Costco reports significant September sales increase

Costco maintained its momentum in September.

The retailer’s sales rose 15.8% to $19.50 billion in September — the first months of its fiscal first quarter — from $16.84 billion a year ago. The membership warehouse club’s total same-store sales increased 14.3%, while online sales rose 10.6%.

Costco’s September sales increase compares with an increase of 16.2% for August sales and 16.6% for July.

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In September, Costco reported that its fourth-quarter net sales rose 17.5% to $61.44 billion,  topping the $60 billion mark in quarterly net sales for the first time in its history. On the company’s earnings call, CFO Richard Galanti said that port delays, container shortages, COVID disruptions, shortages on various components, labor cost pressures and trucker and driver shortages are all putting pressure on supply chains and inflation. To ensure it gets what it needs, the company is placing orders earlier.

“We've also chartered three ocean vessels for the next year to transport containers between Asia and the U.S. and Canada,” Galanti said. And we've leased several thousand containers for use on these ships.”

Every ship can carry 800 to 1,000 containers at a time, and Costco will make approximately 10 deliveries during the course of the next year, Galanti said.

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Costco currently operates 817 warehouses, including 565 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 105 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 30 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 16 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, three in Spain, and one each in Iceland, France, and China. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia.

This story originally appeared on Chain Store Age.