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Costco is expanding across the country and the globe this year.
The wholesale retailer plans to open 24 stores this fiscal year and relocate three others, Insider reported. Of the new locations, 15 will be in the U.S. and nine will be international, including a third and fourth location in China.
Costco currently operates 847 stores, 583 of which are in the United States and Puerto Rico.
Costco CFO Richard Galanti announced the news of the additional stores during a company earnings call on Thursday. According to Galanti, seven of the new stores opened in the first quarter of Costco's fiscal year, which began on September 1 and ended on November 20. Galanti said the rest of the openings will be spread out over the rest of the year.
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"We plan three more in (the second quarter), four in (the third quarter) and 10 (in the fourth quarter)," Galanti said, per Insider.
The announcement by the company comes almost immediately after Costco reported slightly lower earnings than Wall Street expected for the first fiscal quarter of 2023. Although analysts predicted earnings per share of $3.12, they were $3.07 for the first 12 weeks of fiscal 2023. Earnings per share for the same quarter last year were $2.99.
