Well folks, the inevitable is finally here. Nearly one year ago, Costco’s CFO Richard Galanti revealed that it's a “question of when, not if” when he was asked whether membership prices would go up. And just yesterday, the warehouse confirmed that a price increase will take place in September.
Beginning September 1, whether you're a Gold Star member or an Executive member at Costco, your membership fee will go up. The annual cost will increase from $60 to $65 for Gold Star and Business members, and from $120 to $130 for Executive members.
For those keeping track, the last time Costco raised the cost of membership was in June 2017.
In September of last year, when Galanti revealed that a membership price hike was inevitable, members immediately lashed out on social media. Some even threatened to cancel their memberships if there was a change in price.
Now that the price hike has been confirmed, the news has been met with mixed, but surprisingly positive reactions from members. In a Reddit thread about the increase, words like "rather reasonable" and "long overdue" were tossed out.
For some, a $5 or $10 increase doesn't seem too hard to swallow given the current rate of inflation.
"I'm ok with it. Doesn't even catch up with inflation since I've been a member," said one Reddit user.
And then, there was this clever idea from a Costco food court enthusiast: "I'll eat 10 extra hot dogs per year to balance out additional $10 annual fee increase."
Is Costco's fee increase enough for you to say "so long" to the warehouse, or not a big deal?
