I've heard that before, but I can't see how it could be. My back-of-an-envelope calculation: Let's say I spend $1000 per year (I'm estimating low). According to the article, Costco's average markup is 11%. So they make $99.10 profit on my $1000 of spending. Let's assume that the $60 membership is 100% profit. The total profit from me is $159.10. My membership fees would be only 37% profit (60/159.10 = .37). Do vast numbers of people pay for $60 or $120 memberships and spend much less than $1000?
I've heard that before, but I can't see how it could be. My back-of-an-envelope calculation: Let's say I spend $1000 per year (I'm estimating low). According to the article, Costco's average markup is 11%. So they make $99.10 profit on my $1000 of spending. Let's assume that the $60 membership is 100% profit. The total profit from me is $159.10. My membership fees would be only 37% profit (60/159.10 = .37). Do vast numbers of people pay for $60 or $120 memberships and spend much less than $1000?