Last year, retail giant Costco launched a popular overseas exclusive membership for $130 a year in Australia.
They also increased the price of a regular membership from $60 to $65 at the same time.
Now the company is again hiking prices with new fees set to come into play as of September 1.
The annual fee is set to rise in Canada and the US, with Australia tipped to follow their overseas lead. Prices will rise from A$88.81 to A$96.15 for a “gold star” and business package and to A$192.3 from the earlier $177.51 for executive members.
The membership fee hike is expected to impact around 52 million members alone in the US and Canada.
A similar price hike in Australia will affect tens of thousands of its members in the country. Costco Australia reported sales of $4.4bn in 2023, an increase of 19.8 per cent from $3.67bn in 2022.
Costco Australia operates 15 stores locally as well as one in New Zealand and since its opening in 2009 and now competes against the likes of Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Target and Kmart.
It is believed that each of Costco’s 15 stores across the country have around 100,000 members, giving it a total membership base of 1.5 million in Australia.
