Price Hike: Costco raises membership prices for the first time in seven years

If you belong to Costco, your membership fee just went up for the first time in seven years on Monday. Depending on what plan you have, you'll be paying $5 to $10 more a year to shop at the wholesale club. The price hike impacts around 52 million memberships.

The new fees will boost the price of Costco’s basic Gold Star membership from $60 to $65 annually, while the cost for the premium Executive membership will rise from $120 to $130. The annual fee had remained the same since 2017, despite several years of unusually high inflation rates that finally have been cooling down in recent months.

With inflationary pressures squeezing household budgets, Costco’s commitment to offering low prices on a wide range of food and other merchandise has helped make its warehouse an even more popular shopping destination.

That phenomenon, in turn, has help boost its profits, making its stock a hot commodity among investors. Costco’s shares have nearly doubled during the last 18 months, increasing the company’s market value by about $180 billion during that span.

Costco’s shares rose by more than 2% after news of the fee increase was first announced back in July. In August, Coscto reported net sales of $19.26 billion for the retail month of July, the four weeks ended August 4, 2024, an increase of 7.1 percent from $17.99 billion last year.

Net sales for the first 48 weeks were $229.81 billion, an increase of 7.1 percent from $214.53 billion last year.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.