Business Notebook
Company
Costco Wholesale logo

Costco

Logo: Costco Wholesale, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain; a registered trademark)

Costco Wholesale Corporation runs membership warehouses: 939 of them as of September 2026, with e-commerce sites in nine countries.[1] It began operations in 1983 in Seattle, and its executive offices are in Issaquah, Washington.[5] It trades on Nasdaq as COST.[1]

People

  • Ron VachrisPresident and Chief Executive Officer, Costco
  • Gary MillerchipExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Costco

Notes

Key facts

Legal name
Costco Wholesale Corporation[1]
Ticker
Nasdaq: COST[1]
Headquarters
Issaquah, Washington[5]
Began operations
1983, in Seattle, Washington[5]
Warehouses
939, as of September 24, 2026[1]
Fiscal 2026 net sales
$297.2 billion, up 10.1%[1]
Paid members
84.1 million, with 150.4 million cardholders[2]
Employees
About 355,000, per the CEO on the Q4 FY2026 call[2]
President and CEO
Ron Vachris, since January 1, 2024[3]
Executive Vice President and CFO
Gary Millerchip, since March 15, 2024[4]

What has Costco said about AI?

  • Traffic to costco.com from AI search grew triple digits for the second quarter in a row and has the highest conversion rate of any traffic source.[2]
  • Sales that start in AI tools grew triple digits from a low base. The CFO named Gemini, Anthropic and OpenAI.[2]
  • Costco does no paid digital advertising, and the CFO sees AI as a neutral environment where its value can show up transparently.[2]
  • Its teams are cleaning up product data and product pages for the large language models.[2]
  • Personalization sales grew at a triple-digit rate, and 10% of costco.com orders include a personalized item.[2]

Full notes: Costco's Q4 FY2026 earnings call and AI search.

Where does Costco operate?

Of the 939 warehouses: 647 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 115 in Canada, 43 in Mexico, 37 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 20 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, 7 in China, 5 in Spain, 3 in France, 2 in Sweden, and 1 each in Iceland and New Zealand.[1] Costco also runs e-commerce sites in the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and China.[1]

Sources

  1. [1]Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2026 Operating Results. Costco Wholesale Corporation, September 24, 2026.
  2. [2]Costco (COST) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript. The Motley Fool, September 24, 2026. Call held September 24, 2026.
  3. [3]Costco Wholesale Corporation Announces Craig Jelinek Will Step Down as CEO, Ron Vachris Elected as New CEO. Costco Wholesale Corporation, October 18, 2023.
  4. [4]Costco Wholesale Corporation Announces Richard Galanti Will Step Down as CFO, Names Gary Millerchip New CFO. Costco Wholesale Corporation, February 6, 2024.
  5. [5]Costco Wholesale Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2025. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), October 7, 2025.