Shadowstorm1619

First — why Costco does this instead of just running sales. Most retailers put up a red clearance sign and shout about it. Costco doesn't. Announcing a sale trains shoppers to wait for sales — which kills margin and slows the "just grab it now" instinct that keeps Costco's whole model moving. Instead, Costco encodes the discount directly into the price itself. Every tag ends in a specific set of digits, and each ending means something different. No signage. No app notification. Just a number that either means "full price" or "this is disappearing — act now." This is also why Costco has no visible clearance aisle. It wants you walking every row of the warehouse to find these tags yourself — a deliberate layout strategy insiders call the "treasure hunt." The deals are real. They're just hidden in plain sight.