ISSAQUAH, WA - While COVID-19’s impact on the market has varied, we have consistently seen a rise in healthy, fresh food as consumers’ eating habits continue to evolve. This was further proven in Costco’s recent fourth quarter earnings report, with fresh food being a strong sales driver. Taking a look at the company’s operating results for the 16-week quarter and the 52-week fiscal year, which ended August 30, 2020, trends spurred by the pandemic ultimately led to nearly $53 billion in sales.

“Looking at the core merchandise categories in relation...to only their own sales, so core-on-core, if you will, margins year over year were up by 70 basis points,” said Richard Galanti, Director, Executive Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer. “Fresh foods was the biggest driver of the year. With the strong sales in fresh, we benefited from efficiency gains in both labor productivity and significantly lower, what we call, D&D or damage and destroyed or products spoilage.”

According to the report, Costco’s net sales for the quarter increased 12.5 percent, to $52.28 billion from $46.45 billion last year. Net sales for the fiscal year increased 9.3 percent, to $163.22 billion from $149.35 billion last year. Another contributor to this growth was Costco’s e-commerce division.

“Total online grocery grew a very strong rate in Q4, several at 100 percent,” Galanti continued. “Overall, our e-comm sites were [running] relatively smoothly during the quarter despite the dramatic volume increases and we were able to improve...on delivery times throughout the quarter as we adjusted to the ramped-up order volumes.”

To take a deeper dive into the financial report, you can view Costco’s release here and read the call transcript here. As the retail landscape continues to shift, we here at AndNowUKnow will keep you up to date on the latest news.

Costco