Market Data 
- Richard Truong is a software engineer from Pennsylvania who has been a Costco member since 2016.
- On a trip to Japan last year, Truong stopped by a Costco in Kyoto.
- While the environment was very familiar, he found several food offerings he’d never seen in the US.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Richard Truong. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I work as a software engineer for a large insurance company in Pennsylvania, and I’ve been a member of Costco since 2016. I started taking lots of pictures of the signs and prices at my local warehouse because that’s how I would budget my food expenses in college.
I enjoy traveling around the world to understand different cultures and different places because you see them on TV and in the movies, but it’s never really the same as actually being there.
It’s fun to wander around Costco warehouses in different countries and see what they have — what’s similar to the US and what’s specific to that region.
Japan is pretty cool with their food. If I had a way to cook while I’m traveling, I’d maybe buy the wagyu beef cheaper there, instead of going to a restaurant. But traveling solo, it’s pretty hard to try a lot of foods in bulk. It would not be great to have five pounds of beef to eat and five liters of alcohol to drink by myself, but I’m pretty sure I could at least down a whole sushi platter.
Japan has 32 Costco warehouses. Here’s what I saw on my visit to the one in Kyoto.
