Gas prices shot up nationwide last quarter, and Costco became the place to ride out the sting. The warehouse giant’s fuel pumps moved record volumes as drivers chased cheaper fills, leading to long lines at many stations, including in the Bay Area. Company leaders said demand spiked so sharply that some locations needed multiple tanker deliveries a day, and that plenty of members were pulling into Costco pumps for the first time.
The surge first drew wider attention after Costco’s last Thursday's earnings call. Puget Sound Business Journal reported that the final five weeks of the quarter ranked among Costco’s top five fuel-volume weeks on record, a run that executives said also helped push more shoppers into warehouses.
What executives told investors
On the call, CEO Ron Vachris told investors that the final five weeks of the quarter became our top five volume weeks ever, citing the jump in traffic at the pumps as members hunted for lower prices. The full conversation, as published by Benzinga, details how Costco’s logistics teams ramped up deliveries, with some stations taking on fuel several times a day just to keep up.
How big is Costco’s fuel footprint
By the end of fiscal 2025, Costco was operating 747 gas stations across the country, giving the chain a fuel network built for moments exactly like this. According to the company’s Form 10-K on file with the SEC, gasoline made up roughly 10% of net sales in 2025, which helps explain why swings in fuel volume matter so much to the business.
Why drivers are lining up
Geopolitical tensions have helped push retail gas prices higher, and that has turned Costco’s lower per-gallon pricing into a bigger draw for drivers watching every dollar. KPBS reports that many motorists are willing to drive farther and wait longer for membership-only pumps, which lines up with the long queues and repeat tanker visits Costco has been seeing at some sites.
What this means for members and local retailers
Executives told investors that members who buy gas at Costco tend to spend more inside the warehouse, a pattern that can deepen loyalty and help offset the thin margins at the pump. Fortune noted those comments in its earnings coverage, and trade reporting shows Costco is also experimenting with standalone, membership-only gas stations that could shake up local convenience-store competition. C-Store Dive has detailed the early projects in Mission Viejo and Honolulu.
For shoppers, it boils down to a simple trade-off: cheaper fuel at membership pumps in exchange for the possibility of longer lines when prices spike nationally. Investors, meanwhile, will be watching to see whether this fuel-driven traffic turns into lasting membership growth, and how quickly the tariff refund claims Costco has started filing might flow through to lower prices at the pump, according to recent earnings coverage from TipRanks.
