Costco Wholesale Corporation used its fourth quarter earnings report to share more about its tariff refund plan.
The Washington-based retail company previously explained that it would return the refunds to customers “in some form.”
Now, Costco CEO Ron Vachris has shared that the company received some “initial” refunds during its fourth quarter and “reinvested some of these dollars to give value back to our members.”
“This was predominantly through price reductions on a number of items in the second half of the quarter, including everyday items in produce, meat and beverages and some nonfood items such as home furnishings and hardware,” Vachris explained in a post-earnings call.
Fast Company has reached out to Costco to ask if there is any chance of direct refunds to customers. We will update this post if we hear back.
According to Costco CFO Gary Millerchip, the company received $184 million in tariff refunds during its fourth quarter—about one-third of what the company expects to receive overall.
However, by the time of the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Costco had already received about the same amount in refunds in quarter one of fiscal 2027.
How were Costco’s financial results for fiscal 2026?
Costco closed out its fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 with $2.998 billion in net income, up year-over-year (YOY) from $2.610 billion. Net income for the year also rose, reaching $9.226 billion, up from $8.099 billion last year.
The company also reported 939 stores, a net growth of 25 locations YOY.
Shares of Costco (Nasdaq: COST) were basically flat in premarket trading on Friday. The stock was up 4.91% year to date as of Thursday’s close.