Thursday, August 3, 2017
Jeffrey Hart Brotman, the co-founder and chairman of Costco Wholesale Corporation, has died at the age of 74.
Brotman, who grew up in Tacoma, Wash., was a lawyer before turning to entrepreneurship. He helped start the Costco chain in 1982 with Jim Sinegal, who went on to become the company’s longtime CEO, a Bloomberg report says. Brotman served as Costco’s chairman for decades, and was also a director on Starbucks Corp.’s board during the 1990s.
Costco helped kickoff a movement that spread no-frills warehouse-style shopping to much of the world. In the decades since Costco was founded, it has become one of the largest retailers in the U.S. Costco currently operates 736 warehouses, including 97 in Canada.
