Asian American shoppers love Costco and the retailer caters to the AsAm market

Asian American shopers are a key market target for Costco.

While shopping at Costco recently, I was surprised to see one of the Philippines' classic dishes, pork adobo, for sale. Just heat and serve, the instructions on the box said. I began to keep track of the Korean pork BBQ, Taiwanese ramen, the Indian curried chicken,frozen dumpings and the big bags of rice. 

There is certainly a trend among retailers to cater to Asian American shoppers, And why not? As consumers, Asian Americans are outperforming other ethnic groups. 

Costco, the big-box retailer offering goods in bulk and discounts, has certainly noticed the Asian American consumers. Through the years, the Asian food selection, especially in its frozen and prepared food items, have become more expanded way beyond frozen pizza and hamburger patties.

In 2021, Business Insider reported that the average Costco customer is a 35- to 44-year-old Asian American woman.

Even though Asian Americans only make up only 7% of the US population, even higher in states like Hawaii and California where Asian Americans make up 48% and 16% respectively, according to the market research firm Numerator, Asian Americans make up 10% of their customers in 2023.

While Asian Americans only make up 7% of the population, they comprised 10% of Costco’s consumer base in 2023, according to Numerator, a market research firm that creates data snapshots of some of the country’s biggest retailers.

The reasons for Asian American consumers are numerous: Immigrants from Asia make up the fastest growing segment of the US population; Asian American househohlds tend to be larger than the US average which makes buying in bulk more sense; and according to US Census data, on average, Asian Americans have a higher household income than other segmentst of the US.

The Numerator study also found that Costco shoppers are 81% more likely to be of Asian descent.

“For Asian Americans, their rate of population acceleration certainly lends to this idea that ... they’re going to be creating major market shifts,” Kymberly Graham, head of diversity initiatives at NielsenIQ, told CNBC in 2022. “Their needs are being served, it inherently becomes very profitable for anyone that’s serving them.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.