Costco Canada's April sales, traffic hit by COVID-19

Costco sales for the retail month of April were down slightly year over year, as stay-at-home orders and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic kept shoppers out of its stores.

The members-only warehouse club reported a decrease of 1.8% from US$11.6 billion last year for the four weeks ended May 3.

Costco also contributed the loss to limited service in its travel and food courts, the closure of most of its optical, hearing aid and photo departments, as well as a lower volume and price deflation at its gas bars.

For the thirty-five weeks ended May 3, 2020, Costco reported net sales of $107.64 billion, an increase of 7.8% from $99.89 billion during the similar period last year.

Costco’s comparable sales in Canada decreased 11.7% in April. Comparable sales--excluding the impact of gasoline sales and foreign currency fluctuations--decreased 5% in Canada for the same time period.

Comparable sales in Canada excluding gasoline, optical, travel, food court, hearing aids, photo, and foreign exchange increased by 1.5% in April.