Public competitive baseline
Costco is making the shortlist. AI still isn’t consistently giving buyers a reason to prefer it.
That is not a visibility problem. It is a preference problem.
Based on 10 answers from 1 of 5 assistants, recorded by us before contacting you — nothing here came from your team. The full record behind it is complete and available to you.
Not what you expected?
Every prompt, answer and source behind this page is on record.
If something here looks wrong, we will walk your team through how it was
recorded — question by question.
Ask us to show the record →
The question a buyer asked
“What is the best retailer provider?”
Costco was the recommended choice in this answer.
The buyer is choosing a vendor at this point, not browsing.
vendor selection
Read the full answer the buyer would see
Determining the "best" retailer provider can vary greatly depending on several factors, including the type of products you're looking for, your location, customer service preferences, pricing, and shopping experience. Here are some well-regarded retailers across different categories:
1. **General Merchandise**:
- **Amazon**: Known for its vast selection, competitive pricing, and convenience of online shopping.
- **Walmart**: Offers a wide range of products at low prices, with both online and physical store options.
2. **Electronics**:
- **Best Buy**: Offers a good selection of electronics with knowledgeable staff and customer service.
- **Newegg**: Popular for computer parts and tech gadgets, especially among tech enthusiasts.
3. **Clothing and Apparel**:
- **Zappos**: Renowned for its customer service and extensive shoe selection.
- **Nordstrom**: Known for high-quality clothing and excellent customer service.
4. **Groceries**:
- **Costco**: Offers bulk purchasing options at competitive prices, along with a variety of products.
- **Trader Joe's**: Known for unique products and a friendly shopping experience.
5. **Home Goods**:
- **Home Depot**: Great for home improvement and DIY projects.
- **IKEA**: Offers affordable furniture and home decor with a modern design.
6. **Online Marketplaces**:
- **eBay**: Good for second-hand items and unique finds.
- **Etsy**: Focuses on handmade and vintage items, supporting small businesses.
Ultimately, the best retailer for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. It's often helpful to read reviews, compare prices, and consider factors like shipping options and return policies before making a decision.
ChatGPT · gpt-4o-mini · 2026-08-24
Where Costco stops moving
Across the 10 answers recorded in this baseline.
Costco appears in 4 answers and is carried through to a recommendation in none of them.
AI is talking about Costco without citing Costco.
Every answer we recorded, and where it came from.
4
answers that describe Costco to a buyer
→
0
of them cite an official Costco source
If AI is going to explain your company to a buyer,
whose version of the facts is it using?
Two more questions we recorded
Ranked by how close each sits to a purchase decision.
“Top retailer companies to consider in the US”
Costco came out on top here.
As of my last knowledge update in October 2023, here are some of the top retail companies in the United States that are noteworthy for their size, influence, and market presence:
1. **Walmart**: The largest retailer in the world, Walmart offers a wide range of products, including groceries, electronics, clothing, and household goods.
2. **Amazon**: Originally an online bookstore, Amazon has grown into a massive e-commerce platform that sells everything from electronics to groceries and offers services like Amazon Prime.
3. **Costco**: A membership-based warehouse club, Costco is known for its bulk products and competitive pricing, appealing to both consumers and businesses.
4. **The Home Depot**: The largest home improvement retailer in the U.S., Home Depot offers tools, construction products, and services.
5. **Target**: A major discount retailer, Target provides a wide variety of products, including clothing, electronics, groceries, and household goods.
6. **Kroger**: One of the largest supermarket chains in the U.S., Kroger operates grocery stores, multi-department stores, and convenience stores.
7. **CVS Health**: A leading pharmacy chain, CVS also offers a variety of health and wellness products, beauty items, and convenience goods.
8. **Walgreens Boots Alliance**: Another major pharmacy chain, Walgreens operates thousands of stores across the U.S. and offers health and wellness products.
9. **Lowe's**: A home improvement retailer that competes closely with Home Depot, Lowe's offers a wide range of home improvement products and services.
10. **TJX Companies**: Known for its off-price retail stores like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, TJX offers discounted brand-name apparel and home goods.
11. **Best Buy**: A leading retailer of consumer electronics, Best Buy offers a wide range of products, including computers, appliances, and entertainment systems.
12. **Macy's**: A major department store chain, Macy's offers a variety of products, including clothing, accessories, and home goods.
13. **Nordstrom**: A high-end department store chain, Nordstrom is known for its customer service and a wide selection of clothing and accessories.
14. **Alibaba Group**: While primarily known as a Chinese company, Alibaba has been expanding its influence in the U.S. retail market through various partnerships and initiatives.
15. **Alibaba Group**: While primarily known as a Chinese company, Alibaba has been expanding its influence in the U.S. retail market through various partnerships and initiatives.
These companies represent a mix of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and e-commerce giants, reflecting the diverse landscape of the retail industry in the U.S. Keep in mind that the retail environment is dynamic, and company rankings can change based on market conditions, consumer preferences, and economic factors.
ChatGPT · 2026-08-24
“Who are the leading retailer vendors right now?”
Costco came out on top here.
As of my last knowledge update in October 2023, the leading retail vendors typically include a mix of traditional brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce giants. Some of the most prominent retailers include:
1. **Walmart** - The largest retailer in the world, known for its extensive network of physical stores and a growing online presence.
2. **Amazon** - The leading e-commerce platform globally, offering a vast range of products and services, including Prime membership benefits.
3. **Costco** - A membership-based warehouse club known for bulk sales and competitive pricing.
