Costco Co-founder Jeff Brotman dead at 74

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s Co-founder and Chairman Jeff Brotman died on Tuesday at the age of 74, the company announced.

Brotman helped launch the Issaquah, Wash.-based wholesale club in the 1980s, teaming with Jim Sinegal to open the first Costco Wholesale warehouse in Seattle.

Aside from a brief span between 1993 and December 1994 where he served as vice chairman, Brotman held the title of chairman since the company’s founding.

Brotman, an attorney and an early investor in fellow Seattle icon Starbucks, typically handled the company’s real estate needs.

Together with Sinegal, Brotman marketed to small business owners and a subsector of consumers who sought to save money in the long run by buying items in bulk.

Costco currently fields 736 warehouses with 511 of those located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The company finished the month of June with a net sales figure of $12.17 billion.