So I don’t think anything’s really changed other than we’re just not at the five and a half year cycle yet.” 7.
And I think that’s the same answer we had three months ago when we talked about it on the second-quarter call. We’re just saying it’s not right for us right now. We’re not saying that we’re not going to do it. “… at this time, we don’t think it’s right for us. When asked whether Costco had changed its mind recently regarding a membership fee increase, Nelson clarified: But Costco members need not worry about it happening tomorrow. The most recent increase was in June 2017, which suggests the next hike will be in 2022 or 2023. The last three increases were 5.5 years apart, on average. Historically, Costco has raised its membership fees every five to six years, senior VP Nelson said in late May. Membership fees are expected to increase, but not just yet melissamn / “Costco locations will follow the face mask regulations of the applicable state and local jurisdictions,” it states. As of March 2022, Costco had scaled down its mask policy to just one sentence. Like most retailers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Costco required all shoppers to wear face coverings throughout most of 20 and into this year.īut these days, you likely won’t be required to wear a mask at your local club. The mask policy has been relaxed mathefoto / The warehouse club even offered special hours for health care workers and first responders.īut with the pandemic waning, those hours officially ended on April 18. The idea was to keep the most vulnerable Costco shoppers a little safer as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 circulated. Special hours have ended Kristi Blokhin / įor about two years, Costco hosted special operating hours for shoppers age 60 and older and those with disabilities or who are immunocompromised. It’s been $1.50 since the 1980s, “and we have no plans to increase the price at this time,” Nelson said. One bit of good news on this front: Costco is not budging on the price of a hotdog and soda from its food courts. That’s up from an estimated “6%-ish” in the prior quarter and 4.5% to 5% the quarter before that. “Pressures from higher commodity prices, higher wages, higher transportation costs and supply chain disruptions all still in play,” Nelson said in late May.Ĭostco estimates that during the most recently ended quarter, price inflation was around 7%. Inflation continues to affect various aspects of Costco’s business. See Also: Never Buy These 11 Things at a Thrift StoreĪ majority of those new locations are in the U.S., with 10 spread across other countries, from Canada to Costco’s first New Zealand location, which opens in August. In the fourth quarter - which runs from May to August - Costco expects to open another 10 new warehouses for a total of 24 this fiscal year. In the first three quarters of its current fiscal year, Costco opened 14 new warehouses, not counting three relocations, Nelson reported. It’s not just Costco’s membership base that is expanding. If you’re a Costco member, check out “ 11 Ways to Save Even More Money at Costco.” 2. “Renewal rates continue to benefit from the increased penetration of both auto renewals and more executive members and, in addition to that, higher first-year member renewal rates than what we have historically seen,” Nelson said. The worldwide renewal rate stood at 90%, which is up 0.4% and the highest in company history.
and Canada renewal rate stood at 92.3% at the end of the third quarter, up 0.3% from the prior quarter.
In fact, on a quarterly earnings call in late May, Costco’s senior vice president of finance and investor relations, Bob Nelson, reported that the company’s membership renewal rates hit an all-time high during its third quarter, which ended May 8. More Costco members, especially first-year members, have been renewing their memberships lately.