Costco Sales Store Sales Up

Warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp. said Thursday sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, rose 10 percent in June including gasoline, topping Wall Street's forecast for 7.8 percent growth. Excluding the impact of gasoline price inflation, Costco said same-store sales would have risen 6 percent in the U.S.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, is a key indicator of retailer performance since it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.
Foreign exchange rates, primarily in Canada, lifted international same-store sales 11 percent during the month.

Total sales for the four weeks ended Aug. 3 rose 14 percent to $5.7 billion from $5.02 billion a year earlier. For the first 48 weeks of its fiscal year, sales rose 13 percent to $65.54 billion from $58.19 billion last year. Same-store sales rose 8 percent for the period, including 6 percent growth in the U.S. and 15 percent internationally. Costco currently operates 538 warehouses in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Canada, the U.K., Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Mexico.