Costco Wholesale Corp.

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. reported rising profit in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. But a surging dollar and low gas prices resulted in sluggish sales growth and an unusual same-store sales decline, the company’s first quarterly drop since 2009.

Net income increased 9% to $516 million from $473 million, aided by relatively flat operating expenses.

Total revenue for the quarter, ended May 10, increased 1% to $26.1 million, below Wall Street expectations, from $25.8 million last year.

Costco Wholesale Corp. reported its first quarterly decline in same store sales since 2009, although profit at the club store did rise.

Same store sales declined 1% in the third quarter ended May 10, including fuel and foreign currency impacts. This was below the 0.7% growth expected by analysts. The company said sales were hurt by low gas prices and a stronger dollar that reduced the value of sales from overseas markets.

London -- The most valuable retail brand in the world lacks physical stores. At least that’s according to the tenth annual BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, released by WPP and Millward Brown. Chinese online giant Alibaba took the top spot of the retail, with a brand value of $66.4 billion, overtaking Amazon, at $62.3 billion.

San Francisco – Instacart is taking its talents to South Beach. Consumers in Miami can now use the online delivery service to order from Whole Foods Market, Costco, Winn-Dixie, BJ’S Wholesale Club and Petco stores and have everything delivered by Instacart in as little as one hour.

Instacart customers do not need a Costco or BJ’s membership to shop from those stores. Miami is the 16th city where Instacart is offering deliveries.

Online grocery delivery service Instacart has had to add boats to its fleet of vehicles now that the growing company has decided to launch in Miami.

Customers in Miami can now order from Whole Foods Market, Costco, Winn-Dixie, BJ'S Wholesale Club and Petco stores and have everything delivered by Instacart in as little as one hour. Instacart customers do not need a Costco or BJ's membership to shop from those stores.

Costco is trying to increase its membership base in Canada with an innovative social media campaign.

The warehouse club retailer has launched a customer referral program twinned with social media that uses technology from a firm called Buyapowa.

The campaign launched this week in partnership with Proctor & Gamble and will allow Costco members to win $20 of P&G Goods for every friend they refer to Costco to become a member. All successful referrers will be shown on a leaderboard, with additional P&G prizes awarded to those when the promotion ends.

Louisville, Colo. -- Trader Joe’s is America’s favorite grocery retailer for the third year in a row, according to a study of more than 7,200 consumers by Market Force Information. Publix ranked a close second and Aldi was third.

New York -- An early Easter that drew shoppers into stores in March and slowing economic growth helped cut into retailers’ April sales results.

At Costco Wholesale Corp., April same-store sales were flat, slightly below analysts’ estimates, primarily due to the strong U.S. dollar and lower gas prices. Sales at U.S. stores increased 2% for the four weeks ended May 3. Internationally, sales fell 4%.  

Total revenue inched up 2% to $8.75 billion.