Costco’s plan to raise the price of its membership for the first time in seven years took effect Sunday.
The wholesale club increased annual membership fees by $5 and $10 in the U.S. and Canada, with “gold star” and business memberships up from $60 to $65, and executive memberships increasing to $130 from the earlier $120, the company said.
The cost increase will impact around 52 million memberships, a little more than half of which are the club’s executive members, Costco said in a July press release.
Costco last raised membership fees in June 2017.
Membership with the wholesale giant comes with a multitude of perks such as testing of free samples; discounts on food, gas, home insurance, travel and grocery items; and an annual 2% reward on qualified purchases at its 882 warehouses worldwide.
Costco reported $19.26 billion in net sales in the July retail month, which ended on Aug. 4.
This was up 7.1% from 2023.
Revenues from membership fees were up 7.6% in the third quarter of fiscal 2023.
Membership fees made up 1.9% of the company’s total revenue for the fiscal year.
