See the 10 stocks

*Stock Advisor returns as of February 26, 2024

This year's results included a tax benefit of $94 million or $0.21 per diluted share due to the deductibility of the $15 per share special dividend to the extent received by our employee 401(k) plan participants. Net sales for the second quarter were $57.33 billion, an increase of 5.7% from the $54.24 billion in the second quarter last year. Net sales were negatively impacted by approximately 1.5% in the U.S. and worldwide from the shift of the fiscal calendar as a result of the 53-week 2023 fiscal year.

The following comparable sales reflect comparable locations year over year and comparable retail weeks. For the -- in the U.S., we reported a 4.3% comparable, excluding gas deflation and FX, the 4.3% would have been 4.8%. Canada reported comp for the quarter, 9.2%, 9% ex gas and FX. Other international, 8.6% and 8.2% ex gas and FX.

Total company of 5.6% reported for the quarter and 5.8% excluding gas deflation and FX. E-commerce was an 18.4% reported and an 18.2% excluding FX. In terms of second-quarter comp sales metrics, our traffic or shopping frequency increased by 5.3% worldwide and 4.3% in the U.S. Foreign, our average transaction or ticket was up 0.3% worldwide and up 0.1% in the U.S.

And foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar positively impacted sales by approximately 0.2%, while gasoline price deflation negatively impacted sales by approximately 0.4% minus. Moving down the income statement to membership fee income. We reported membership fee income of $1,111,000,000, up $84 million or up 8.2% year over year in the quarter.

In terms of renewal rates, at second-quarter end, our U.S. and Canada renewal rate came in at 92.9%, which is up 0.1% from Q1 and 12 weeks earlier, and the worldwide rate came in at 90.5% similar to the last quarter. Membership growth continues. We ended the second quarter with 73.4 million paid household members, up 7.8% versus last year, and 132.0 million cardholders, up 7.3%, with continuing growth throughout the quarters.

At Q2 end, we had 33.9 million paid executive members, an increase of 646,000 during the 12-week second quarter. Executive members represent a little over 46% of paid members and a little over 73% of worldwide sales. Moving down the income statement line next to the gross margin. Our reported gross margin in the second quarter was higher year over year by 8 basis points, coming in at 10.80%, compared to 10.72% last year in the quarter and up 4 basis points excluding gas deflation.

Writing down the little matrix that we usually do with two columns, both reported and excluding gas deflation, first line item is core merchandise, plus 5% -- plus 5 basis points year over year on a reported basis and plus 2% ex gas deflation; ancillary and other, plus 7% and plus 6%; 2% Reward, minus 7% and minus 7%; LIFO, plus 3% and plus 3%. And all told, total reported, again, gross margin year over year up 8 basis points and up 4 excluding gas deflation. In terms of the core margin on their own sales, again, while the number I just read you was a plus 5 basis points and plus 2 ex gas deflation, in terms of core margin on their own sales, our core [Inaudible] were up 25 basis points year over year, with food and sundries and nonfoods being positive year over year and fresh being negative. Ancillary and other businesses gross margin were higher by 7 basis points and higher by 6 ex gas.

The increase year over year was driven largely by e-com and partially offset by gas. 2% Reward, again, higher 7 basis points -- lower by 7 basis points, both with and without gas deflation, with higher sales penetration coming from our Executive Members. LIFO plus 3 basis points. We had a $14 million LIFO credit in the second quarter this year compared to no LIFO charge or credit in the second quarter of last year.

Moving to SG&A. Our reported SG&A in the second quarter was higher year over year by 3 basis points or minus 3 would be higher, coming in this year at 9.14%, compared to last year's 9.11%. And the higher 0.3 would have been lower by 1 basis point, excluding gas deflation. In terms of Q2 year over year, the operations component of SG&A, doing the matrix, was 11 basis points higher or minus 11, ex gas deflation minus 8 so 8 basis points higher.

Central plus 4 and plus 5 basis points. Stock compensation plus 4 and plus 4, and total would be 3 basis points higher year over year and plus 1 basis point or 1 basis point lower year over year or better. With regard to the operations component being higher by 11 reported and 8 excluding deflation, as compared to a year ago, during the past year, we included two last March's extra top of scale increase in wages, which was about a 2 basis point hit to the SG&A line. As well in the first quarter of this year, we raised the starting wage in the U.S.

and Canada. We estimate the impact of that new wage also was roughly 2 basis points, so about 4 basis points of that 8 -- or 4 basis points of that 11 were related to those wage increases more than normal. Below the operating income line, central, I mentioned, was better by 4 to 5 basis points, and the rest was pretty much straightforward. Below the operating income line, interest expense was $41 million this year versus $34 million last year.

And interest income and other for the quarter was higher by $102 million year over year. This was driven by an increase in interest income due to higher interest rates and higher average cash balances as well as FX, which was favorable versus last year. We'll see less benefit from interest income going forward following the January payment of the $6.7 billion special dividend. In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in the second quarter came in at 22.1%, compared to 26.1% in Q2 last year.

As discussed earlier, this year's rate benefited from the tax deductibility of a special dividend paid to 401(k) participants. The fiscal '24 effective tax rate, including discrete items, is currently projected to be in the 26% to 27% range. And excluding the special dividend tax benefit in Q2, our Q2 tax rate instead of being -- coming in at 22.1% would have been 26.3%. Overall, reported net income was up 18.9% in the quarter on a reported basis.

And again, excluding the special dividend-related income tax benefit, it would have been up 12.5% year over year. A few other items of note. In terms of openings in the second quarter, we opened four net new warehouses, including three new locations in the U.S. Actually, two of them were at Costco Business Centers and one new Costco wholesale warehouse and 1 unit and our sixth in China in mid-January in Shenzhen.

