You Won't Believe How Much A Costco Membership Cost When It First Came Out

It's no secret that the price of just about everything is going up these days. If you shop at Costco to try to beat the never-ending inflation, your jaw may drop by just how cheap annual membership used to be. Costco opened its first warehouse location in Seattle in 1983. The store's philosophy, "keep costs down and pass the savings on to our members," was evident in how much you had to pay to join Costco: just $25 per year.

But nothing ever stays the same when it comes to prices, and Costco has continued to raise membership prices over the decades, with the strategy behind it being that this helps keep the prices of items in the store lower. One of the things you need to know before buying a Costco membership is that on average, Costco has raised its membership prices by about $5 around every five years. The longest stretch of time with the same membership cost so far was between 1983 and 1992, when Costco raised the cost to $30. The shortest amount of time between price increases was when the warehouse club raised the membership price from $40 in 1998 to $45 in 2000. Costco raised membership in 2024 to $65, but before that it had been $60 since June 2017. You can't really get away without having a membership. For example, people used to try to sneak into Costco's food court without a membership, but the club is cracking down on that. 

Costco may imply that it needs to raise membership for the customer's sake, but maybe the question is, why wouldn't Costco raise membership fees if it can? After all, raising membership fees can bring in around $300 million annually of operating income. According to Retail Brew, 72% of the chain's income in 2023 came from membership fees. Ratios like that help Costco stick to its aim of limiting markup on products to no more than 15%. 

Ultimately, the constant price increases don't seem to keep customers from renewing their membership. According to Supermarket News, the club has an approximate 92% renewal rate in the United States and Canada, which also makes us wonder if some people don't know about Costco membership's auto-renewal and just let it renew without realizing. However, some customers have been known to hack the price increase. Since Costco will allow you to renew three months before your expiration date, which depending on when Costco announced their next membership price hike, allowed some members to pay the previous year's price.

So what will the coming years bring? When is Costco predicted to raise their membership rate yet again? We can only go by historical trends. Costco showed it understood its customers' struggles with inflation when the store waited six years in the early 2000s to raise its membership cost, so the best guess is members hopefully have a couple more years until they have to be ready to pay more.