ISSAQUAH, WA, Apr 10, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Costco Wholesale Corporation ("Costco") (NASDAQ: COST) today
reported net sales of $6.57 billion for the month of March, the five
weeks ended April 6, 2008, an increase of 11 percent from $5.93
billion in the same five-week period last year.
For the first thirty-one weeks of its reporting period ended April 6,
2008, the Company reported net sales of $41.34 billion, an increase of
12 percent from $36.96 billion during the similar thirty-one-week
period last year.
Comparable sales for the five-week and thirty-one-week periods ended
April 6, 2008, were as follows:
5 Weeks 31 Weeks
--------- ---------
US 5% 5%
International 17% 17%
Total Company 7% 7%
========= =========
The U.S. comparable sales figure includes, among other things, the
effect of gasoline price inflation, with the average sales price per
gallon of gasoline up 20% for the five-week month of March, as
compared to the year-earlier March. Excluding gasoline price
inflation, U.S. comparable sales would have been up 3%. In addition,
foreign exchange rates, primarily in Canada, positively impacted
international comparable sales results. On a local currency basis,
international comparable sales increased 6% in March.
Costco currently operates 536 warehouses, including 392 in the United
States and Puerto Rico, 75 in Canada, 19 in the United Kingdom, six
in Korea, five in Taiwan, eight in Japan and 31 in Mexico. The
Company also operates Costco Online, an electronic commerce web site,
at www.costco.com and at www.costco.ca in Canada. The Company plans
to open an additional 14 to 15 new warehouses (including the
relocation of four to five warehouses to larger and better-located
facilities) prior to the end of its 2008 fiscal year on August 31,
2008.
Additional discussion of these sales results is available on a
pre-recorded telephone message. You can access the recording by
dialing 1-800-642-1687 (conference ID 39284116). This recorded
message will be available today through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday,
April 11, 2008.
Certain statements contained in this document and the pre-recorded
telephone message constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For
these purposes, forward-looking statements are statements that address
activities, events, conditions or developments that the Company
expects or anticipates may occur in the future. Such forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual
events, results or performance to differ materially from those
indicated by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include,
but are not limited to, domestic and international economic
conditions including exchange rates, the effects of competition and
regulation, uncertainties in the financial markets, consumer and
small business spending patterns and debt levels, conditions
affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real
estate, actions of vendors, rising costs associated with employees
(including health care and workers' compensation costs), rising costs
associated with the acquisition of merchandise (including the direct
and indirect effects of the rising cost of petroleum-based products
and fuel and energy costs), geopolitical conditions and other risks
identified from time to time in the Company's public statements and
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACTS:
Costco Wholesale Corporation
Bob Nelson
425/313-8255
Jeff Elliott
425/313-8264
SOURCE: Costco