Costco Is Seeing More Sales Because of Coronavirus Fears

The coronavirus has sparked panic across the world and one company that is capitalizing on this panic inadvertently is Costco.

The bulk retailer has said that the impact from the virus has boosted the company’s monthly same-store sales for February by around 3% as customers prepare and stock pile. For the month ended March 1, same-store sales were up 12.1%.

“These last nine or so days has been beyond busy,” the company’s CFO Richard Galanti. “February sales benefited from an uptick in consumer demand in the fourth week of the reporting period,” the company said. “We attribute this to concerns over the coronavirus.”

“Overall … it just takes a little more work,” said Galanti during a post-earnings conference call with analysts.
For its fiscal second quarter, Costco said same-store sales, saw a jump of 8.9%. They were up 7.9% when excluding the impact of gasoline prices and currency fluctuations, the company said.

Regarding its supply chain, Costco said in China “closures of many manufacturing facilities extended well beyond the typical one-week Chinese New Year holiday.”

“In many cases, factories over there were closed for one to two additional weeks,” Galanti said. “That’s now improving each week.”

Costco is expected to report its March sales results, for the five weeks ending April 5th on April 8.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) and have not been compensated for this article.