That's our sixth in China. There's been a lot of press about it. We have an estimated 10,000 people were at opening, and there are just under 200,000 members currently, including more than 20,000 members signed up from Hong Kong. And we've seen all kinds of things over there from tour agencies doing best trips over to shop.

For the full year '24, we estimate 30 total openings, including two relos, so for a net increase of 28 new units. And that puts the remainder of fiscal '24 for Q3 and 4, we plan on opening a total of 15 net new locations, 11 in the U.S., two in Japan and one each in Korea and China. Regarding capex, fiscal second quarter spend was approximately $1.03 billion. And for the year, it remains in the north of $4.4 million to $4.6 million in that range.

One additional comment on China. This past Monday, we launched, in our Pudong, China location, the ability for our members to order online about 400 items from our -- of our items to be delivered that day. And the delivery will be within about an eight-kilometer radius of the warehouse itself. It's getting a lot of social media attention over there, and we plan to launch it in the other four Shanghai area locations by month end, as well as in Shenzen sometime the following month.

In terms of e-commerce, e-commerce sales in Q2 ex FX increased 18.2%. E-com showed strength in several areas, led by sales of gold and very recently, silver. As well, appliances were very, very strong as was gift cards and e-tickets. As well, Costco Logistics enjoyed record-breaking deliveries.

Much of that -- and many of those items are sold via e-commerce. In Q2 of '24, we completed over 1 million deliveries, up 28% versus Q2 a year ago. In terms of e-commerce sales over the past few months, we believe we've done a much better job explaining to our members the significant value propositions we offer compared to traditional competitors in several big-ticket categories. Under the Why Buy at Costco banner and the Price You See is The Price You Pay banner, we share with our members what's included in the price of appliances, tires, televisions, computers, and mattresses.

You can see these online on our website of Why Buy at Costco. Just to give you one example, if you take a four-set of high-end tires compared to a traditional retailer, we include, of course, installation, rotation, balancing, a five-year road hazard warranty. Typically, that's a lot less road hazard warranty in other places or you'd have to pay for extra, ongoing flat repairs, nitrogen and disposal of the prior tires. Just one of the examples where the price of the tires itself might be very close to us.

When you put in all the differences of those additional items, it's anywhere from a 15% to 25% savings on any of these items. Next on my list, talk about costconext.com, A couple of comments on the seller platform. This allows -- costconext.com allows our members to exclusive access to direct-to-consumer sites for top quality brands at Costco value pricing. Currently, there are about -- there are 70 Costco Next brand sites with 15 additional sites in development.

We will likely end this calendar year with about 90 sites and continue to grow from there. Costco Next offers everything from home improvement to apparel, to pet, to home, to kitchen to electronics, to accessories as well as sports, bicycles, and toys. You should check it out. It's a pretty good site.

Progress continues to be made in our e-com, mobile, and digital efforts. A couple of recent enhancements. In February, we rolled out our new native mobile application homepage on iOS. The native homepage now loads in less than two seconds, compared to eight seconds previously.

Needless to say, that's important when about 60% of our e-com business, both visitors and orders, are now done via our mobile app and browser. And last week, we rolled out Apple Pay to all members online, both web and mobile, on February 28th. App downloads during the quarter were up 2.8 million and currently total around 33 million. On the product side, a couple of other new items to comment on.

In our food courts, we recently replaced the churro with an awesome freshly baked 5.5-ounce chocolate chip cookie for $2.49. It is awesome. It's a great-tasting -- and a great-tasting turkey sandwich for $6.99 with the rollout of the latter being completed this week. In addition, we recently opened our first fully operated sushi offering in Washington across the street from our headquarters, with two more planned to open in the very near future.

This operation is what we have successfully done for years -- for many years throughout our Asia Costcos in several countries over there. The sushi program has proven to be a category where we can be successful in both quality and price, and we're looking forward to seeing more of that in the future. A couple of comments about inflation. In the last quarter, in the first quarter, we estimated that year-over-year inflation was approximately 0 to 1%.

We'll now say that in Q2, it was essentially flat. And notwithstanding essentially flat, we're taking price reductions where we can. Anecdotally, everything from simple items like reading glasses from $18.99 to $16.99, the 48 count of Kirkland signature batteries from $17.99 to $15.99, a 24-count of Pellegrino from $16.99 to $14.99 and even 4 pounds of frozen fruit plan for $14.99 down to $10.99 with new crop pricing. So we continue to do that.

We always want to be the first out there trying to lower prices. Many new items in sporting goods and lawn and garden are being set with lower prices year over year. And overall -- mostly due to reduce freight costs and lower commodity costs versus a year ago. And overall, our inventories and SKUs are in good shape across all channels.

Overall, we have a good -- we've had good seasonal sell-through during the quarter. In terms of shipping and supply chain issues, we've been asked about that often, of late. There are some delays, generally just a couple or three weeks but mostly now planned for. First, there was an issue a while back about with the Panama Canal challenges, then, of course, the Red Sea challenges.

A lot of that has to do with changing the way ships are being routed. No meaningful pricing issues because a lot of in-place contracts. Finally, turning to our February sales results, the four weeks ended this past Sunday, March 3rd, compared to the same retail calendar weeks last year. As reported in our release, net sales for the month came in at $18.21 billion, an increase of 6.9% versus $17.04 billion for the same four retail weeks last year.

Again, just to -- announcement we did in the announcement earlier today. The U.S. reported comp of 3.4% for February; ex gas and FX, 4.1%; Canada, 8.4% and 8.3%; other international, 10.8% and 11.3% for a total company of 5% reported and 5.6% ex gas and FX, with e-com coming in at a 16.2% reported and a 16% ex FX. Our comp traffic or frequency for February was up 6.2% worldwide and up 5% in the U.S.

