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For many Costco shoppers, the trip isn’t complete without stopping for a nibble of frozen pizza or a sip of fruit seltzer. Inviting shoppers to test out some of their most popular in-stores products for themselves, Costco’s free samples remain a cornerstone of the store, delighting members every time they step foot in their local warehouse.
But behind Costco’s complimentary snacks is a surprisingly well-thought-out strategy designed to build a shopping experience unlike any other. And in the end, it also helps boost Costco’s sales, creating a win-win for both the warehouse chain and customers alike.
Free samples might yield higher sales
There’s a specific phenomenon at play whenever customers are encouraged to try a free sample at Costco. According to journalist and consumer advocate Jeff Rossen, every time you try a free sample, you naturally feel an inclination to buy the item you’re trying.
Here’s why that is: Because our brains instinctively interpret the free sample as a “favor,” we experience a social instinct to repay the store for the freebie—namely, by purchasing the larger version of the item just sampled. Rossen describes this feeling as “reciprocity guilt,” and it’s something that actually helps boost Costco’s sales.
“This is a psychological phenomenon where you get something for free, [and] your brain is trained to process it as a favor,” Rossen explains. “And you want to reciprocate. You want to do them a favor back. In this case, buying the product.”
It encourages shoppers to break out of their comfort zones
More often than not, customers arrive at Costco with a set list of items in mind to purchase. But by situating free samples throughout the store, Costco is cleverly bringing attention to products that might not be on shoppers’ grocery list or even on their radar.
Looking at social media, Reddit is filled with examples of customers happening across a sample that motivated them to add to cart. “My son and I tried a snack item and he decided he liked that more than the item we had agreed he would get, so we swapped them out,” one Reddit user said.
“Sometimes I just want a free sample, other times I’m pleasantly surprised and buy the product when I never had intention of getting it originally,” admitted another shopper.
The impulse to try and buy
In his explainer video, Rossen points to the fact that Costco knows perfectly well the advantages that come with customers’ FOMO (also known as “fear of missing out”). When we see a large group of people huddling around a table of free samples, we feel a sudden urge to join the crowd. If we don’t, we begin worrying that we might start missing out on a tasty treat that everyone else is trying, leaving us to feel like we’ve been left out of the collective experience.
The larger the crowds, the more potent that sense of FOMO might prove to be. “When you see a group of people gathering around the free sample station, what do you think to yourself? ‘They know something I don’t know.’ And then you go there too,” Rossen says. “And there are even bigger crowds leading to even more sales.”
Bottom line
At the end of the day, Costco’s clever use of free samples is all part of a deeper strategy to deliver the ultimate shopping experience for members.
Every time we encounter a free sample of spinach flatbread or pickle chips Costco manages to cultivate a distinct sense of adventure and discovery, something we feel every time we turn down a new aisle at our local warehouse.
