Consumer

Costco CFO says membership rate hikes ‘a question of when, not if'

It has been six years since the wholesale giant has raised the price of its membership

AP FILE – This Aug. 17, 2016, file photo shows a Costco store in North Miami Beach, Fla.

During Costco's quarterly earnings call on Thursday, the company's CFO said the wholesale retailer plans to increase the price of its membership, but it is not able to say exactly when as of yet.

"It's a question of when, not if," Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said during Thursday's earnings call. "You'll see it happen at some point. We can't really tell you if it's in our plans or not."

USA Today was the first to report the comments.

Costco has not raised its membership price since June 2017, and Galanti also noted that six years is "a little longer" between price increases than in the past.

The wholesale giant also said that it has begun testing EV stations for its locations, as the retailer is already known for selling gasoline to its members for lower prices.

Overall, Costco continues to grow its number of memberships year-over-year, with a 7.9% increase in household memberships from last year. However, part of that increase may be due to the store's crackdown on card sharing in recent months.

In the past week, Costco has also announced some new initiatives for savings-seeking consumers, including a new healthcare partnership with Sesame.

The retail giant said it is noticing abuse of card sharing since it expanded self-checkout to more of its stores. In response, Costco is reportedly doing spot checks at the self-checkout counters in hopes of weeding out non-members.

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