Costco Plans To Raise Membership Costs: 'A Question Of When, Not If'

VIRGINIA — Costco members in Virginia's 17 warehouse stores will almost certainly pay more for memberships at some point, the retailer’s chief financial officer said in a quarterly earnings call this week, but declined to speculate on when that might happen.

“My pat answer, of course, is it’s a question of when, not if,” CFO Richard Galanti told analysts when asked if Costco was contemplating a fee hike. “But, you’ll see it happen at some point. We can’t really tell you if it’s in our plans or not. We’ll let you know when we know.”

Costco said in an SEC filing this week it operates 861 warehouses, including 591 in the United States. Virginia has stores in Leesburg, Sterling, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Woodbridge, Fairfax, and Glen Allen.

Yearly store memberships start at $60 and include a $120 executive level membership. The last time Costco raised its membership was in June 2017. The retailer typically raises membership fees every five years or so, “so we’re six months into that,” Galanti said.

Galanti didn’t speculate on how much member fees could increase. At the end of its fourth quarter, Costco had 127.9 million members.

“We feel good,” he told analysts. “And frankly, in terms of looking at the values that we provide our members, we continue to increase those. It’s certainly a greater amount than even more than if and when an increase occurs. So stay tuned. We'll keep you posted, but there’s not a whole lot I can tell you about that.”