Costco offers members a lot of benefits well beyond the discounted prices in its warehouse clubs.
When you pay $60 for a Gold membership or $120 for an Executive membership (which comes with 2% cashback up to $1,000), you get access to a list of perks that range from business services to insurance, car buying, and even prescription drugs.
Costco (COST) -) does little to promote many of the perks it offers. Some of these offers appear only on the chain's website, and members may miss some really valuable ones.
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Some, like its travel service, have become famous enough that members know of them without a lot of promotion. Others, including the markets where the chain sells caskets, get a little promotional space in its warehouses.
They might not be prominent, but in Costco's warehouses members can find spaces dedicated to promoting some of the deals the chain offers through its partners.
Those can vary heavily by market. You might get access to a home-siding company at a deal price in one location and flooring services in another. The array of offers, and their ever-changing nature, is actually part of what makes being a member both valuable and fun.
Costco has a deal that few members likely know about: It makes it very easy to turn your old Apple (AAPL) -) devices into cash.
Image source: Apple
Costco's Partner Wants Your Old Apple Devices
Costco has a deal with Phobio that offers members the ability to easily trade in their old Apple devices for a gift card to the warehouse club. It's a simple process that the chain details on its website.
Enter your device’s serial number or IMEI, answer a few questions on its current condition and you'll get a quote on its trade value.
We will send pre-paid shipping supplies and packing instructions directly to your address.
Follow the instructions provided to erase your device, then pack it up, and drop it off to the courier.
When your device is received at our inspection facility, it will be inspected, data-wiped, and your trade will be ready to pay out.
You will receive your choice of Costco Shop Card or a Digital Costco Shop Card loaded with the trade-in value.
If you choose a digital card, the warehouse club will send it to you via email within 1 or 2 business days, while a physical gift card will arrive in the mail in 7 to 10 business days.
Costco Will Raise Membership Prices Soon
Costco normally raises the cost of membership about every five or six years. The chain is within that window and Chief Financial Officer Rich Galanti has said it's a question of when, not whether, it will make that move. In his comments at the company's third-quarter-earnings call, he reiterated the point but said the timing is not yet set.
"At the end of the day, with the headline being inflation, we feel very good about if we want to do it, can we do it without impacting, in any meaningful way, renewal rates or signups or anything," he said.
For now, he says it's not the right message to send to members.
"And at some point, we will. But our view right now is that we've got enough leverage out there to drive business, and we feel that it's incumbent upon us to be that beacon of light to our members in terms of holding them for right now," he added.
Costco continued to grow its membership, as it does every quarter. The chain ended fiscal Q3 with 69.1 million paid household members and 124.7 million cardholders, both up about 7% versus a year earlier.
Of that total, 31.3 million are paid Executive members, an increase of 681,000, or 57,000 per week, during the 12-week fiscal third quarter.
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