Last week Costco announced an expanded relationship with Instacart, and a new online shopping service called CostcoGrocery.
Instacart, which is currently offered at 376 U.S. Costco stores, will gradually expand to additional locations over the next year. CostcoGrocery is a service that includes about 500 nonperishable dry grocery items and provides free delivery on orders over $75.
Despite the new and expanded offerings, Costco CEO Richard Galanti admitted in a conference call with analysts that the company still prefers when shoppers visit the store, since baskets are typically much larger.
Net sales for the 17-week fourth quarter, which ended on September 3, were $41.4 billion, a 15.8% increase over the 16-week fourth quarter from fiscal 2016.