Costco raises membership fee for first time since 2017
Shoppers will soon have to pay a bit more to become a member of Costco Wholesale Corp.
The membership-based warehouse club giant said that it will increase its annual membership fees by $5 in the United States and Canada. The hike, which also applies to business and business add-on members, is effective Sept. 1. The increase — Costco’s first membership fee increase since June 2017 — brings the annual fee to $65 from $60.
In addition, Costco is raising its premium “Executive Membership” fee in the U.S. and Canada to $130 from $120 to $130. (Also, the maximum annual 2% reward associated with the executive membership will increase from $1,000 to $1,250.)
Costco said the fee increases would impact around 52 million memberships, a little over half of which are executive members.
Wall Street has been looking for the retailer to raise its membership fees for some time. On Costco’s third-quarter earnings call in May, CFO Gary Millerchip, who was appointed to the position in March, echoed what company executives had been saying on previous calls, saying it was still a matter of “when” rather than “if.”
[READ MORE: Costco Q3 comps up 6.3%, e-commerce soars 21%; set to open nine new U.S. clubs]
Costco currently operates 882 warehouses, including 609 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 108 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 33 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, four in Spain, two in France, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden.
Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
