Costco Is Once Again The Service Leader:
Recording Record Sales and Profits in 2026

Costco announced its 52-week fiscal year-end sales at $297.2 billion, a 10% increase of $27.3 billion. Net income was $9.226 billion.

The purpose of this newsletter is to help you understand the power of the Service Strategy. How do you rapidly grow your business through word-of-mouth advertising by delivering exceptional, awesome customer service by everyone in your organization? Costco has been a role model for over 30 years. In May 2003, I invested $1,000 in Costco. Today it is worth $40,663.

Organizations that can build a brand around superior customer service can increase the value of their business by 300% to 10,000%. Most firms in the U.S. think they deliver great service when it is average or just poor. Customer service in most parts of the world is very weak.

Costco currently operates 939 warehouses, including 647 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 115 in Canada, 43 in Mexico, 37 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 20 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, five in Spain, three in France, two in Sweden, and one each in Iceland and New Zealand. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and China.

Costco has a lifetime warranty on almost all products. I have never had a problem with any return. Quality is king, and they stand behind everything they sell. They have two live people at each checkout counter. Checking out is always fast. Sam's is owned by Walmart; a competitor is lucky to have one checkout counter with one live person. Customers today value speed, price, quality, and great service.

Price is critical to success. Costco marks up its prices by only 14%.

In my book, Relentless, I featured Costco. There are only a handful of Service Leaders. If you want rapid growth and to dramatically increase the value of your business, superior customer service is the most powerful tool you can use.