It now costs a little more to access Costco’s selection of weighty pies and cookies.
Back in July, Costco announced its June net sales in a news release — and in addition to reporting a profit increase of more than $1 billion, the wholesaler said it would be raising customer’s membership fees for the first time since 2017.
Starting Sept. 1, annual membership fees went up by $5 for U.S. and Canada Gold Star individual members, Business and Business add-on members, bringing it to an annual fee of $65.
Executive Memberships in the U.S. and Canada also increased by $10, to $130 — a Primary membership of $65 plus the Executive upgrade of $65 — but the maximum annual 2% Reward afforded to folks with Executive Membership increased from $1,000 to $1,250.
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These fee increases impacted around 52 million memberships, with a little over 50% of them being Executive members.
Costco did not respond to TODAY.com’s request for further comment.
Previously, in July 2022, Costco CEO Craig Jelinek told CNBC that it was holding off on raising fees, citing customers dealing with high inflation as a reason.
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Then, in Sept. 2023, Richard Galanti, the company’s now-retired chief financial officer, said during a quarterly earnings call at the time that the increase of Costco membership fees were a “matter of when, not if.”
Costco currently has 882 warehouses around the world, with 609 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. There are also 108 Costcos in Canada, 40 in Mexico and 35 or less in Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain and more.
At the time of the chain’s last membership fee increase in 2017, it had 728 warehouses around the globe. Costco’s e-commerce sites now also operate in the U.S., Canada and six other countries, including Japan.
While Costco’s membership fee went up, one price that will remain the same — fingers crossed — is its iconic hot dog-and-soda combo. On May 30, Costco’s newest CFO Gary Millerchip said during the chain’s Q3 2024 earnings call that the price the combo will remain at $1.50 as it has since the 1980s.
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