Foreign currencies year over year relative to the dollar negatively impacted total and comparable sales as follows: Canada by about 0.1% negative, other International by approximately 0.5% and total company by approximately 0.1%. Gasoline price deflation negatively impacted total reported comp sales by approximately 0.5%. And the average worldwide selling price per gallon of gas was down approximately 3.5% versus last year. Worldwide, the average transaction for February was down about 1.1%, which includes the negative impacts from FX and gas deflation.

In terms of regional and merchandising categories, the general highlights are as follows: U.S. regions with the strongest comps were Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast. In terms of other international and local currencies, we saw strength in Mexico, Australia, and Korea. Moving to merchandise highlights.

Food were positive in the mid-single digits. Fresh foods were up high single digits, and nonfoods were positive mid-single digits. And ancillary businesses were up in the low single digits. Food court, pharmacy, and optical were top performers with gas down low single digits on a lower price per gallon.

In terms of upcoming releases, we will announce our March sales results for the five weeks ending Sunday, April 7th, on the following Wednesday, April 10th, after market close. And lastly, before I turn it back to Demi for Q&A., I'd like to take a moment to say thank you to many of you who have turned into each quarter, some for many years, to allow me to share with you Costco's results, both our ups and our downs and thankfully, many more ups and downs and provide some fun and informative color on how we're doing along the way. Since going public in December of 1985, I have hosted all but one call. It has been an absolute privilege and honor to do so, so thank you all.

As you know, in early February, it was announced that I will be ceding the role of CFO to Gary Millerchip effective March 15th, after our second quarter 10-Q is filed and retire, including from our board next January. It's a bit surreal of late but what a wonderful journey it has been with such a great company and great people, including many of you on the call today. I have certainly been very fortunate. The good news, Gary joined Costco last week and along with David and Josh will continue to provide to you all the transparency and straightforwardness that we are known for.

It will be a positive and seamless transition. With that, I will be happy to turn it back to Demi to open it up for Q&A.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

[Operator instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Simeon Gutman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Hi, everyone. Richard, best wishes to you. Thank you for all your guidance. That's a metaphor since you don't give guidance.

My first question is on the -- this is like a parting question on membership, and I want to make sure this framework sounds right. I know you said it's if, not when, and part of the thought process is there were enough levers in the business product savings, cost savings to be able to drive an appropriate level of like profit growth from the business. And when that no longer presents itself, that's when membership price increase could come through. And that could come through earlier than that, but that was one framework we were thinking in as we wait to hear when it happens.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Sure. And by the way, it's when, not if, still. But really, we're -- joking aside, we're not that smart in terms of figuring out exactly why. I mean, we know that all the factors that we believe would -- if we wanted to do it when we feel comfortable in terms of renewal rates, new member sign-ups, loyalty, all those things are continuing in the right direction.

It really is a function -- and I don't think it would be done simply because, hey, things have slowed down a little bit, let's do it now. We like the fact that we're performing well. We like the fact that all -- most all metrics are going in the right direction in our business right now. We've got plenty of runway left.

And given the economy and given everything else, it's us, it's Costco. So I think it is simply still not trying to be cute about it. It's not some big analytical formula. It's simply a measure of, we will, at some point, I'm sure, do it.

And I've been joking with Gary, it will be on his watch, not mine.

Simeon Gutman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

And then maybe one more, Richard, is another question. Used to -- the business has comped very consistently over time. And you used to say, I regret when it won't comp north of four to five because that's where it may be tougher to leverage our expenses. If you think about that framework, does it still apply? And then as you hand the baton to Gary and even Ron, do you spend more? Or are there ways where the cost structure of the business can actually be altered to lower that leverage threshold point?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Right. Well, whether it's -- I would say it's probably more likely to go up a little bit and down just because of whatever goes on in life. Inflation that happened. But I got to look back at the last few years, we and others were helped through the crisis of COVID.

And we haven't given a lot of that back. If I look at our SG&A, I remember when in fiscal '19, it came in at 10/04, I'm looking at these numbers here. And even in '20, it was at 10/30 in the first quarter before COVID. And then in fiscal '21, it was at 9/65 and then down to 8/88, and now it's up -- the fiscal '23, it was at 9/08.

So notwithstanding, I remember when it was slightly above 10 we said, well, it's never got below 10 again. And a lot of factors continue to change. But just the sheer high productivity that we have is, frankly, higher than we thought. Some of that was gained through COVID because of everything else going on.

But we haven't given it back. The good news we have been getting back and the good news continues to be that we're continue -- we seem to continue to be able to take market share. I think the fact that on big-ticket items, there's less SG&A. We continue to change the pack sizes of things for less freight, whatever it is, all the freight would be, that would be SG&A.

But it is still a lot about sales at the end. And if you ask the rhetorical question, if comps went to 0, what would that mean? That would be tough on SG&A, but we'd figure other things out.

Simeon Gutman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

OK. Best wishes. Thanks, Richard.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett. Your line is open.

Chuck Grom -- Gordon Haskett Research Advisors -- Analyst

Good afternoon. Richard, congrats on a great career, someone started basically day one at the company. My question is on culture. You've always said, it was customers first, employees second, shareholders third, and that philosophy has clearly played out.

So looking at it, I'm curious how the new team is going to keep this culture intact and resist pressure from some of the non-founders of the company going forward.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, first of all, nothing has changed. It's not unlike the same question I think that was asked of Jim Sinegal after 28 years before he retired. And before we knew who his successor was going to exactly be, and I remember the Board asking, if you're 100 in terms of extreme value and taking care of the customer and the employee and everybody else, whoever takes your place, what would they be in? He paused for a minute and said, "I have no doubt that will be at least in the mid-90s, if not higher." And frankly, after Craig was made that, in my view, whatever that number was, it increased toward 100 just because that's what we do. And that culture is so ingrained here.

