Costco sales soar in March

Costco Wholesale Corp. delivered strong results in March as customers flocked to its stores despite inflation pressures.

The membership warehouse retailer said that its sales in March rose 18.7% to $21.61 billion, from $18.21 billion in the year-ago period. Comparable-store sales rose 17.2%, including a 19.1% increase in U.S. same-store sales. Excluding impacts from changes in gasoline prices and forex, total comparable sales increased 12.2%. E-commerce comparable sales rose 8.9%.

The five-week March retail month had one extra shopping day, which had a positive impact on comparable-store sales by about 1.5% to 2%, the company said.

For its second quarter, ended Feb. 13, Costco’s net sales rose 16.1% to $50.94 billion. Total comp sales increased 14.4%.

Costco currently operates 829 warehouses, including 573 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 105 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 30 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 16 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one in Iceland. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia.

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