When Ron Vachris started working as a forklift operator for Costco's predecessor in 1982, he probably didn't expect he would be leading the company 40 years later.
At the time, at 18, he was probably earning just over $3 an hour, moving pallets through a new kind of store: giant warehouses stacked to the rafters with laundry detergent, boxes of cereal and toilet rolls.
After Christmas, the 58-year-old will oversee 300,000 employees across nearly 900 of Costco's massive warehouses.
Next year he will take home $11.5 million for that – and if he wants, he can choose which brands of detergent they have in stock.
Costco has had only two CEOs in its 40-year history, and when Vachris takes over in January, he will become the third.
Ron Vachris, 58, will become Costco's third CEO on Jan. 1 when current boss Craig Jelinek, 71, steps down
A man operates a forklift at a Costco warehouse in San Diego, California, in July 2007. When Vachris operated a forklift at a Price Club warehouse in Arizona in 1982, he would have been 18 years old.
Vachris' career in retail began in Arizona in 1982, when, while studying business at nearby Glendale Community College, he worked as a forklift driver at Price Club — a members-only wholesaler that merged with Costco in 1993.
Within nine years, Vachris was managing his first store in Denver, Colorado.
For 28 years, he held various management positions in warehouse operations and in 2010 began leading Costco's operations in the Northwest.
In 2015, he became senior vice president, where he worked in real estate and then merchandising.
Seven years later, in 2022, he emerged as heir apparent after being appointed President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Now at the helm of the $280 billion company, he will earn a base salary of $1.15 million and receive $10.4 million in Costco stock. according to SEC filings.
Costco has a long history of advancing its own position into leadership positions.
The second and current CEO, Craig Jelinek, 71, started from the bottom as a food merchant for another Costco predecessor, FedMart, which was founded by the wholesale magnate behind Price Club, Sol Price.
At FedMart, Jelinek met and worked with Jim Sinegal, who founded Costco in 1983 and became its first CEO. Jelinek joined Costco soon after, and when Sinegal retired in 2012, he became Costco's second CEO.
Pictured is a forklift operator at a Price Club in 1992, nine years after Vachris started working for the company and a year before its acquisition by Costco
Pictured is a Price Club warehouse in San Diego in the 1980s. Vachris started his career as a forklift operator in an Arizona warehouse in 1983
Ron Vachris (left), 58, is pictured with a Costco employee at an Indiana warehouse
Under Jelinek's leadership, Costco's sales more than doubled from $99 billion to $242 billion in fiscal 2023 as of 2012.
After Jelinek steps down at the end of the year, he will remain as an advisor until April. Thereafter, he will continue to hold a seat on the company's board of directors.
Vachris and Sinegal “have worked hand-in-hand in (Vachris') role as president for the past twenty-one months and for many years before that,” the company wrote in a release announcing the appointment in October.
“Costco has a very strong culture and a large number of management talents,” Jelinek said. “I have full confidence in Ron and believe that as a company we are fortunate to have a manager of his caliber to succeed me.”
Major decisions lie ahead for Costco executives as U.S. retailers increasingly face problems with their business models. The Covid pandemic has taught consumers to spend money online and it has been difficult to lure them back to the shops.
Meanwhile, investors are eagerly awaiting the publicly traded company to finally raise its annual membership fees to between $60 and $120 a year, a move that would boost revenues.
Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said on his most recent earnings call that it's a “matter of when, not if.”