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ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Costco Wholesale Corp. said it will increase its annual membership fees in the United States and Canada, effective September 1.
With the increase, the company’s Gold Star (individual), Business, and Business add-on members will pay an annual fee of $65, which is an increase of $5 over the current amount. Also effective September 1, annual fees for Executive Memberships in the U.S. and Canada will increase from $120 to $130 (Primary membership of $65, plus the Executive upgrade of $65), and the maximum annual 2% Reward associated with the Executive Membership will increase from $1,000 to $1,250. The fee increases will impact around 52 million memberships, a little over half of which are Executive.
Costco reported the 8% membership fee increase, the first since 2017, on Wednesday as it announced its sales for June. The company reported net sales of $24.48 billion for the retail month of June, the five weeks ended July 7, 2024, an increase of 7.4% from $22.78 billion in the comparable period last year. Net sales for the first 44 weeks were $210.55 billion, an increase of 6.9% from $196.93 billion last year.
Comparable sales for the company were up 5.3% for the five-week period and 5.4% year-to-date, and comparable e-commerce sales were up 18.4% for the five weeks and 15.2% year-to-date.
Costco’s board of directors has also declared a quarterly cash dividend on Costco common stock of $1.16 per share. The dividend is payable on August 9 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 26.
