Costco announces first membership fee hike since 2017
Costco announced on Wednesday it plans to raise its membership fees for the first time in seven years. But one change to Costco memberships could benefit some customers.
Scripps News
Costco’s membership price increase went into effect Sunday, marking the retailer’s first increase since 2017.
The company in July announced plans to increase the price of a Costco membership, noting that annual membership fees would increase from $60 to $65 for United States and Canada Gold Star memberships.
Costco also announced that executive memberships would increase from $120 to $130, and the maximum annual 2% reward associated with the executive membership would increase from $1,000 to $1,250.
The fee increases will impact about 52 million memberships. Just over half of those memberships are executive, the company said.
“It has been more than seven years since Costco’s last general membership fee increase,” Costco said in a statement to USA TODAY Tuesday afternoon. “Membership fees help to offset costs so we can keep our prices low. A modest increase in fees will allow us to bring our members even greater value.”
Costco last raised membership fees in 2017
The Washington-based company reported $210.55 billion in net sales for the first 44 weeks of 2024, up 6.9% from last year and has 882 warehouses in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan and other countries.
The company also has e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
The last time the company announced membership increases was in 2017, when the retailer began charging another $5 for individual, business and business add-on members in the U.S. and Canada, bringing the cost to $60.
The company also decided in 2017 to increase the cost for executive memberships in the U.S. and Canada from $110 to $120. The increases impacted about 35 million members, according to the Associated Press.
Other Costco changes
Costco recently confirmed it had begun testing the scanning of membership cards at the entrance of some locations, as a way to improve member experience in that cards wouldn’t need to be scanned at checkout.
This full-on deployment of scanners across all locations is also meant to stem the flow of nonmembers using cards that do not belong to them.
Any guest must come with a member who has a membership card with them, the note continued. Customers with inactive memberships will be asked to “stop by the membership counter prior to entering the warehouse to shop.”
Customers should be prepared to present their photo ID if their Costco membership card doesn’t have a photo. They can also get a photo taken for their card at the membership counter, according to the note.
How many Costco Warehouses are in California?
According to a store directory, there are 139 Costco Warehouses across the state, with locations in Bakersfield, Eureka, Fullerton, Irvine, Modesto, Sacramento, San Diego, and more. California has the most Costco locations of any state, followed by Texas, Washington, and Florida.
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Publish date : 2024-09-03 13:00:00
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