I Visited Costco to See How Its Early Executive Member Hours Are Going

When Costco said it would start opening early for executive members, bringing back a key perk, I had reason to be wary.

As a dad of two toddlers, 10 a.m. is practically lunchtime, so the option to do my warehouse run an hour earlier was welcome news. But I’ve also been covering this business long enough to know that this change wouldn’t be as simple as rolling open the doors.

In June, workers told me the company was making some adjustments in terms of daily scheduling and operations. They also said it wasn’t investing in additional staff hours to handle the extra time.

That raised some red flags.

“It’s going to be an absolute nightmare,” one front-end manager told me at the time.

But as the weeks have gone by, it seems that the new hours are working reasonably well — for executive members and the company.

Michael Lasser, a UBS retail analyst, said in a note earlier this month that the move could give Costco a financial lift this quarter and beyond.

A spokesperson for Costco didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story.

My colleague Talia Lakritz and I each upgraded our Gold Star memberships specifically to take advantage of the perk.

We both visited Costco several times this month during the new executive hours (she’s in New York; I’m in Wisconsin) and found well-prepared stores and quiet aisles.

Most recently, I arrived about 10 minutes before 9 a.m. Tuesday. By the time the doors rolled up, a dozen shoppers were waiting to get in.

This Costco warehouse is the longest-standing of the three in my area. Even though it’s usually very busy, it’s still surprisingly quiet compared with other big-box stores, which often have music on the loudspeakers or customer chatter as background noise.

The new executive hours are even quieter.

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There were a few signs that staff might have been unable to complete all their tasks prior to opening: a stray shopping cart full of baked goods and a floor scrubber passing down the aisles.

Other than those details, the merchandise was well stocked and pristinely organized — not the slightly disheveled look that pallets of goods can get when they’ve been picked over by bargain hunters.

By 9:30 a.m., the self-checkout area and two open checkout lanes were doing brisk business, so it would appear that an extra hour of sales each day would be good for the warehouse’s top-line results.

The earlier opening could also alleviate the traffic that the company has said is a challenge for some stores by spreading visits across more hours.

As 10 a.m. approached, I saw a few dozen shoppers waiting in the cart area until the regular member hours began.

Two store employees told me that they hadn’t noticed any major difficulties with opening the warehouse earlier and that executive members seemed to appreciate the extra time.

One worker said that some Gold Star members were less thrilled with not being allowed in but that there was an “easy solution for that.”

Costco says slightly less than half of its members are executive-tier, which costs twice as much as the standard $65-a-year level, called Gold Star.

Aside from the warehouse club’s investment in some of the perks, those membership fees are almost pure profit, so it benefits Costco when members sign up at the higher level.

Plus, executive members account for more than 73% of the company’s total sales, according to the company. That represents a second win for Costco — higher fees and higher sales.

In short, Costco seems to be sticking the landing with this change, which makes me wonder why they didn’t do it sooner.