Costco's digitally-enabled sales cleared $33 billion in fiscal 2026, growing more than twenty percent as the warehouse club leans harder on DoorDash and Uber Eats to reach members who never walk through the doors. The figure arrived on Thursday's fourth-quarter call alongside full-year net sales of $297.2 billion, up ten percent year over year, and a gas-purchase rate that hit an all-time high as consumers sheltered from pump prices during the Iran War.
The delivery stack is getting crowded
Costco now runs three nationwide grocery delivery partnerships in the United States. Instacart has been in place since 2016. DoorDash and Uber Eats were both added in the past month, with Uber Eats graduating from a seventeen-state pilot to a mid-September national rollout. Members must enter their membership number at checkout on each platform, a friction point the company treats as a feature rather than a bug.
Incremental is the word of the day
"We've observed that these sales through these channels are mostly incremental, with limited impact on our core warehouse grocery business," CEO Ron Vachris said. The claim is convenient and unprovable, but the membership data offers a parallel signal: members under forty have grown more than sixty percent since Covid and now represent more than a quarter of the base. Vachris noted they start out spending less and "over time, they grow into higher-spending members," a lifecycle argument that effectively turns delivery fees into customer-acquisition costs.
Pharmacy and gas keep the flywheel spinning
Pharmacy revenue grew twenty percent as Costco added mobile pay-ahead and pickup lockers, with GLP-1 drugs and fertility programs cited as particular drivers. Gasoline volume hit a record share of member purchases, a reminder that the club model still monetizes fear, whether of inflation, supply disruption, or weight gain, better than most retailers. The digital channels are new levers, but the old ones still do the heavy lifting.