Costco news

Following meetings with Canada’s leading grocers and food manufacturers, the government has outlined five steps it will be taking to stabilise food prices, including securing commitments from the leading five chains for aggressive discounts and price freezes. Is this likely to be effective and what other measures are being taken? Grocery retailers’ commitments Canada's major grocery chains ...

Costco delivered another solid year of sales for fiscal ‘23, despite the ongoing affect of weakened sales in high-ticket discretionary items. Here we explore its performance in more detail and give insight into its 2024 expansion plans and steady digital transition. Fourth quarter and full year key numbers Q4 total revenue up 9.4% to $77.4 bn, with full year revenue up 6.7% to $237.7 bn ...

The CEOs of five of Canada’s leading grocery retailers, Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco have met with the country’s government as it focuses on solutions to bring down food prices. Prime Minister invitation The CEOs were invited to the meeting last week by the Prime Minister. It was led by Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, and Industry Minister, François-Philippe Champagne. Foo...

Local press reports have identified that Costco will open its next new depot at Gloucester, at a site near junction 11a of the M5 motorway on the outskirts of the city. However, the development of the location is still at a planning stage and no opening date has been cited. Offering a catchment including Cheltenham and nearby dormitory villages and towns in the Cotswolds the site will offer ac...

Costco has started transitioning from its popular manned sample stations to self-serve kiosks, therefore removing the human element. Scalable kiosk design Costco’s sampling kiosk design is simple and low-cost and is therefore easier for the retailer to scale across its store network. Store staff fill the gravity-fed station at the start of the day and can roll the station to the appropriate...

Patrick Noone, Managing Director of Costco Warehouse Australia, reveals that the retailer would be opening an additional 20 Costco stores across the country in the next five years.  Expansion plans across the country Costco is set to expand its locations nationwide rapidly, ensuring there will be at least one store in each state or territory, with the exception of the Northern Territory. Th...

The Canadian Competition Bureau’s Retail Grocery Market Study outlined four recommendations to governments to improve competition in the grocery industry. Two of these are focused on attracting new entrants to the market. We look at how realistic these options are. More competition required to lower prices Having concluded that Canada’s grocery industry is concentrated, the study said that ...

Accounts filed with Companies House by Costco’s UK business show its sales grew by 17% over the 12-months to June 2022, with its warehouse and online operations reporting combined turnover of £4,219m. Rapid growth in warehouse sales boosted by fuel While not currently adding further warehouses to its network of 29 UK sites, Costco has been progressively rolling out fuel forecourts to these ...

For a second successive quarter, Costco’s performance was impacted by softer sales in big ticket non-food discretionary items. This was partly due to cautious shopping in the ongoing inflationary environment, but also due to tough comparatives where these products performed better than usual in the last two years. Here we look at those results in more detail and highlight five key takeouts. Co...

Costco has reported revenue growth of 5.2% for the second quarter, fiscal 2023. We take a closer look at these results and what is driving this performance.  Second quarter key numbers: Q2 total revenue up 5.2% to $54.2 bn Comparable sales for the quarter (ex-fuel and currency impacts) up 6.8%, including up 5.8% in the US, 9.6% in Canada and 9.5% in other international markets ...