Costco Upgrades A Membership Perk That Has People Pumped
With the summer vacation just around the corner, Costco announced a big change this week to a beloved membership perk.
During a March 6 earnings call, Costco CEO Ron Vachris announced that the big box membership store famous for its $1.50 meat missile & drink combo had decided to extend "gas station hours in North America during the quarter to make filling up at Costco more convenient for our members."
At the same time, the company noted that it was looking at extending store hours across the U.S., but executives will start with the expanded gas station hours.
What time will Costco gas stations be open under the new changes?
"Generally, our stations are now staying open an hour later than they did previously, with some opening earlier as well," Vachris told investors.
Unless noted on the Costco website, the new hours for Costco gas stations will be Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Hours may vary in California and Hawaii.
Why is Costco expanding the hours for its gas stations?
"We did see some demand from the commuters, both at the early hours and the evening hours, so I think that that's going to be a real benefit to those folks as well," Vachris added. "But we will continue to look at the warehouse hours. No plans in place at this time."
In case you haven't noticed, Americans are back to working in offices and the days of stopping at Costco in the middle of the day to fuel up between Zoom calls are fading.
"Hold on to your current job if you want to keep working remotely," a Business Insider headline read in January. In Washington D.C., thousands of Food and Drug Administration workers who have been working remotely since March 2020 will return to the office on Monday.
Add in the news that more and more Americans are living further away from the office they're returning to and Costco adding hours just makes business sense.
"Researchers found that more than 20% of tech workers lived 100 miles or more from their employer," NerdWallet reported in 2024.