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In a feature published Thursday, Costco Chairman Hamilton “Tony” James told Chief Executive Magazine that even though he’s been on Costco’s board for 36 years, he still loves attending the meetings.
“I find it fascinating,” James said in the Q&A. “The company is a great window on what’s going in the world of consumers, what they’re buying or not buying.”
And what they’re buying, in addition to the beloved $1.50 hot dog combo, are 10-carat diamonds and gold bars. (Wells Fargo analysts found in September that the company sells up to $200 million worth of gold bars monthly.)
“A Porsche dealer in Seattle put their cars on the floor of a Costco, and they sold out in a week,” James said.
Costco had about 137 million paying members in 2024, and most, James said, are “average-income earners nationally” but the warehouse chain also has “affluent members with two times the average income.”
Those members allow the company to do “remarkable things” like selling more high-priced Dom Perignon Champagne than “anyone else” — and for decades. In 2001, for example, the then-director of wine at Costco told the Los Angeles Times that the warehouse chain was the “nation’s biggest retailer of Dom Perignon.”
Business Insider reports that, according to data from analytics firm Numerator, millennial and Gen X households with higher income preferred shopping at Costco over the competition.
Related: Costco Bulks Up Most Store Workers’ Paychecks to More Than $30 an Hour.
“We’ve always known we could move anything in volume if the quality was good and the price was great — Rolex watches, Dom Perignon, 10-carat diamonds,” James said.
“Affluent people love a good deal,” he added, though they aren’t only buying luxury items.
The company’s Kirkland brand is “the second-largest brand anywhere,” James notes.
Costco reported net sales of $19.51 billion for January 2025, an increase of 9.2 percent from the same period last year.
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