Costco Wholesale Corp. posted net sales of $21.75 billion for the retail month of October versus $20.03 billion in the year-before period.
Comparable sales, with the impact of gasoline price and foreign exchange excluded, were up 6.7% year over year in the United States, 8.8% in Canada and 5.1% in other international markets for an overall company reading of 6.8%. In addition, digitally enabled sales gained 16.7% in October year over year.
In a conference call, Costco reported comp store traffic in the United States gained 3.7% in the U.S. versus October a year earlier.
By region, strongest comp sales gains occurred in the Midwest, the Southeast and the Northeast. As to merchandising categories, Non Foods comps were up mid single digits with jewelry, heath and beauty, and majors strongest. Food and Sundries comps were up mid to high single digits, while Fresh Foods comps were also up mid to high single digits.
Costco currently operates 918 warehouse clubs, including 632 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 111 in Canada, 42 in Mexico, 37 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 20 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, five in Spain, two in France, two in Sweden and one each in Iceland and New Zealand. The company also operates e-commerce websites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
