Costco’s plan to raise the price of its membership for some of its customers went into effect at the start of this month.

Customers in the US and Canada saw their annual membership fees rise by $5 (A$7.46) and $10 (A$14.93), with “gold star” and business memberships up from $60 (A$89.55) to $65 (A$97.02), and executive memberships increasing to $130 (A$194.03) from the earlier $120 (A$179.11).

That price hike will impact around 52 million members, a little more than half of which are the club’s executive members, said Costco.

Here in Australia, in June 2023, Costco increased its Gold Star membership fee from A$60 to A$65, and its Business Membership fee from A$55 to A$65.

It hasn’t announced another fee hike this year in tandem with the hike for its members in the US and Canada.

Costco’s sales in Oz rose almost 20 per cent with total sales of $4.4 billion, with membership numbers swelling to more than 1.5 million across the country.

Costco Australia

Costco Australia operates 15 stores locally as well as one in New Zealand. It is expected to open a new store in Melbourne’s western suburb of Ardeer either by the end of this year, or early next year.

The company has been increasingly cracking down on non-members shopping at its stores as it looks to boost membership revenue .

Some of its stores are reportedly installing scanners to verify the identity of those shopping at its stores and to prevent non-members from using cards that belong to friends or other family members.

The company is also restricting the number of non-member cardholders that can accompany members during visits to the stores.