Costco Now Offers Curbside Pickup
Costco has begun offering its first curbside pickup service.
The service is available via the food retailer’s three locations in New Mexico.
Costco has yet to release a statement on the service. According to its consumer-facing website, however, the service is powered by Instacart and enables the retailer’s online shoppers to pick a 1-hour no-contact pickup window. Costco charges $10 for the service and requires a $100 minimum order. The service is available only to Costco members.
The growing popularity of online shopping is fueling more demand for curbside pickup. Online and other non-stores sales increased 23.9% during the holiday shopping period, reaching $209 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
As it provides curbside pickup — at least to a limited number of shoppers — Costco is coming off a hot 2020. The retailer recently said it has continued to see an acceleration in same-store sales during 2020's challenging retail environment due to the company's efforts to create a safe space for shoppers. For instance, in the period ended Nov. 22, same-store sales at Costco increased 17%, an acceleration from Q4's 11.4% increase. Online sales jumped 86%. Net sales for the first quarter increased 16.9% to $42.35 billion from $36.24 billion last year.
Costco operates 787 warehouses worldwide, including 543 in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company, which is No. 5 on Progressive Grocer’s 2020 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.
