Costco hikes up its membership fees, predicts 52 million memberships will be impacted

In addition to kicking non-members out of its food court, Costco is officially increasing its membership prices for the first time since 2017. The big-box wholesale retailer announced Wednesday that it is raising membership fees by $5 to $65 a year in the United States and Canada.

Costco’s premium “Executive Membership” is going up by $10 to $130 a year. The retailer clarified that Executive members will be able to earn a maximum of $1,250 in rewards annually, which is more than the current $1,000 in rewards on qualified Costco purchases.

Costco said it predicts that 52 million memberships will be impacted by the upcoming hikes. A little over half of those memberships belong to Executive members, the retailer added.

Membership fees continue to be one of the biggest sources of profit for Costco. Last year, the retailer made almost $4.6 billion in fees, an 8% increase from 2022. Costco also boasted increases in sales. Costco reported net sales of $24.48 billion for the retail month of June, the five weeks ended July 7, which is an increase of 7.4% from $22.78 billion last year.

Costco is slated to raise its membership fees on September 1. The increases come more than two years after rivals Sam’s Club and Amazon raised their respective membership fees.