And when we talk about changing management, I always joke when people ask me as CFO how I'm important -- am I important to the strategic whatever of the company? The fact is we're run by merchants and operators, and we're there to serve and help them and certainly add our voice. But the fact of the matter is, and Craig for 12 years and now and Ron, you have people that have been here for 35, 40 years and have -- were born and raised and have grown up in this culture. And it is so intact. Just last week when Gary joined us, he had to go through the required two-hour Costco orientation, which includes the to take care of your customer, take care of your employees, they respect your supplier.

And then if you do that, you can reward the shareholder. It is -- that's the one thing I can sleep very well at night.

Chuck Grom -- Gordon Haskett Research Advisors -- Analyst

That's great. Enjoy your retirement.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Michael Lasser with UBS. Your line is open.

Michael Lasser -- UBS -- Analyst

Good evening. Thank you so much for taking my question and best of luck, Richard. You mentioned previously that most of the metrics are moving in the right direction. Can you highlight which metrics are not moving in the right direction? And especially from a membership per club standpoint, are there any sign that some of the more mature locations are either reaching a saturation or starting to see a peak in that metric?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

No. First of all, when I said most, I was just trying to be human that nobody is perfect. Everything is working in the right direction right now. And actually, I wasn't talking just about membership metrics.

But in general, knock on wood, things are working pretty well. When I -- when we sit in at our monthly budget meeting, more times than not, we get pretty excited about what's going on from a new merchandising standpoint, newness, buying with conviction and be aggressive and assertive out there. I mean, what we saw with just even these -- that simple example I gave you with changes to big-ticket items and why buy them at Costco, we saw great changes in numbers. So we know that we've got a lot of levers to be able to pull to make this thing work.

And so no, I just said, honestly, I said most because nobody is perfect. I didn't have any particular examples.

Michael Lasser -- UBS -- Analyst

Understood. My follow-up question is on the -- what seems like an inflection in the discretionary business. To what degree is Costco experiencing improvement in the gen merch categories as a result of aggressive changes, either like you had cited with the way you're communicating with the customer or the member or aggressive actions to take down prices? And if you are pulling those levers hard, is there an opportunity to move even more aggressively to drive the discretionary business? Because it does seem like Costco's experiencing a rebound in some of these areas more so than the rest of retail.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yes. And absolutely, what is it? It's called -- it used to be NBD, which is that industry that shows you how you are on different product -- nonfood product categories versus the industry. When we look at something like appliances in the last several weeks or a couple of months, the industry is flat and we're up north of 20%. Same thing with tires, more than that percent.

And so now that, you can't say that's do everything and everything will be up 20%, 30% because that's not going to happen. But at the end of the day, the focus of the buyers, as an example, is coming up with new ways to do things, to have great pricing and to constantly improve that pricing and figure out how to do that with our global buying power with -- every time there's a commodity price increase. Given an item of business, we have buyers that are in charge of 20 and 30 items, if not less, not 200, 300 items in a category. They know a lot more, in our view, about every cost component of that.

And I think I feel very good that we do a very good job. I'm not suggesting others don't, but I know we do a very good job of getting on the phone immediately and working those issues. And as soon as we can get a savings, we're out there first [Inaudible] get on. And that's just our religion.

Now we're able to do that partly because our sales have been relatively strong, and we've lapped some things from last year that have helped.

Michael Lasser -- UBS -- Analyst

Thank you very much.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Peter Benedict with Baird. Your line is open.

Peter Benedict -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

Thanks for -- thanks for taking the question and my congratulations as well. Well done. It's been a pleasure. Wondering if you can maybe talk about Kirkland, the penetration, what's going on there.

Any member shopping behavior around kind of private brand versus branded? And maybe what some of the branded packaged good companies are doing to maybe get some volumes up. Just curious about your view on that.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

There's not a lot of trade down. Although when we -- we sometimes have more control over certain private label CPG items, that we're able to drive more business. And so we're seeing an increased penetration of that versus some of the brand sometimes. But then that gets the brands to the table to work -- to provide more value on the branded as well.

We want to be both. But we haven't really seen -- that was a question that happened as the economy was -- the question is, are we going into a recession a couple of years ago and inflation was peaking at 7%, 8%, 9%. And are we seeing a difference? So we did see -- if you look back over the last 20 years and without looking at the exact numbers, it seems like every year, we grow 0.25% to 0.5% of increased Kirkland Signature penetration. And then there was 1 year when we were asked a couple of years ago, it seemed like there was 1.5% to 2%, even 2% change in penetration.

So people were, in my view, switching a little bit out. But that's changed. We don't see that as much as anymore.

Peter Benedict -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

Got it. And then just on Costco Logistics, you gave some delivery numbers there. Just maybe step back a little bit, the penetration of Costco Logistics within the business. How meaningful is that at this point? What's left in terms of maybe growing that? Is that just going to go with the big ticket trends? Or are there, I don't know, internal initiatives to kind of drive further penetration of Costco Logistics?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

What it's done strategically, I hate to overuse that word, it's allowed us to be much better on value and delivery times and quality and brought the delivery cost down on big-ticket items, particularly appliances and big screen televisions, mattresses and furniture, indoor and outdoor patio furniture and indoor furniture, some sporting goods. And in the -- before we bought Innovel, we're now called Costco Logistics in the spring of 2020, the year before that, in the U.S., we did about 2.2 million drops. So the drop is anything from dropping off a sofa to delivering and installing a new refrigerator, freezer, or a washer-dryer and taking them away for disposal. Both of those are dropped, recognizing the extreme difference there.

