Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports September Sales Results

Costco Wholesale Corporation (“Costco” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: COST) today reported net sales of $14.41 billion for the retail month of September, the five weeks ended October 6, 2019, an increase of 5.6 percent from $13.64 billion last year.

Comparable sales were as follows:

		5 Weeks
	U.S.	5.0%
	Canada	1.2%
	Other International	3.0%
	Total Company	4.2%
	E-commerce	17.8%

Comparable sales excluding the impacts from changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange were as follows:

		5 Weeks
	U.S.	5.7%
	Canada	4.5%
	Other International	5.9%
	Total Company	5.6%
	E-commerce	18.5%

Additional discussion of these results is available in a pre-recorded telephone message. It can be accessed by dialing 1-855-859-2056 (conference ID 3254229). This message will be available through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Wednesday, October 16, 2019.

Costco currently operates 783 warehouses, including 544 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 100 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 29 in the United Kingdom, 26 in Japan, 16 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, 11 in Australia, two in Spain, one in Iceland, one in France, and one in China. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan.

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. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “likely,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. 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, breaches of security or privacy of member or business information, conditions affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real estate, capital spending, actions of vendors, rising costs associated with employees (generally including health care costs), energy and certain commodities, geopolitical conditions (including tariffs), the ability to remediate material weaknesses in internal control, and other risks identified from time to time in the Company’s public statements and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and the Company does not undertake to update them, except as required by law.

CONTACTS:		Costco Wholesale CorporationRichard Galanti, 425/313-8203Bob Nelson, 425/313-8255David Sherwood, 425/313-8239Josh Dahmen, 425/313-8254