Costco will raise its annual membership fees in the United States and Canada for the first time in seven years.
Effective Sept. 1, in those countries, the retailer is adding $5 to the cost of its Gold Star (individual), Business and Business add-on memberships and adding $10 to the price of its Executive Memberships, Costco said in a Wednesday (July 10) press release.
These changes will increase the price of those memberships from $60 to $65 and from $120 to $130, respectively, according to the release.
“The fee increases will impact around 52 million memberships, a little over half of which are Executive,” Costco said in the release.
In another change announced Wednesday, the maximum annual 2% Reward associated with Executive Membership will increase from $1,000 to $1,250, per the release.
About 80% of Costco’s warehouses are in the U.S. and Canada. Among the 882 warehouses it operates, 609 are in the U.S. and Puerto Rico and 108 are in Canada, according to the release.
The membership rate increases are Costco’s first since June 2017, CNBC reported Wednesday.
Costco typically raises its rates about every five and a half years, but it held off for about seven years this time because consumers have been dealing with high inflation, the report said, citing comments made in the past by company executives.
One of the retailer’s rivals, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, last raised its membership fee in 2022 after leaving the fee unchanged for nine years, according to the report.
A Costco executive said in May that the company was mulling raising its membership fees.
Speaking May 30 during the retailer’s quarterly earnings call, Costco Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said: “It is still a case of when we increase the fee rather than if we increase the fee. But we are still evaluating those considerations to determine what the right timing is.”
Millerchip said during the call that it had been more than five years since the company raised its membership fee — and it has historically done so every five years — and that its membership renewal rates have been good.
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