For the fiscal month of January, Costco continued to post strong comparable store sales gains generally and in the nonfoods category.
Comp traffic advanced 9.4% worldwide and 7.5% in the U.S. versus the month a year earlier, the company noted in a conference call.
Costco reported January net sales of $15.76 billion, up 15.5% from the month a year previous.
In the conference call, Costco said the strongest sales regions in the U.S. during January were Los Angeles, Texas and the Southeast. As for merchandise categories, Non-Foods were up in the high single digits with the tire shop, health and beauty aids, lawn and garden, and apparel leading. Sales in the Food and Sundries category advanced in the high single digits and those in the Fresh Food category increased in the low double digits.
Costco currently operates 828 warehouse clubs, including 572 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 105 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 30 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 16 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one in Iceland. Costco also operates e-commerce websites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
