For the fiscal month of January, Costco Wholesale Corp. posted net sales of $16.84 billion, a gain of 6.9% from the period a year earlier.
With the effects of gasoline price and foreign exchange rate volatility excluded, company comparable store sales advanced by 7.4%. Comps in U.S. stores increased by 6.9%, those for Canada increased by 8.9% and those for other international regions increased by 8.7%. E-commerce comps fell 14.4%, the company reported.
In a conference call, a Costco spokesperson stated that U.S. comp traffic gained 5.1%. By region, stores in the U.S. Northeast, Midwest and Southeast had the best results. Among merchandising categories, non-foods comps slipped in the low single digits with the strongest segments being apparel, health and beauty, and tires.
Food and Sundries were up in the low single digits and Fresh Food was up in the mid-single digits.
Costco pointed out that Lunar New Year occurred on January 22, 10 days earlier this year. The shift negatively impacted January’s Other International and Total Company sales by approximately 2% and 0.25%, the company stated.
Costco operates 848 warehouse clubs including 584 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 31 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 14 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden. Costco also operates e-commerce websites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
