It’s a matter of when and not if Costco decides to raise its membership fee from $60 annually, the company's Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti told investors last week.
In the company’s quarterly earnings call, Galanti suggested an increase will come in the coming months.
Galanti said that given a membership’s value to customers, he said the company “has no problem doing it; it’s a matter of when not if. We feel we are in a strong competitive position right now, so if we have to wait a few months or several months, that’s fine. I’ll be purposely coy on when that might be.”
The last price increase came in 2017 when memberships increased by $5.
A potential Costco membership increase could follow its top competitor as Sam’s Club raised its membership fee by $5 to $50 a year on Oct. 17.
According to company data, Costco earned about $3.9 billion in membership fee revenue in the last year.
In addition to its $60 base membership, the company offers a $120 membership that includes additional perks and cashback.
While the company might soon look to increase its membership fee, its CEO told Yahoo! that it has no plans to increase the cost of its $1.50 hot dog combo.
"We are very happy with our $1.50 hot dog and we have no plans to change it," said Costco CEO Craig Jelinek.
