Costco, a well-known membership warehouse in the US, achieved strong results in March, and customers flocked to its stores despite inflationary pressures.
Costco said its March sales rose 18.7% to $21.61 billion from $18.21 billion a year earlier.
Comparable store sales increased by 17.2%, of which same-store sales in the United States increased by 19.1%.
Excluding the impact of changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange prices, total sales can be increased by 12.2%. Comparable e-commerce sales increased by 8.9%.
The company said that the five-week March retail month had one more shopping day than last year, which had a positive impact on sales of comparable stores by about 1.5% to 2%.
Costco’s net sales rose 16.1% to $50.94 billion in the second quarter ended Feb. 13. Total sales increased by 14.4%.
Costco currently operates 829 warehouse stores, including 573 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 105 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 30 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 16 in South Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, 4 in Spain, 2 in France and China and 1 in Iceland.
Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
Macy’s, the established US department store, announced last week that it would open a logistics center in central North Carolina to serve its growing omni-channel business.
It is said that the 1.4 million-square-foot facility, which will open in 2024, will have automated direct-to-consumer distribution capabilities and employ nearly 2800 people when fully operational.
The facility will provide important support for Macy’s omni-channel capacity; when fully operational, it will account for nearly 30% of Macy’s national digital supply chain capacity.
In addition, Macy’s warns that as inflation is likely to be a drag on consumer demand, especially from low-and middle-income consumers, more shoppers may face an important consumption problem of choosing between shopping malls or vacations.
“the biggest challenge we face in considering management in 2022 is where the demand will come from,” Adrian Mitchell, Macy’s chief financial officer, said in a speech at JPMorgan’s annual retail review on Thursday morning.
“We do believe that demand is there and that consumers will spend money. But will they spend on the discretionary items we sell, or on air tickets to Florida, or on trips, or more to restaurants? “
‘These problems are creating a degree of unpredictability, and Macy’s must plan carefully, ‘Mr. Mitchell said.
According to a report by Numerator, a market research firm, some early inflationary effects have already occurred. The latest data from the company’s shopping behavior index show that consumers spend an average of 59% more on gasoline and convenience stores than they did a year ago.
The growth in this type of consumption is most pronounced among low-and middle-income groups, according to the Numerator report. Conversely, unit sales at the income level fell the most each week in categories including home decoration and beauty.
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the United States, announced on Thursday that it has raised the wages of long-distance truck drivers to $110000 in the first year, earning more income based on tenure and location.
Wal-Mart announced that it had also launched a three-month training program for supply chain employees in Delaware and Texas to obtain a commercial driver’s license and become a Wal-Mart driver.
“the average salary of a long-distance driver is $56491 a year,” the company quoted the workplace website Glassdoor as saying. Wal-Mart’s starting salary can almost double.