Costco is seeing a rise in younger shoppers with half of new members under 40 years old

Costco It has a new and growing customer base: members under 40 years old.

Membership Warehouse is gaining an influx of younger shoppers, CFO Gary Millership told investors during an earnings call at the end of September. Nearly half of its new members signed up during the three-month period ending Aug. 31 were under 40, Millership said on the call.

The company also announced a 92.3% renewal rate across North America. The rate was down slightly from the previous quarter because more people are joining online, and these new online members do not always renew immediately. However, the company still sees online subscriptions as a positive.

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Millerchip has attributed this increase in younger shoppers to the online registration process, which makes it easier for those who prefer digital options over visiting the store in person.

The company said it ended the fiscal year with a total of 81 million paid members, which represents a 6.3% increase over last year, and 145.2 million cardholders, which also represents a 6.1% increase year over year.

“We believe this younger generation of members now experiencing Costco creates an ongoing opportunity to drive new member engagement across a broader spectrum of potential member base than we saw historically pre-coronavirus,” Millership said.

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Megan Leonardt, Barron’s senior writer, said: big box retailers, Including Costco, they are seeing an uptick in traffic due to the fact that these companies focus heavily on value propositions and innovation.

Data from analytics company Placer.ai confirms this. The company has seen growth in traffic since the pandemic, with visits increasing year over year every quarter since the second quarter of 2021, the company reported last month.

Since then, same-store visits have consistently increased, highlighting how the retailer is driving more traffic to existing stores and quickly building strong member bases in its new warehouses, the company said in its latest report.

Costco’s exclusive watches for Executive members were ‘very well received’, resulting in a 1% increase in sales.

This data also shows that Membership Repository is bucking the broader trend of slowing traffic across the industry.

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The company announced in mid-September that retail sales had declined for three straight months, “suggesting a potential shift from a temporary cooling to a broader consumer slowdown.”

tape	protection	last	It changes	% changes
It costs	Costco Wholesale Company	914.80	+3.86	+0.42%

Although high-income earners continue to spend, middle- and low-income earners continue to cut back on their spending, slowing traffic and highlighting how dangerous it is to rely too much on high-income shoppers to keep the economy strong, according to a Placer.ai report.