READ THIS NEXT: If You Shop at Sam’s Club, Prepare for This Major Change. Inflation has risen dramatically in the U.S. recently, hovering near a 40-year high and presenting new problems for consumer and companies, Fox Business reports. During a third quarter 2022 earnings call on May 26, Robert Nelson, Costco’s senior vice president for investor relations and treasury, told analysts that inflation “continues” and is still adding pressures to the company. In the first quarter, Costco estimated that price inflation was around 4.5 percent to 5 percent, and in the second quarter, it was in the 6 precent range. Now for quarter three, “estimated price inflation was in the 7 percent-ish range,” Nelson said. If you’re a fan of Costco’s food, you’ve probably come to rely on the retailer’s consistent low costs. But as a result of rising inflation, Nelson told analysts that the company has had to increase the prices for some of its food products recently, MarketWatch reported. “As you know, we’re not the first one to go up when we have higher costs,” he said. “I think just recently, it may have been after the end of the quarter, reluctantly, we took up the price of our muffins and our croissants, I think, $1 as the price of a lot of those raw materials have continued to escalate to two times and three times and four times what they were last year.” For more retail news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Costco still refuses to raise the price of certain food products. “We always want to be the best value in the marketplace,” Nelson said, per Fox Business. “And to the extent that we continue to show that, I think it’s easier for us to pass on higher pricing, or higher freight costs, or raw material cost, assuming that we show that value in the marketplace.” Nelson said he particularly wanted to address “incorrect information floating around on social media” about the company increasing the price of its beloved $1.50 hot dog-and-soda combination. “Let me just say the price, when we introduced the hot dog-soda combo in the mid ’80s, was $1.50. The price today is $1.50, and we have no plans to increase the price at this time,” he reiterated.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Costco isn’t just looking at the prices of food items either. Earlier this year, financial analysts and shopping experts predicted that the warehouse retailer would raise its annual membership fees in June. After all, Costco usually raises membership fees every five years and the last hike was in June 2017. During an earnings call on March 3, Costco’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti even noted that five years from the last time they hiked membership prices would be June 2022, The Street reported at the time. But Nelson has now confirmed that Costco is no longer planning to raise the cost of its membership any time soon. “Given the current macro environment, the historically high inflation and the burden it’s having on our members and all consumers in general, we think increasing our membership fee today ahead of our typical timing is not the right time,” he told analysts. READ THIS NEXT: If You Shop at Walmart, Get Ready for These Major Changes.
