“Price continues to resonate strongly with our members,” Costco President, CEO and Director Ron Vachris said Thursday (May 28) during an earnings call. “Nowhere has this been more apparent in the third quarter than our gas business. As events in the Middle East have had a significant impact on product supply and gas prices, our focus, as always, is to be there for our members by staying in stock and offering the best value.”
The retailer set company volume sales records during each of the three four-week fiscal periods of the quarter and ended the quarter with its five top volume weeks of all time, Vachris said.
Costco is meeting this unprecedented demand with multiple daily gas deliveries at many of its locations and is finding that “high consumer price sensitivity” is bringing many of its members to use its gas stations for the first time.
“We believe this will drive even greater loyalty with these members in the future, as members who use our gas stations typically spend more with us in the warehouse,” Vachris said.
Overall, during the third quarter of its fiscal 2026, Costco saw year-over-year increases of 11.6% in net sales, which reached $69.15 billion, and 9.8% in comparable sales, according to a Thursday earnings release.
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Costco’s paid memberships grew 4.1% to reach 82.9 million, and its total cardholders grew 4.0% to 148.5 million, according to supplemental information released Thursday.
The company’s digitally enabled comparable sales increased by 21.5%, and its eCommerce site and app traffic grew by 37%, according to the supplement.
Same-day delivery powered by Costco’s third-party partners now has an average delivery time of 45 minutes in the United States and has secured an average member satisfaction rating of 4.8 out of 5, Vachris said.
“This part of our business is growing at an even faster rate than our digital business overall, and is a strong driver of loyalty, as it is often our highest-spending members who are using this service,” Vachris said.
Costco added four warehouses in the third quarter and expects to end the fiscal year with 26 more warehouses than it had at the end of fiscal year 2025. That will bring its total number of warehouses to 940, per the supplement.
“Our real estate and operations team continue to focus on increasing our pipeline of new warehouses, both domestically and internationally, as we target 30-plus net new openings per year in the coming years,” Vachris said.
