Costco's real product

Costco sold $297B of goods last year. Its $5.9B in membership fees equal about half of its operating profit.

Numbers as of 21 Oct 2026

BJ Costco SAMSCLUB

Read it as 6 cards

The story in 6 cards

Card 2. Costco. The same seesaw, level. 92% of members in the US and Canada renew their card. 84.1M paid members, up from 81.0M. The basic card costs $65 a year, Executive $130. Executive members make 75% of sales.

Card 3. BJ's. The seesaw tips toward the card: $500M in card fees against $317M from everything else. Card fees equal 61% of BJ's operating profit. In a year, card fees grew 9.5% and operating profit 5.7%. Costco's smaller rival, with clubs mostly in the eastern US.

Card 4. Sam's Club. The seesaw is all the way down on the card side. Sam's Club's membership and other income was $2.5B, more than all of its $2.4B operating profit. Walmart's warehouse club: $50 a year, or $110 for Plus.

Card 5. The twist: all three raised the price of the card. Costco $60 to $65 in Sept 2024, the first raise since 2017. BJ's $55 to $60 in Jan 2025, the first in seven years. Sam's Club $45 to $50 in Oct 2022, the first in nine years. A fee raise lands almost straight in profit.

Card 6. Question: which card is worth it? Sam's is cheapest. Costco is biggest. Choices: Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's, Other. Add a comment. Follow Green Owl if you want more.

The full story

Is Costco a store, or a club that happens to sell groceries?

Fiscal 2026 (year to 30 Aug 2026): Members paid Costco $303.2B. $297.2B of that was goods. $5.9B was card fees, about 2%. Costco's operating profit was $11.7B. The card fees alone equal about half of that.

Why: Costco prices goods close to cost, so the shelves earn very little. The fee costs Costco almost nothing to collect, so nearly all of it lands as profit.

The catch: fees are revenue, not pure profit, so "equal half" is the honest way to say it.

Why it matters: Costco's profit leans on members renewing every year, not on what is in your cart.

Source: Costco fiscal 2026 results.

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