4 Weeks 35 Weeks
-------------- --------------
US 7% 5%
International 14% 17%
Total Company 8% 8%
============== ==============
The U.S. comparable sales figure includes, among other things, the effect
of gasoline price inflation, with the average sales price per gallon of
gasoline up 17% for the four-week month of April, as compared to the
year-earlier April. Excluding gasoline price inflation, U.S. comparable
sales would have been up 5%. In addition, foreign exchange rates,
primarily in Canada, positively impacted international comparable sales
results. On a local currency basis, international comparable sales
increased 6% in April.
The Company plans to release its third quarter fiscal year 2008 operating
results, for the twelve weeks ending May 11, 2008, on Thursday, May 29,
2008. A conference call to discuss these third quarter results is
scheduled for 8:00a.m. (PT) on May 29 and will be available via a webcast
on www.costco.com (click on Investor Relations and "Webcasts").
Costco currently operates 536 warehouses, including 392 in the United
States and Puerto Rico, 75 in Canada, 19 in the United Kingdom, six in
Korea, five in Taiwan, eight in Japan and 31 in Mexico. The Company also
operates Costco Online, an electronic commerce web site, at www.costco.com
and at www.costco.ca in Canada. The Company plans to open an additional 12
to 13 new warehouses (including the relocation of five warehouses to larger
and better-located facilities) prior to the end of its 2008 fiscal year on
August 31, 2008.
Additional discussion of these sales results is available on a pre-recorded
telephone message. You can access the recording by dialing 1-800-642-1687
(conference ID 39284283). This recorded message will be available today
through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, May 9, 2008.
Certain statements contained in this document and the pre-recorded
telephone message constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For these
purposes, forward-looking statements are statements that address
activities, events, conditions or developments that the Company expects or
anticipates may occur in the future. Such forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results or
performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, domestic and
international economic conditions including exchange rates, the effects of
competition and regulation, uncertainties in the financial markets,
consumer and small business spending patterns and debt levels, conditions
affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real estate,
actions of vendors, rising costs associated with employees (including
health care and workers' compensation costs), rising costs associated with
the acquisition of merchandise (including the direct and indirect effects
of the rising cost of petroleum-based products and fuel and energy costs),
geopolitical conditions and other risks identified from time to time in the
Company's public statements and reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Contact Information: CONTACTS: Costco Wholesale Corporation Bob Nelson 425/313-8255 Jeff Elliott 425/313-8264