Costco posts Q2 sales growth but not in fresh

Costco Wholesale Corp. showed a 7.3 percent sales increase in the second quarter but noted fresh food sales dropped a little.

Although Richard Galanti, executive vice president and CFO, didn’t specifically address fresh produce, he said “We’ve done a good job in organics.”

Fresh food sales weren’t broken out in Costco’s March 7 quarterly release or conference call.

Net sales for the quarter increased to $34.63 billion from $32.28 billion last year.

Total revenue for the quarter was $35.39 billion for the Nov. 26 to Feb. 17 quarter, higher than the $32.99 billion for Q2 last year. However, analysts predicted revenue of $35.65 billion for Q2.

Galanti said the bad weather across the U.S. and Canada hurt business.

“February’s sales were negatively impacted approximately 1% by weather throughout the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year occurred eleven days earlier in February this year, negatively impacting February’s Other International sales by approximately 4.5% and Total Company sales by approximately 0.5%,” Costco said in its official release.

Galanti said e-commerce sales increased 20.2 percent over last year’s Q2, and Costco now offers same-day grocery delivery in 99% of the U.S.

Costco operates 770 warehouses, with 535 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 100 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 28 in the United Kingdom, 26 in Japan, 15 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, 10 in Australia, two in Spain, and one each in Iceland and France.

Costco also runs e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea and Taiwan.

See Costco’s full financial report here.