{"id":1431723,"date":"2023-10-09T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1431723"},"modified":"2023-10-09T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T17:10:00","slug":"costco-cfo-warns-of-price-increase-for-memberships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/costco-cfo-warns-of-price-increase-for-memberships\/1431723\/","title":{"rendered":"Costco CFO Warns Of Price Increase For Memberships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Costco CFO Warns Of Price Increase For Memberships<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Nearly a year after Costco <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/economics\/costco-hike-membership-fees-soon-january\">warned<\/a> that they&#8217;d have to hike membership fees (and didn&#8217;t), CFO Richard Galanti told investors &#8220;<em><strong>It&#8217;s a question of when, not if,<\/strong>&#8220;<\/em> noting that the last time the company raised its membership fee was in June of 2017.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/costco%201_1.png?itok=uoMkQirH\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know, it\u2019s a little longer this time around since June of \u201917, so we\u2019re six years into it,&#8221; Galanti said, accordsing to a <a href=\"https:\/\/investor.costco.com\/events-and-presentations\/events\/event-details\/2023\/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Fiscal-Q4-2023-Conference-Call\/default.aspx\">transcript<\/a> of last week&#8217;s earnings call. &#8220;But you\u2019ll see it happen at some point. We can\u2019t really tell you if it\u2019s in our plans or not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Costco has historically raised membership fees every six years or so, however Galanti says it&#8217;s not quite time to do so again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll see it happen at some point,&#8221; he said, adding &#8220;We&#8217;ll let you know when we know. We can\u2019t really tell you if it\u2019s in our plans or not&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big box store&#8217;s Gold Star membership has cost $60 since 2017<\/strong>, after a $5 increase that occurred that year from $55. &#8220;Executive memberships&#8221; cost $120.<\/p>\n<p><em>The comments about a price increase come as Costco topped market estimates for quarterly revenue and profit as consumers flocked to its stores for cheaper groceries and other necessities, helping offset feeble demand for big-ticket discretionary items. The membership-only retailer has driven robust sales growth owing to its ultra-low prices for essential goods and a loyal member base, helping boost its market share despite a tough economic climate.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Although demand for discretionary items like sporting goods and houseware has been under pressure, strong sales gains in consumables like fresh foods and candy have helped Costco, while its cheap gas prices attracted more members. The company saw a nearly 8 percent rise in total paid household members at the end of the reported quarter, while its income from membership fees jumped 13.7 percent, to $1.51 billion. -Epoch Times<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Traffic continues to do very well &#8230; and our renewal rates continue to be very strong,&#8221; said Galanti.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gold rush!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last week the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.com\/costco-gold-bars\/\"><em>Organic Prepper Blog<\/em><\/a> noted that <strong>Costco is selling out of gold bars. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/2023-10-06_08-52-14_0.jpg?itok=pUXDOKfw\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a quarterly earnings call last week, Costco chief financial officer Richard Galanti told investors that the bars have been flying off the shelves,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/09\/27\/costco-is-selling-gold-bars-and-they-are-selling-out-within-a-few-hours.html\">reported<\/a>\u00a0CNBC, saying,<em><strong> \u201cI\u2019ve gotten a couple of calls that people have seen online that we\u2019ve been selling 1 ounce gold bars. Yes, but when we load them on the site, they\u2019re typically gone within a few hours, and we limit two per member.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>And it certainly makes sense to buy gold (or silver) because the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.com\/downgrades-banks\/\">banking system is so volatile<\/a>\u00a0it really cannot be trusted. I don\u2019t believe for a second that our system as it is right now will last much longer. Sure, there\u2019ll be a new system to replace it, but you can darn well bet that WE will not be the ones who benefit from it. In fact, I strongly suspect that the new system will be CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.com\/cbdcs\/\">all the surveillance and control those entail<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Mon, 10\/09\/2023 &#8211; 09:10<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/economics\/costco-cfo-warns-price-increase-membership\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/economics\/costco-cfo-warns-price-increase-membership<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Costco CFO Warns Of Price Increase For Memberships Nearly a year after Costco warned that they&#8217;d have to hike membership fees (and didn&#8217;t), CFO Richard&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-60sj","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1431723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1431723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1431723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1431723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}