Costco collected $5.9B in fiscal 2026 membership fees, about half of operating income, with a 92.3% U.S. and Canada renewal rate and no paid digital ads. See the numbers and five practices communicators can copy.
What the record shows after Target and Walmart scaled back DEI programs and Costco kept its own: foot traffic, sales, shareholder votes and what communications teams can decide.
Twelve sourced grocery and CPG campaigns: Chobani, Kirkland Signature, Liquid Death, Oreo, Heinz, Share a Coke, Doritos, Lay's, Dunkin', Oatly and Kraft Heinz.
Walmart owns scale. Amazon owns e-commerce. Target owns design. Costco owns value. Home Depot owns DIY. Kroger owns grocery. The first AI-visibility ranking of retailers across five engines.
The CPG shelf moved. The AI shelf is the shortlist a consumer receives when asking ChatGPT for category recommendations. The CPG Citation Stack, why NYT Food and Wirecutter set the anchor, why Reddit and Costco's community won CPG, and the brands competing well.
