Costco continued to enjoy strong comparable store sales increases during July, even as the COVID-19 crisis entered a less dire, if still dicey, phase for shopping at retailers,
For the fiscal July period, Costco Wholesale Corp. posted net sales of $15.21 billion, up 16.6% from the month a year earlier, with comparable sales, sans gasoline sales and foreign exchange rate effects, gaining 8.5% in the United States, 5.5% in Canada and 7.8% in other international markets, for a company overall of 8%. E-commerce sales increased 5.7%, Costco noted.
Comp traffic was up 5.8% in the U.S. and 6.9% overall.
In the United States, Costco reported in a conference call, the strongest sales regions were Texas, the Southeast and Los Angeles.
As for merchandising categories, nonfoods comps were positive in the low double digits, with domestics, sporting goods, jewelry and hardware leading. Food and sundries comps gained in the low single digits and fresh food advanced the mid single digits.
