How Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's won the pandemic
CNN
Few companies have gained more of an advantage during the pandemic than America's warehouse club giants.
During the early days of Covid, shoppers flooded into Costco, BJ's and Sam's Club — which were deemed "essential" businesses and stayed open through lockdowns — to load up on groceries and household staples such as toilet paper. Those customers are still coming 22 months later and many are buying even more stuff for their homes and families than they did before the crisis.
Millions of customers signed up for club memberships for the first time and held onto them, pushing the chains' member rolls to all-time highs.
Millions of Americans have taken to the skies, hit the road, fired up the barbecue grill and jumped into the pool this weekend to celebrate the start of summer 2024. Analysts are expecting the Memorial Day weekend to usher in yet another summer of strong consumer spending on travel and other leisure activities.