Latest From Costco Bodes Well, Especially Against Competitors
We’ll follow the data and remain patient owners of this membership-driven warehouse company.
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On Wednesday night, Costco (COST) published its October sales report that showed its total net sales climbed 8.6% year over year to $21.75 billion.
Exiting the month, the membership-driven warehouse company had a total of 918 active warehouse locations compared to 892 at the end of October 2024. That footprint expansion, combined with its September 1, 2024, price increase, bodes well for year-over-year comparisons for the company’s high-margin membership fee revenue stream.
Let’s turn and examine the company’s adjusted comp sales, which rose 6.8% compared to October 2024. We’d remind you that the October 2025 total comp sales figure is the top of the total 6.5% comp sales figure posted during the tenth month of last year. And for the August-September-October 2025 period, Costco’s adjusted comp sales have been between 6.0% and 6.9%. In the U.S., Costco’s October 2025 comp sales were up 6.7%, up from 5.7% in September and on top of 5.8% in October 2024.
Impressive, but when we talk about Costco taking consumer wallet share, where this really stands out is when we compare those figures against those from other companies.
McDonald’s (MCD) delivered global comp sales growth of 3.6% for its latest quarter, with its U.S. business up 2.4%. Starbucks’ (SBUX) global comp sales were up 1% but its North America and U.S. comparable store sales were flat year over year for its September quarter. More U.S.-centric Cava (CAVA) posted a 1.9% quarterly comp sales figure, while at Chipotle (CMG) , comp sales were only up 0.3%.
Turning to grocery competitor Albertson’s (ACI) , its identical sales figure for the three-month period ending September 6, was up 2.2%. September quarter comp sales for Publix rose 3.4%.
What’s even more impressive is that these October comp sales figures put up by Costco are during the current shutdown, which confirms to us that consumers are increasingly flocking to this warehouse to stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have.
We will continue to be patient investors with COST shares, especially as we move into the holiday shopping season and indications of inflation remaining sticky persist.
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At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long COST.
