which is a great perk of your Costco Membership or Costco Business Membership. If you’re unhappy with any Costco Sheets you purchased, you can return them with their Risk-Free 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. You simply take your purchased item with the receipt to their Customer Service desk and they will issue a refund. Costco then ships the product back to the brand and deducts that payment from any Costco roadshow sales they received. Members must have loved their BedVoyage sheets more than other brands’ sheets because BedVoyage often received back returns that were NOT BedVoyage sheets. We’d then have to prove to Costco that a member shipped us back a competitor brand in BedVoyage packaging but KEPT our sheets. One member even took the time to sew the BedVoyage logo and care tags into the fake sheets!!
Is There a Difference Between Costco and Costco Business?
Most Costco warehouses open to the public at 10:00 a.m., but the Costco Business warehouses open at 7:00 a.m. to accommodate business-supply members. The business centers also close earlier at 6:00 p.m. and are not open on Sundays. The regular warehouses don’t close until 10:00 p.m. This is particularly handy for people who can’t get to a Costco during traditional work hours. The Costco Business Centers offer a larger variety. You’ll see items such as office supplies and commercial cleaning products than the main warehouses does not carry. Most Costco members may not realize that they are welcome to shop at the Business Center with their Gold Star card. No additional fees are required. 70% of the goods available at the Business Center are not stocked in the regular warehouses. So its an additional opportunity to find products you may need.
How Costco Makes Money:
Most retailers make their money by keeping a portion of the sales from the products they offer. But Costco makes their money a little differently. Costco wants the majority of the savings passed on to their members, so just a tiny margin of the sale is kept by Costco. Whereas the bulk of their profits come from Costco Membership fees. These fees range from $60 for an everyday Gold Star or Costco Business Membership to $120 for their Executive Membership.
Costco reports that in 2021 they sold $192 billion worth of merchandise and brought in $3.9 billion from membership fees. They state that their gross margin, excluding membership fees, was around 11%. Which is holding about the same since at least 2014. Most retailers need their gross margin to be closer to 25-35% to be profitable. But as Costco basically turns on the lights and pays the staff through membership fees; they don’t need to take as much margin from the sale of the merchandise. You can get Costco Travel deals as well as great discounts on appliances, tires, furniture, cars and outdoor structures! Costco has a very wide variety of services and products that members can take advantage of.
Where Costco Started:
The Seattle, WA warehouse was the very first Costco, and opened in 1983. The global headquarters for Costco is located in Issaquah, WA just about 20 minutes East of Seattle. The Kirkland Brand is named after the city of Kirkland also located in WA state. As of February, 2023Costco has 848 warehouses worldwide, and is the 5th largest retailer in the world.
BedVoyage participated in the Costco Roadshow Program for 9 years, traveling the country with its displays and sales representatives. Sharon Stuart, the CEO of BedVoyage, personally trained the sales reps. They’d hop on weekly conference calls, and she often traveled to different locations to trains the reps on site at the Costco warehouses.
The main products BedVoyage offered to Costco members were the luxury Bamboo Sheet Sets, Bamboo Towel Sets, Bed Blankets, Duvet Covers, Coverlets and Crib Sheets. BedVoyage was the first brand to bring Bamboo Linens to Costco, and held that distinction for about 5 years until a competitor was added to the roadshow program.
Are Costco Sheets Good?
Costco offers a variety of brands, one being their Kirkland Signature brand, and another is the Charisma brand. Members can purchase these in the warehouse and on the Costco website. Costco sheets range in fabric and thread count options so that you can generally find the best bed sheets for your own preference. Additionally, you can shop for the highest rated sheets by looking at reviews on their website. While BedVoyage showcased their hotel quality sheets around the country, members often told us that they were like the best hotel luxury sheets they’d remember for fond trips.
BedVoyage bamboo sheets are luxuriously soft, and members often call us and tell us the best Costco sheets they ever bought were BedVoyage sheets! We are so appreciative of the loyal following we still have from members who saw us at Costco. We get many calls asking for Costco Sheets Cal King from our California customers, as that is a often-purchased bed size there.
Which Costco Sheets Are Best?
It depends on what you are looking for! Which fabric do you prefer, what is your preferred thread count, and do you have color preferences? You can shop Costco deals or pay for the highest priced hotel luxury sheets you can find. But the best bed sheets will be the ones that you feel are the most comfortable, cooling, and luxuriously soft that you can barely wait to slip into bed at night! The older we get the more we appreciate a set of luxury sheets that seem to hug you when you are sleeping. It truly pays to buy quality sheets that will comfort you night after night, and that last for many years. When you buy cheap sheets you’re getting what you paid for; cheap sheets. They will not last more than a few months before they start tearing apart or start pilling. They’ll feel thin and flimsy and you can hold them up to the light and see through them. Truly, the things to pay quality prices for are the things that touch your body: quality underwear, clothes and sheets!
Do Costco Sheets Go on Sale?
Costco tries to keep their prices as low as possible, so that the members get the best prices possible. Occasionally Costco offers a promotion, mostly on their website. Then you may find some Costco sheets on sale, or Costco deals. Their Kirkland Signature sheets may have an occasional sale. But in general; Costco sheets are priced as low as they can price them. Again, rule of thumb; you get what you pay for so do invest in quality bed sheets!
Bamboo Sheets at Costco
As BedVoyage was the first to offer bamboo bedding and towels at Costco, we had the joy of watching members faces as they felt bamboo sheets for the first time. They were truly shocked that something they considered a very hard tree (it’s really in the grass family) could possibly feel as silky soft and luxurious as it did. Our sales rep would often stand in the aisle and hold out a towel or pillowcase for members to touch as they walked by. They may have intended to just keep walking, but once they felt it, they came right over to our bed display. We’d often have 10-15 members listening. We’d be so busy we could barely get them the color and size they wanted! We like to think that we were a big part of educating the public on the benefits of sleeping on bamboo. Virtually nobody had heard of it in 2010 and now it’s much more commonly accepted as a fabulous alternative to cotton sheets.
BedVoyage: making life cozier, one bed at a time.
