Costco Makes Big Membership Change for First Time in 7 Years

For the first time since 2017, annual membership prices at Costco are going up. 

The chain announced the move on Wednesday, July 10, revealing that its standard annual memberships will go from $60 to $65 beginning September 1. Its Executive level—which provides a 2 percent rebate on Costco-branded purchases up to $750—will go from $120 to $130. 

Costco typically raises its membership fees by $5 every five years or so, although previous gaps have been both longer and shorter. The company has 52 million annual members, and makes about $4.6 billion from its memberships, about 74 percent of the company's total profit.

Earlier this year, former CFO Richard Galenti said that raising membership prices was a matter of "when, not if," but clarified that it's not a simple calculus. “I don’t think it would be done simply because, hey, things have slowed down a little bit," he said. "t’s not some big analytical formula."

The company is famous for trying to offer value to customers. Its beloved $1.50 hotdog combo has remained the same price since 1985, even as inflation has skyrocketed. In 2018, then-CEO Craig Jelinek told 425 Business that he was explicitly banned from raising hotdog prices. 

“I came to [the former CEO] once and I said, 'Jim, we can’t sell this hot dog for a buck fifty. We are losing our rear ends.' And he said, 'If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.'"

It seems membership prices are finally feeling the effects of inflation.