We review Costco’s second quarter results as it starts to lap last year's surge in demand driven by the Covid-19 pandemic. Key numbers Q2: Net sales increased 14.7% to $43.9bn Comparable store sales (ex-fuel and currency impacts) increased 12.9% across the company, and by 12.6% in the US, 10.6% in Canada and 17.7% in other international markets Ecommerce sales increased 74.8% Op...

Half year results season in Australia is out of the way, with both Woolworths and Coles having released their HY performance reports over the last two weeks. As the attention swings towards H2 and the rest of 2021, we believe that there are five major trends that will shape the Australian grocery market as we cycle out of the pandemic... 1. Acceleration of online grocery Over the past few y...

Following a relative reluctance to develop its ecommerce business to include a store pickup service, Costco is testing a curbside model at stores in New Mexico, USA. Optimising its partnership with Instacart Although Costco has operated an online non-food business for several years, it wasn’t until 2017 that it started to offer a grocery-focused service. Launching three and a half years ago...