Costco Lifts Special Operating Hours

In another signal that pre-pandemic routines are returning, Costco is eliminating its special operating hours. 

In place for the past 16 months, the early morning hours for shoppers aged 60 and older will end on July 26, according to the club store’s updated website. Other Costco members who are significantly impacted by COVID-19, including health care workers, first responders, immunocompromised individuals and those with disabilities, also have until then to shop between the hours of 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. from Monday through Friday.

While many retailers have dropped their senior hours, others still offer some accommodations. Aldi, for example, continues to reserve its first hour of business on Tuesdays and Thursdays for shoppers deemed vulnerable to COVID-19. Walmart is expanding its general hours but retaining Tuesday mornings for seniors and other vulnerable customers. In some parts of the country, The Kroger Co. is opening stores for seniors and other high-risk groups an hour before the general public arrives.

As of early July, 67.1% of adults in the United States have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly half (47.4%) are fully vaccinated. The allegedly more transmissible Delta variant has been linked to an uptick of COVID-19 cases in about half of U.S. states over the past several days.

Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco operates 809 warehouses worldwide. The company, which is No. 4 on Progressive Grocer’s 2021 PG 100 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, also has e-commerce sites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea and Taiwan. Walmart is No. 1, The Kroger Co. is No. 3 and Aldi is No. 24 on The PG 100.