Costco just unveiled its ambitious growth goals for 2024—and the retailer could be headed to an area near you as it plans dozens of warehouse openings.
During an earnings call with investors on Dec. 14, Costco CFO Richard Galanti announced that the company plans to open 33 locations during the 2024 fiscal year. That’s notably higher than the 23 warehouses that Costco opened in 2023. Costco currently operates 871 warehouses worldwide, so the planned openings should push its total over the 900 mark.
The 33 openings include two warehouses that will be relocated and 31 brand-new locations. Costco’s fiscal year runs from September through August, so it doesn’t match up exactly with the regular calendar year. The retailer has already kicked off its spate of fiscal 2024 openings in 2023.
According to Galanti, Costco opened 10 locations during its first quarter of 2024, which began in September and ended in late November. The 10 openings included one relocation, eight new warehouses in the United States, and one new warehouse in Canada.
Costco has yet to reveal the opening dates and locations for all 33 openings on the schedule for 2024. However, the Costco website does currently list four upcoming openings spread over the next couple of months.
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Costco will open a new warehouse in Shenzhen, China, in January. That will become Costco’s sixth-ever location in the country, Galanti said. Costco will also open two new Business Centers in early 2024. One is set to open in Southfield, Mich., in January, while the other is set to open in Anchorage, Alaska, in February. Additionally, Daytona, Fla., will get a new warehouse in February.
Costco shoppers will have to stay tuned for more details on where and when the retailer’s other new locations will debut in the coming months. But in the meantime, those who don’t currently have a Costco near them can hope that the grocer is headed to their area soon.
These ambitious growth plans are only one of the major announcements from the company’s earnings call this week. Galanti also revealed that Costco won’t increase its membership fees right now. Costco’s lower-tier Gold Star Membership currently costs $60 per year, while the higher-tier Executive Membership that comes with extra perks currently costs $120 annually.
But just because those membership fees aren’t increasing right now doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. Galanti said that a fee hike is “a question of when, not if.”
Zoe Strozewski
Zoe Strozewski is a News Writer for Eat This, Not That! A Chicago native who now lives in New Jersey, she graduated from Kean University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Read more about Zoe
