Costco Has Good News About Its Membership Fees

Costco Wholesale is known for low prices on high-quality products, but in order to snag those deals, you need to be a cardholding member. Gold Star Costco memberships allow customers access to discounted pricing on food, drinks, electronics, and more, both in store and online, per the Costco website. With an Executive membership, members can get the same benefits with the added bonus of purchasing Costco services at discounted rates. Memberships are good for one year from the date of purchase.

While Costco is known for keeping costs down on food items — like its food court hot dogs – the bulk store has established a pattern of membership price increases every five years or so, per CNBC. Since the last increase was in 2017, some experts were concerned that we were due for another this year (via Kiplinger). However, it does not look like that will be the case just yet.

Thanks to a higher-than-expected last quarter, Costco has confirmed that they have no plans to increase membership costs, reports CNBC. The total number of memberships also increased, with Executive memberships making up 44% — a record for the store chain. Analysts had predicted a $72.04 billion revenue, but Costco achieved $72.09 billion. Earnings per share also increased, reaching $4.20 to beat the predicted $4.17. CNBC reports there has also been a small increase in the company's Kirkland brand products.

Costco's CFO Richard Galanti told investors that there is a milestone of about five years and seven months where they reevaluate membership costs, and January 2023 will reach that milestone (via CNBC). But he did not say if they were planning to raise costs in January. The Costco website shows that a Gold Star membership currently costs $60 per year, while an Executive membership runs at $120 — and, fortunately, it looks like those prices are going to stick around for a while longer.