It’s the first time in seven years that Costco has raised membership fees.

Costco has raised its membership fees for the first time in seven years. This means that it will cost more to shop at its huge store, which sells everything from electronics to large foods. The yearly fees for Gold Star individual members, Business members, and Business add-on members in the U.S. and Canada went up by $5 on September 1, taking the total to $65 per year. Executive Memberships, which come with extra perks, went up in price by $10 and now cost $130 a year. A $65 Primary membership and a $65 Executive upgrade are now part of this new price.

The highest annual 2% prize for Executive members has also gone up, from $1,000 to $1,250. This is because of the raise. About 52 million memberships will be affected by this fee change. More than half of those are Executive memberships.

Costco decided to raise prices after announcing in July that it would make an extra $1 billion in profits for June. This is the first change to the fees since 2017, even though the company had said in the past that they were waiting to make changes because of how inflation would affect users. Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti suggested in September 2023 that the fee increase was coming soon, saying it was a “matter of when, not if.”

Costco has grown a lot since the last time it raised membership fees. It now has 882 stores around the world, with 609 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company had 728 stores around the world at that time. Costco now has an online store in the United States, Canada, and six other countries, such as Japan and the United Kingdom.

Even though the membership fee went up, one of Costco’s most famous items hasn’t changed: the hot dog and soda package has been $1.50 since the 1980s. At a Q3 2024 earnings call, Costco’s new CFO, Gary Millerchip, said that this popular deal would stay the same for now. This made Costco buyers very happy.

With these changes, Costco continues to find a good mix between making money and giving customers good value. This helps the company keep its millions of loyal members around the world.