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Costco Wholesale May same-store sales up 9 percent

AP ONLINE

Posted: 2008-06-05 06:41:00

ISSAQUAH, Wash. (AP) _ Warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp. said Thursday May same-store sales rose 9 percent, which beat Wall Street expectations.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted a same-store sales increase of 6.9 percent.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, is a key indicator of retailer performance since it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.

Excluding gasoline price inflation, same-store sales would have been up 5 percent.

Total sales for the month ended June 1 increased to $5.77 billion from $5.14 billion.

For the year to date, same-store sales rose 8 percent, while total sales rose 13 percent to $52.69 billion.

Costco currently operates 537 warehouses, including 393 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 75 in Canada, 19 in the United Kingdom, six in Korea, five in Taiwan, eight in Japan and 31 in Mexico.