Meet the Costco superfans! Couple have travelled over 220,000 miles to visit more than 200 Costco warehouses in 14 countries – here they share their most surprising facts about the megastore

When David and Susan Schwartz arrive on vacation, they barely give themselves time to unload their bags before jumping back into their rental car and rushing to their favorite attraction: Costco.

For decades, the couple maintained a tradition of making the megastore their first port of call when visiting somewhere new.

But in the past seven years, they’ve taken that ritual even further, embarking on a trip around the world to visit more than 200 of the 850 Costcos in operation. In total, they traveled 220,000 miles and visited 14 different countries.

So full was their adventure that they wouldn’t even visit any tourist attractions – except for one stop to the Great Wall of China in Beijing.

‘We went to Paris and didn’t visit a single museum – just the Costco. Our friends really struggled to understand,’ Susan told DailyMail.com, as the couple recovered from their latest 1,582-mile road trip from New York to a store in Omaha, Nebraska.

In the past seven years, David and Susan Schwartz have taken that ritual even further, embarking on a trip around the world to visit more than 200 Costcos. They are pictured at a Costco in San Diego in 2018

“I always tell people we’re harmless, but we’re crazy!”

Susan and David have now self-published a book about their adventure: ‘The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z’ — even getting the chain’s executives on board to give them a behind-the-scenes look at their favorite store.

When they marked off their final Costco in Liberty Township, Ohio, employees surprised them with a sheet cake that said, “Congratulations.”

The idea for the book came about when David – a former investment banker and published author – was struggling with ideas for his next publication.

David said: ‘People can’t understand how I went from writing a biography about the physicist Enrico Fermi to a book about Costco. They ask me “what’s the link?”

“But I just wanted to write about something I enjoy.”

Susan, who previously worked in TV commercials before becoming a headhunter, added: ‘We’re in the second half of our lives now and it’s been a great way to see the world.’

The couple – who pay $120 a year for a Costco Executive membership – declined to disclose how much the trip cost, adding that it was ‘expensive but worth it’.

In total, they traveled 220,000 miles and visited 13 different countries. They are pictured at a Costco in Sweden

So tense was their adventure that they wouldn’t even visit any tourist attractions along the way – except for one stop at the Great Wall of China in Beijing. David and Susan are sampled from hot dogs at a warehouse in Illinois in 2022

From each location, they took home several mementos that are stored in their 450 square foot Upper West Side apartment in New York. They say it looks like a Costco Warehouse now.

Among their favorite purchases are an Alice in Wonderland teapot from a shop in Sweden and a 1.75-litre bottle of Glenmorangie scotch in Taiwan – which they had to purchase extra airport luggage to accommodate.

Both in their 60s, Susan and David were Costco fans long before they met in 2002, growing up in households where their parents had memberships.

They are both attracted to the low cost prices, the company ethos and of course the famous Costco hot dogs.

“During Covid they didn’t let a single employee go, which I think shows what a great company they are,” enthused Susan.

And they even got the whole family on board: David’s son from a previous marriage has his own membership and recently sent them a photo of one of their grandchildren holding a Costco hot dog.

The couple – who pay $120 a year for a Costco Executive membership – declined to disclose how much the trip cost, adding that it was ‘expensive but worth it’. They are pictured in Xalapa, Mexico

Susan and David have now self-published a book about their adventure: ‘The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z’

Costco first opened in 1976 under the name Price Club and originally served only small businesses.

But it later expanded to serve a select audience of non-business members. In 1983, it opened its first warehouse under its current name in Seattle.

It is based on a membership model, with prices starting at $60 per year.

On its website, it describes its philosophy as: ‘Keep costs down and pass the savings on to our members.’

In September, its sales growth grew 6 percent to $22.75 billion, up from $21.46 billion a year earlier.