Costco Is Bringing Back Huge Perk For Loyal Executive Memberships

Costco has announced that they are once again bringing back early shopping hours for their most loyal customers.

Beginning June 30, the retail warehouse giant will be opening its doors one hour early, at 9am local time, for its upper-level Executive Members. Talk about Christmas coming early… or how about whenever you want! Let's be honest, there's no better feeling than walking into a freshly stocked store and being able to choose ANYTHING before "the regular" people come in and start wreaking havoc.

I can't wait to see what Costco guys A.J. and Big Justice have to say about this! 

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THE NEW COSTCO HOURS START JUNE 30

In just a few weeks, the new store hours for the annual $130 membership program will be: 

• Monday – Friday: 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• Saturday: 9 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
• Sunday: 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.

In years past, the store's highest-tiered premium members enjoyed earlier shopping hours, but over time that privilege began fading away as the store's lower-tiered Gold Members continued to become more of a priority for the chain. The new earlier hours move appears to be in direct correlation with a recent earnings call where Costco CEO Ron Vachris said that customers' response to extended gas station hours were overwhelmingly positive.

"The combination of expanded gas station hours, new gas station openings and lower prices at the pump have led us to have two of our all-time highest gallon weeks in the U.S. during the last month," Vachris said during the May 29th call.

From a marketing and sales perspective, it makes perfect sense for Costco to vertically scale by enhancing revenue for those that might already be shopping by allowing them the opportunity to fill up their gas tanks, and vice versa. According to Costco data, despite Executive Memberships only making up 38% of Costco membership, they account for over 75% of total sales. The premium group will also continue to get their 2% cash-back reward for every dollar spent. (This has led to many Costco fans saying that the membership eventually pays for itself if you use it enough!)  

The sounds you hear are the Executive Members chomping down on their $1.50 hot dogs and giving fist-pump celebrations in response to the impressive revenue they've continued to bring to their store.  

Time and time again, Costco continues to pave the way for being one of the best big retail stores out there, precisely because of them being able to understand what their customers want. (Dusty toilet paper be damned!) 

For example, not only will the exclusive early shopping perk be appreciated by customers that want an easier and less hectic day pushing their shopping cart up and down the aisles, but even Pokémon collectors are now tweeting their joy regarding the store's exclusivity factor and getting first dibs on new Pokémon cards and more before the store opens for everyone else.

But the big question is - what do YOU, the OutKick faithful, think about the new Costco perks? Will any of you be upgrading from your Gold memberships to the top tier? Tweet me at @TheGunzShow!