But we did about 2.2 million drops in the U.S., none of which we did ourselves. With the acquisition of Innovel, I think for the -- probably over the last -- with this 1 million this quarter, a rough number of 4 million drops, which I believe about 70% of them -- over 4 million drops and about 70% of them is us. We've reduced the delivery times. We've just introduced in some categories like two-hour windows where you can -- or three-hour windows where you can choose, two-hour windows where you can choose.

So we're constantly getting better, and we've greatly improved the value. And when you look at something a category like appliances, we're still a very low percentage of the industry. And the fact it was up 20-plus percent last month -- or last quarter is a function of some of the things we're doing in terms of shouting out how good of a deal it is and doing a better job of that. But we think we have an opportunity to continue to grow those categories.

Recognizing they're all meaningful categories but they're all small percentages of our total. That's one of the nice things about us that we have lots of different categories.

Peter Benedict -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

Got it. Great. Well, thanks, and best of luck, Richard.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

Good evening. Thanks for taking my question. Richard, I also want to offer my congratulations on your retirement. So just going back to the core margins.

They're up, I think, 25 basis points this quarter. Just curious what drove that strong performance if there's anything particular driving that?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, on the nonfood side, the biggest thing is -- well, not the big -- a piece of it is comparing to last year where we had extra markdowns. I think -- we probably talked about it last time that nonfood was, a year ago, have been down year over year because of some of the supply chain challenges we had when such things were coming in late after the season in case some of the big-ticket items for overseas containers. So that was probably a chunk of it.On the fresh food side, I said it was down year over year a little. Fresh is competitive and we're being ever competitive on it as well.

But again, I don't view any of that as being terribly meaningful in terms of is that a big change that is coming. There's always something that's up a little bit and there's another thing that's down a little bit.

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

Great. And then maybe just 1 follow-up question. On the expense side, you guys did have better expense controls this quarter. So just curious what changed sequentially because the growth rate did decelerate by a few percentage points.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I can't think off the top of my head, other than -- actually, someone across the table just said the word focus. At our budget meetings, which happen every four weeks with 150-plus people in town from all over the world, those are the kind of things we look at. And I think the operators are doing -- are doing a better job of budgeting. And one of the things, I think, that came out at the last budget meeting in terms of budgeting, if you budget sales a little higher and they came in 1% lower, you got to control your labor costs.

And so a lot of it has to do with focus and being meaningful to that. We certainly don't try to control expenses by not doing a wage increase when we think we need to. And we certainly have done that.

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

Thank you. Best of luck.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Mushkin with R5 Capital. Your line is open.

Scott Mushkin -- R5 Capital -- Analyst

Hey. Thanks. Richard, I feel like we should be like raising your jersey to the rafters like superstars retiring here. never came without you to tell you the truth.

So congratulations.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Scott Mushkin -- R5 Capital -- Analyst

So we'll have to see the CFO Hall of Fame. So a couple of things, some of your comments that you made. You're doing this delivery in one hour in China, I think you said going from one club to three. Is that something you envision that can expand outside of China? And how should we think about that maybe even vis-a-vis the U.S.?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, in a way, we're doing same-day here with a few people, most notably Instacart and a little bit was shipped down in the Southeast. And I think we've got a test in Texas with Uber. But at the end of the day, we have that same-day delivery already as function. Over there, it is a third party that's doing it, like Instacart or these other ventures here.

So it's just, it's new. It's not something that's new to the warehouse club industry in China. You could look elsewhere and find it too, but it's certainly something that makes sense. And again, in part because the social media, there's been a lot of publicity in just, I mean from the day it launched three days ago, it's gone nuts in terms of how many page hits it's getting and all that stuff.

But it's just part of the business.

Scott Mushkin -- R5 Capital -- Analyst

Got it. And then we talked about this over the years, and I think you said you're going to do 28 net new clubs this year. What's the capacity of the organization? Where do you see -- do you envision that going to 35 and 40? Like how should we think of it as we move out three to five years? Is it something that's going to trend up?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I think, who knows? But I think generally, it probably trends up a little. There's a few years there, excluding the year that when COVID hit, that we only did like 13 because there were shutdowns in certain countries of construction as well as the U.S. But if you look back, excluding that year over a three- or five-year period, plus or minus a couple of years there, it was about 23 a unit, without looking at numbers, about 23 units a year. At the time, you said, what do you see over the next 10 years? What we saw collectively was somewhere in the hopefully targeting, let's say 25 for the next five years per year and then going up to 25 to somewhere in the high 20s and if not, 30.

I think that's generally the sense that we feel. Could we do more? Yes. Are we comfortable doing it this way? Yes. I think part of that is such a hands-on business.

I get to say that from sitting here in headquarters most of the time, not traveling like my colleagues do in operations, but Ron is a great example. I mean, he and several regional executives and operations, if there's an opening somewhere or not an opening, they're out visiting usually at least two, if not, three weeks a month around for three or four days, jumping around visiting locations, not only existing locations but new sites. And so I think from a standpoint -- and the other thing is, particularly in newer countries, you want to get the first one opened, so you can train 50 or 80 people that want to move to the next location in that city that will help that one go. And we were very fortunate a few years back in the first -- in China, where we had a number of employees from Taiwan that wanted to move and be promoted into new locations, new jobs over there.

So that helps us when we have one then two then four then whatever. So we take it slow. All I know is we're all very busy and particularly the operators and merchants as well. And so that's kind of the paradigm, I think, that we're going to continue to work at something in the 25 range and then heading up.

