Costco hikes membership fee for the first time since 2017; here's what you'll pay now

Last year, Costco stepped up their enforcement to ensure that shoppers were not sharing their membership cards.

PUBLISHED JUL 12, 2024

Cover image source: Costco Wholesale store | Getty Images | Photo by Johnny Louis

Your much-loved Coctco membership is going to cost more now. The retail giant is set to raise the fees by $5 to $65 a year in the US as well as Canada. The 8% price increase for US and Canadian members will take effect September 1, Costco said in a statement Wednesday. Costco said that the premium "Executive Membership" will also be going up by $10 to $130 a year. It was also announced that members will also be earning a maximum of 1,250 in rewards annually which is a $250 raise from the current reward.

The company announced that these changes will apply on almost 52 million members, a little over half of which have Executive membership. As a wholesale corporation, Costco's revenues are mostly attributed to the annual membership fees. As per reports by AOL, Costco earned around $4.6 billion in revenue from just membership fees, which was an 8% increase from 2022.

Costco has also raised the prices of their food court staples like the chicken bake, which now sells for $3.99. However, they have refrained from raising the price of their signature hot dog and soda combo which still retails for $1.50.

CEO Craig Jelinek recalled the time when he had approached the founder and former CEO of the company Jim Sinegal. He told him that the company was losing money over the combo. "I came to (Sinegal) once and I said, 'Jim, we can’t sell this hot dog for a buck fifty,"Jelinek said, according to the Mental Floss article, which cites 425Business.We are losing our rear ends.' And he said, ‘If you raise (the price of the) effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.’ That’s all I really needed."

Last year, Costco also stepped up their enforcement to ensure that shoppers were not sharing their membership cards. It added an extra check for memberships at self-checkout aisles.

Costco wholesale | Francis Dean | Corbis via Getty Images

Last quarter Costco reported a net sales of $24.48 billion for the five weeks to July 7, an increase of 7.4% from last year, and this year the net sales has totalled $210.55 billion, which is also a 6.9% from a year ago.

Costco is not the only one raising membership prices. Its rival, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, hiked its own membership fee in 2022 for the first time in nine years. However, even after the hike a Sam’s Club membership was cheaper, at $50 for club members and $110 for members of its higher-tier level, “Plus,” on an annual basis.

Currently, Costco has 838 stores with 578 of them located in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company has over 133 Costco stores located in California alone. The company has been opening warehouses since 2022 and has opened more than 23 in these few months.