4 Weeks 16 Weeks 52 Weeks
-------- -------- --------
US 9% 9% 6%
International 6% 11% 15%
Total Company 9% 9% 8%
======== ======== ========
The four-week 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 40 percent, as compared to the year-earlier August.
Excluding gasoline price inflation, U.S. comparable sales would have been
up 6 percent. In addition, foreign exchange rates negatively impacted
international comparable sales results. On a local currency basis,
international comparable sales increased 8 percent in August.
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 47691872). This recorded message will be available today
through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, September 5, 2008.
The Company plans to release its operating results for the fourth quarter
(16 weeks) and for the fiscal year (52 weeks) ended August 31, 2008, on
October 8, 2008. The retail sales results for the month of September will
also be announced on that date. A conference call to discuss these results
is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. (PT) that day and will be available via webcast
on www.costco.com (click on Investor Relations and "webcasts").
Costco ended its 52-week fiscal year on August 31, 2008 with 543 warehouses
in operation, including 398 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 75 in
Canada, 20 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 eight to nine new
warehouses in the first four months of fiscal 2009, prior to the end of
calendar 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