Costco has gotten more crowded – DNYUZ
Costco’s sprawling sales floor is sometimes compared to a race track, but lately it can feel more like a demolition derby.
It’s a change that took a few years to emerge, but new numbers from Placer.ai, a market research company that analyzes foot traffic, show how much more crowded Costco has become in recent years.
Shopping visits to Costco warehouses increased more than 18% between the first quarter of 2019 and 2026, as U.S. consumers turned to the club for relief from rising prices (and the occasional free sample).
This growth is the result of a combination of visits to new warehouses and increased traffic to existing warehouses.
By comparison, traffic trends at Walmart and Target stores are mostly flat over the same period.
Walmart started from a fairly dominant position, with nearly one in 10 U.S. shopping trips taking place in one of its stores, and its e-commerce transformation helped drive strong sales growth.
Costco has also been growing its online business, but the surge in interest is decidedly an IRL phenomenon – one that poses major challenges for the company.
On earnings calls over the past two years, Costco executives have commented on warehouse crowding problems and the detailed steps they are taking to address them.
For starters, they’re building new warehouses near successful ones to alleviate some of that pressure.
Costco has also expanded parking lots at higher-volume warehouses in the past, but that can lead to larger crowds inside.
More recently, Costco has rolled out new technology features, like membership card scanners at the front entrance and a new “scan and go done by Costco” service that involves an employee counting a shopper’s order directly into their cart.
Retailers generally want people to linger in their stores because it increases the chances of an impulse purchase, but it doesn’t help business if shoppers feel trapped.
In other words, Costco wouldn’t want its scavenger hunt to turn into a desert island survival situation.
So far, Costco seems to be managing the scale pretty well.
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