Just a month -- just a quarter ago, I think our budget for this year was 32, and now -- or 31, now it's 28. And that's simply timing. There's two or three that pushed that for whatever construction delays or you found something in this delays or whatever it might be, you might have moved from mid- to late summer to early fall, which is the new fiscal year. So I'm feeling pretty good that we're going to open 25-plus for the next couple of years and then probably 28-plus and go on from there.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Greg Melich with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Greg Melich -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks. Richard, you mentioned the word surreal the feeling retiring. I'd say it's almost as surreal, the $4.99 chicken.

So thank you for all the help over the years. I would say -- I guess two things I want to touch on. One is ticket pressure. It looks like just in the most recent sales, with traffic growing more and more that you're seeing some AUR pressure.

Is that 0% inflation turning to deflation as the merchants are seeing into March and April?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, I think that if the -- again, the inflation number is a calculation based on costs and mix. I think it's probably -- I would look too closely if the average ticket was up a couple -- a few tenths in the quarter, and then it was down 1% -- down in February by a tenth. Still relatively close. Some of it is a mix change, I'm sure.

And some of it is some of the examples I gave you about lower pricing. Even if the underlying cost hasn't changed, some of it may be in terms of how we package and we take advantage of that. And that's on the sales side and not on -- not the exact costs from yesterday.

Greg Melich -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

So looking ahead, that number flat looks pretty good from what the merchants are seeing today?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yes. I think when the last budget meeting two weeks ago, I think there's -- in the presentations, there's a lot of -- I used the phrase a few minutes ago, upscaling. I think that phrase buying with conviction. I mean, I think the buyers are looking ahead right now in an offensive way in a positive way.

Hopefully, we'll be right. But we feel so far we're being right.

Greg Melich -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

I wanted to follow up with my second question on the Instacart side of e-commerce penetration. What would e-commerce penetration be now in the U.S. if you included the Instacart delivery and the other deliveries?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Instacart's 1.5% to 2%, something below 2% but more than 1.5%, which is still on a $200 million retailer is a lot. And we don't include that because that -- the in-store person comes in, buys it and checks out at the front end, so we don't include that. So you'd add -- depending on rounding, you'd add 1% to 2% to the top line number.

Greg Melich -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Well, thanks for everything, and enjoy retirement.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I hope to see you all.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Kelly Bania with BMO Capital. Your line is open.

Kelly Bania -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

Good evening. Thanks, Richard, and I have to add my congratulations to you. It's been a pleasure. Just wanted to ask where Costco stands with retail media and advertising dollars.

I think the last update I had was in the range of a few hundred million. Or just curious if you're willing to share with us where that stands today, what kind of growth that is experiencing and just the company's thought process on investing in that down the line.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, without giving numbers out, we know there's an opportunity there, more than we've done in the past. In the last 6 or 8 months, we brought on people that are seasoned in this business to help us. And it's a point of focus. We know that there's money out there.

We've always been very successful in other forms of vendor buckets, whether it's end caps or advertising in our own Costco connection, and of course, over the last several years, some advertising online or banners or placement. But there's a lot more that can be done there. Rest assured, whatever it is, we're going to use it to -- just like when we always said, if we can save $1 on buying something, we're going to give $0.80 or $0.90 to the customer. I think that mantra will continue on this side as well.

But there's certainly ability for more dollars out there. Some of our big retail competitors have talked about doubling in five or six years what they have. I think, again, it's a lower market share for us, so there's a little more opportunity for us to continue to grow that.

Kelly Bania -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

And maybe just -- can I just follow up with the decision to roll out Apple Pay? Costco is pretty notorious for being strict on the payment method you could use. So just maybe the thought process on that, what you expect that to do for your e-commerce business and any economics you can share?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yes. There's not -- on e-com, there's not as many stored cards for our members. And as we're doing more with a digital wallet, that will help as well. So it's something that -- it should help.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Oliver Chen with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Kathy Miner -- TD Cowen -- Analyst

Hi. This is Kathy on for Oliver, and of course, best wishes to you in your retirement. Just wanted to talk a little bit about the Kirkland price gap versus national brands. I know you touched on the Kirkland brand a little bit earlier on the call.

But how has that price gap changed, especially year over year? And how -- has there been any impact to unit elasticity, given that price discrepancy?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, we definitely have seen an impact from it. I mean, historically, the view was it has to be at least as good, if not better, quality than the leading national brand and at least a 20% savings as compared to what we sell the national brand for. And that -- those metrics continue in that regard. I think what we've seen when we look at some of the items that have risen greatly in price like paper products, on a percentage basis over the last several years because of freight costs, because of pulp prices, because of energy, all those things have dramatically increased.

And what used to be -- I don't know the exact numbers, but for an 18-pack of -- a 24-pack of toilet tissue or a 15-pack or 18-pack of paper towels, you've got price points in the high $20s, if not low to mid-$30s. And where we can show a dramatic savings on that, we've seen dramatic changes in unit market share toward Costco -- toward Kirkland Signature. But that's something that's been an iterative process over many years. Probably goes up and down a little bit.

I'd say it's gone up a little bit in terms of a little more of a penetration in the last couple of years.

Kathy Miner -- TD Cowen -- Analyst

Great. And then just a follow-up on the store discussion and unit growth. Can you just provide a little bit of color on how the international store openings are performing just from a productivity angle? How is that versus the more tenured stores as well as the domestic stores?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I don't think there's a big difference. In new markets, it's always a little slower. So like when we opened originally in Iceland or Sweden or Auckland or some of those are -- France several years ago. You're always going to start -- or frankly, Japan 20 years ago, you tend to start out lower.

In some cases, it's also a question is some local vendors may not want to -- local country vendors may not want to sell you because they want to upset all the big traditional that have all the market share before we enter. And once we get two or three open, they talk to you a little more. And so I think all those things help us as we grow. Certainly, it's changed a little bit in the last few years.