4. **Alibaba** - A major player in e-commerce, particularly in Asia, with platforms like Taobao and Tmall.
5. **Target** - A popular discount retailer in the U.S. known for its wide range of products and strong online sales.
6. **The Home Depot** - A leading home improvement retailer, with a significant online presence.
7. **Kroger** - One of the largest grocery chains in the U.S., with a growing focus on online grocery delivery.
8. **CVS Health** - A major pharmacy chain that also sells a variety of retail products.
9. **Lowe's** - Another significant player in the home improvement sector, competing closely with Home Depot.
10. **Aldi** - A discount grocery chain that has been expanding rapidly in various markets.
These retailers are recognized for their market share, sales volume, and influence in the retail industry. The landscape can change rapidly due to market trends, consumer preferences, and economic conditions, so it's always good to check for the latest information.
ChatGPT · 2026-08-24
Your platform measures the outcome.
We work on what produces it.
You already know where you stand. What
measurement does not show is what the answer was assembled from.
Measure
- Visibility
- Mentions
- Competitor position
- Trends
What we work on
- Which facts about you an assistant can find
- Whether they come from a source it will use
- Where your own version is missing from the answer
- How that changes across the questions that matter
What decides the answer
Nobody tells an assistant which sources to trust. It decides that
on every single answer — and the only thing you control is what it finds
about you when it looks.
What it reads
Third-party write-ups, retailer pages, forums, review sites —
10 of the 10 answers we recorded were built this way.
What it doesn’t
Your own published facts. Across this baseline, an official
Costco source was cited 0 times.
What that means
The version of Costco a buyer hears is assembled from other
people’s descriptions of you, not from yours.
This is the part your monitoring platform reports on but does not
reach. We work on the layer underneath it: which facts about Costco are
available to an assistant, in what form, from a source it will actually use.
What you actually get
Not a report and not a dashboard of scores. A maintained layer of
facts about Costco that an assistant can find, plus the record of what
it does with them.
/fact-center
Facts, with their state
Product line & categories
verified
Certifications held
verified
Positioning vs alternatives
needs review
Pricing & availability
not published
/company/costco
Machine-readable profile
.jsonld.yaml
.md.txt
.html
Structured factslive
Verification statelive
Recent changeslive
/monitoring
What the answers do next
“What is the best retailer provider?…”
tracked
10answers on record
0
cite you today
So: software, not a report. The record you see on this page
is the starting point. What you run afterwards is a maintained fact layer for
Costco and continuous monitoring of what assistants do with it.
456 / 1,501
company domains we scanned already publish a machine-readable
fact layer or explicit rules for AI systems
Measuring and managing are two different jobs
Measuring tells you the score. It does
not change what the score is calculated from. Both matter — and only one
of them is something you can act on.
Costco publishes no fact layer and no rules for AI systems. Everything an assistant says about you today, it assembled without you.
What your team takes into a budget review
01
The answers themselves
Quotable, each with its date and the assistant that
produced it.
02
The source gap
4 answers describe Costco;
0 of them cite Costco.
03
Where the brand stops moving
Mentioned 4 → recommended
0 → preferred 4.
04
What is actually controllable
Which facts about Costco an assistant can reach,
and which it cannot.
Every line above traces back to a recorded answer with a
timestamp and a provider — which is what holds up in a review, unlike a
score whose method nobody can see.
The uncomfortable part
You already have the
score. If a competitor keeps winning the same commercial questions:
- Do you know why?
- Can you change one thing without changing everything else?
- Can you prove that it moved the outcome?
- Can you repeat it?
If the answer is no, that is a reporting system, not a
growth system.
Fix what assistants say about you
Every prompt, every answer in full, every source behind it, broken down by
assistant. It is a record about Costco, so we release it to a
verified costco.com address rather than publishing it.
Fix this →
The record stays with your team. Keep Profound, Scrunch, Peec, Semrush or
whatever you use now — this works on the layer underneath what they
measure, and does not replace them.
Who sees this record
Released to a verified costco.com address only. Not
indexed, not published, not shared with third parties.
Built for regulated work
We already run this method for FDA- and FCC-regulated
manufacturers, where a claim about a product has to survive scrutiny.
Every claim is traceable
Each statement links to the answer it came from, with the
provider and the timestamp. Nothing here is a modelled estimate.
Assistants in this baseline
ChatGPT10 answers recorded
ClaudeNot included in this run
GeminiNot included in this run
PerplexityNot included in this run
GrokNot included in this run
Running your own prompt set covers all 5 — request full coverage.
AuthorityPrompt
We maintain the layer of verified company facts that AI
assistants read, and we track what they say afterwards.
Where we are
AuthorityPrompt is now in ChatGPT and Codex
Security
- SOC 2
- SSO for team accounts
- Data encrypted in transit and at rest
Your record
- Released to verified company domains only
- Never indexed or resold
- Deleted on request
How this was measured
| Buying questions | 10 |
| Answers recorded | 10 |
| Requests attempted | 50 |
| Assistants that answered | ChatGPT |
| Recorded | 2026-08-24 20:53 UTC |
Every answer is reproduced as the assistant returned it at the time shown,
with the classification shown next to the answer it came from — so your
team can check it line by line, and quote it where a number without a method
would not hold up. Each answer carries the assistant, the date and the
sources it drew on, so a business case can be built on the record rather
than on an estimate.
Independent AuthorityPrompt profile based on publicly available sources. This company has not claimed or verified this profile and is not an AuthorityPrompt customer.