China being the most recent example, when we opened the first one in Minhang in Shanghai, what, about four years ago? It made international news based on just the sheer number of members who signed up and everything. So we have a lot faster start, I think. Each year, we have a lot faster start than the year before. And so I don't see a big difference there.We certainly -- if you look in the U.S., I mean, I think 1 thing that's interesting is this fiscal year, we're going to open, whatever, 28 units [Inaudible] here.

And I think of the 28, 20-plus are in the U.S., which is -- some people have asked, has it slowed down internationally? No, international takes a little longer to do. But what's interesting is we have a lot more runway than we ever thought possible. If you had asked us five years ago, by now, how many would we be putting in this year in the U.S., we would not have said 20-plus. It's got to slow down at some point.

But the volumes that we're now doing in these locations, we've got to bleed some of that off. And so that's one good point. And then we still got plenty of going on overseas. And you'll see that continue to ramp up as well.

Kathy Miner -- TD Cowen -- Analyst

Excellent. Thank you so much and best wishes again.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Scot Ciccarelli with Truist. Your line is open.

Scot Ciccarelli -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Thanks for the time, guys. It seems like you guys have done some things to cut down on membership sharing, food court usage from nonmembers, etc. Richard, are you seeing something in the business that gives you concern that there's a growing issue from things like membership sharing?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

No. I think part of it is -- first of all, I think the storyline sometimes is a little greater than the reality. During COVID, we did a little bit more -- there was a little bit more membership sharing. You had individuals where one family member, maybe not one that had one of the two memberships, was coming into shop with mom or dad's credit card, and we allowed it.

And then with the advent of self-checkout over the last several years, when you walk in the front door and you just flash your card and do they look at it or not, who knows? People would get in and if you're going through self-checkout, you're not having to show your membership card to the cashier. And so there's probably an increasing but still small level of abuse of that privilege. But we also had complaints from members saying, "I pay. Why shouldn't they?" So the view was we needed to just shore that up a little bit, and we did.

We did it over a period of 6 months, I think about 6 months where we -- first, there was warnings and then ultimately changed. Are we getting some new sign-ups from it? Absolutely. But it's -- relative to the 60 million or 70 million members, it's not terribly meaningful, but it's more fair and the right thing to do.

Scot Ciccarelli -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Yes. I mean, that was actually -- you started to answer it. So like you've seen some acceleration in membership. Should we kind of expect to see that in the future, like what we've seen with Netflix, for example, as they cut down member sharing?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Right. Well, it seems like Netflix had a much bigger issue or the ability to share was much easier because, first of all, it's electronic. In this sense, you still have to show a card when you walked in. And we're actually doing testing on that, too, in terms of having your card be scanned and reviewed when you walk in.

And we've done that in the U.K., I believe, for a few years. And so it's all about just -- I would say it's as much hygiene as anything else. And it will be slightly profitable to the extent that we're making sure everybody -- I think we signed up more members than that were nonmembers than lost the small sales that, that nonmember did.

Scot Ciccarelli -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Makes sense. Thanks again, and enjoy the next stage.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open.

John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Congratulations, Richard. Enjoy your retirement. You'll be missed. So I wonder when you think about -- you don't have many pain points in your clubs.

But when you think about kind of throughput and things like, I know you tested BOPIS and costs really didn't make sense there, things like that indoor Scan & Go. Do you think there are some unlocks here to do more volume and/or reduce any pain points?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I think the biggest challenge with pain points, first of all, is flow of merchandise and pallets through the system, which we continue to work on and improve. Never -- if you announced this 10 years ago, will you ever have 150 of your 600 U.S. locations doing over $300 million and 40 of them doing over $400 million? The answer would be no, no way, even with inflation. The fact is we're doing a lot more volume than we've ever thought we would do.

And so the biggest answer of not only making it a little more efficient but driving more sales is cannibalizing. We find existing members that sometimes will say, "I don't want to go there. Too busy today." And by opening up that third or fourth unit in that city, we're seeing not an increase by a third or fourth of the membership base but a significant increase in sales. And I can't think of anything specifically.

We're always doing things with -- oh, David mentioned something here. One of the things we're -- we should be doing shortly is having warehouse inventory online. So when you go online to -- now I say that, a couple of people in the room are smiling and says, it may be a few months or a few -- more than a few months, but it will be soon. But at the end of the day, if you look at something to buy online and we have it in the location or two in the zip code where you typically shop -- in the location you would shop physically, we'll let you know you can buy there.

And in many cases, it will be cheaper if you go pick it up yourself because the online costs might be higher -- is typically higher, particularly on the nonfood items. So I think that's something that will help that as well.

John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

And secondly, is there any way to tell, you think about email outreach. I mean, it seems to be getting better and more call to action. I write think about the seven days of spring, which you're in the middle of now. Is there any way to tell the productivity of that outreach? And is that driving some of the e-com pickup?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Absolutely. And yes, there is a way to tell. We are looking at it. Again, without going into a lot of detail, a couple of years ago, we brought in a new person in charge from IT in terms of all digital.

He's built a team there working closely with merchants and operators but mostly with merchants in terms of doing these types of things. And we've seen, again, lots of improvements with our app, with our desktop. It's getting less clunky by the day and more ability to do some items to drive sales and some promotions like that.

John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

OK. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Horvers with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

Chris Horvers -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

Good evening. And we'll miss you, Richard, and welcome aboard, Gary. So on the MFI, did you mention how much the FX impacted total MFI growth year over year? And more broadly, it seems like it's becoming more competitive to acquire customers in the club channel, couponing among your peers has really accelerated over the past year. Is that what you've observed? And do you think it's still escalating and how are you responding?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I got to tell you, we -- in the last 12 months, we opened like 3% new locations, and we had a 7-plus percent increase in new members. So we're not trying -- we do have a few promotional things but I would say we have not increased the types of things we do at all. And you're right. At other places, there's not a day that goes by you can't get a deep discount, much deeper than we've even ever done on an ongoing basis.

And so no, we're not doing anything different. I mean, are we pleasantly surprised by the rate of new sign-ups? Yes, it's nice to hear and have. And I think the fact that things like social media has helped us with the value proposition. And so no, we're not doing a lot of things in that regard.

Chris Horvers -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

And just from a technical question, one of your peers talks about 10-year renewal rate. The 93% that you quote, does that include like the year one renewal or in anyone that comes to the door on one of those digital coupons?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, it does. And we've been doing the same way forever.

Chris Horvers -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

Got it. Thank you very much and best of luck.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Robby Ohmes with Bank of America.

Robby Ohmes -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Richard, my congrats as well. You will be missed very much. Listen, just a quick question. I love the credit card rewards program.

It's amazing. It's like the best thing that's ever happened to me, the card you guys do. Is there any issuer change with the late fees or anything going on that could change the rewards program or anything there?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, that's the new recent headline of that happening and we'll have to wait and see. Look, at the end of the day, it may change the economics. There are other levers that we've talked to them in the past, our issuing bank, about what we could do, but nothing is done at this point.

Robby Ohmes -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Got it. And congrats on your retirement.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Laura Champine with Loop Capital. Your line is open.

Laura Champine -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst

Thanks for the question. I wish you a long and happy retirement, Richard. It is -- I'm going to go out on a nitpick on the renewal rate. If renewal rate's flat overall but 10 bps better U.S.

and Canada, that seems to imply it's not as good in international markets. Is that just some of the sampling that went on in China or what do you think might be driving that?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, that's exactly what it is. When -- first of all, if you just take the total number of members divided by total number of warehouses, I think we're about close to 70,000 households per location. When we opened a unit in not only China but other countries in Asia, we'll have anywhere from 80,000 to 150,000 members that sign up, many of whom are lookie-loos and a year later don't renew. We will start in some new countries with -- once the first batch renew for the first time, you might have a renewal rate in the 50s or at best, low 60s.

And then it just, over the next four or five years, it continues to grow to something that's higher than that. Not -- that's more extreme than we saw 30 years ago in the U.S. and Canada. But nonetheless, that's exactly what you see.

So when you -- just opening the one unit in Shenzhen or whatever we opened a year and a half ago in China, that's going to affect the international renewal rate. When we look in all other countries, when we look at the 13 -- the 11 other operations outside of U.S. and Canada, that renewal rate generally ticks up a little bit every year like the U.S. and Canada.

In U.S. and Canada might little bit helped also with increased penetration of executive members. We have that in several countries but not all countries. The smallest countries, we don't have it in a number of units, and also with auto-renewal, which has helped us in the last several years.

And that's, I don't believe, everywhere.

Laura Champine -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst

Got it. That's helpful. Once those clubs mature, the clubs in China, other clubs, new clubs in Asian markets, etc., do they tend to -- can you serve a higher number of households there, meaning would you expect them to be sustainably above that 70 or so households that you have in an average club?

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, the answer is it is and it does. So the answer is yes. I was at, two months after an opening in Osaka, Japan back in October. And on a Sunday, a random Sunday, was not there on business, but a random Sunday, went over there, we couldn't move into place.

And it was great. It was a wonderful picture to see. So yes, I think that despite the fact that not everybody has cars and despite the fact that people have smaller housing arrangements, value plays well.

Operator

Our last question comes from the line of Corey Tarlowe with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Corey Tarlowe -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on your retirement. As it relates to big-ticket discretionary items, it seems like that category has improved a little bit.

Just wanted to get a little bit of understanding as to what you've seen the underlying that improvement in trends? And then secondarily on AI, just curious with the recent technology enhancements that the business has made, how you see that impacting the business on a go-forward basis.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Well, in terms of big-ticket discretionary, I think we completely believe that it's some of the things we're doing on our side to better explain the value. I mean, it was almost like you did that and sales skyrocketed. 20% and 30% increases in some of those big-ticket categories just over the last couple of months, even if a piece of it is a year-over-year comparison, which I don't even know if it is or it isn't, at the end of the day, it was very evident to us.

And then the other comment I mentioned, particularly like in appliances, we're still a very, very small percentage of the total industry. And so it's easier to take market share when you're such a small percent of something so I think that will continue. As regards to AI, we're just in the early innings of that. We've had third-party AI companies, large companies, including ones that are headquartered in Seattle, come out and talk to us.

There's a whole list of things that we're doing with -- working with IT and our CEO and our heads of operations and merchandising to see where and how it might fit. But that will be a question for Gary in the future.

Corey Tarlowe -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Great. Thank you very much and best of luck.

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Well, thank you, everyone. Again, it's been fun. The thing I'll miss most about the job is talking to everybody because I like talking, and it's been a great story to tell but it's been an absolute privilege. And I appreciate it.

So have a good day, and I'm sure we'll be speaking to some of you shortly over the next few days with additional questions. Have a good day.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 0 minutes

Call participants:

Richard Galanti -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Simeon Gutman -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Chuck Grom -- Gordon Haskett Research Advisors -- Analyst

Michael Lasser -- UBS -- Analyst

Peter Benedict -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

Scott Mushkin -- R5 Capital -- Analyst

Greg Melich -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Kelly Bania -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst

Kathy Miner -- TD Cowen -- Analyst

Scot Ciccarelli -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst

Chris Horvers -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

Robby Ohmes -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Laura Champine -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst

Corey Tarlowe -- Jefferies -- Analyst

More COST analysis

All earnings call transcripts

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Costco Wholesale (COST) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool