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Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports August Sales Results

Costco Wholesale Corporation ("Costco") (NASDAQ: COST) today reported net sales of $4.84 billion for the month of August, the four weeks ended September 2, 2007, an increase of 6 percent from $4.56 billion in the same four-week period last year.

Net sales for the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter, the sixteen weeks ended September 2, 2007, were $20.06 billion, an increase of 3 percent from $19.50 billion in the seventeen-week fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 ended September 3, 2006.

Net sales for the 52-week fiscal year 2007 were $63.06 billion, an increase of 7 percent from $58.96 billion in the 53-week fiscal year 2006 ended September 3, 2006.

Comparable sales for the four-week retail-reporting month of August, the 16-week fourth quarter and the 52-week fiscal year 2007 are as follows:

               4 Weeks      16 Weeks      52 Weeks
               -------      --------      --------
US                1%           4%            5%
International     8%           9%            9%

Total Company     2%           5%            6%

Additional discussion of these sales results is available on a pre-recorded telephone message. You can access the recording by dialing 1-800-642-1687 (conference 15757641). This recorded message will be available today through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, September 7, 2007.

Costco ended its 52-week fiscal year on September 2, 2007 with 518 warehouses in operation, including 383 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 71 in Canada, 19 in the United Kingdom, five in Korea, four in Taiwan, six in Japan and 30 in Mexico. The Company also operates Costco Online, an electronic commerce web site, at www.costco.com and at www.costco.ca in Canada. The Company plans to open an additional 14 to 15 new warehouses, including the relocation of four warehouses to larger and better-located facilities, in the first four months of fiscal 2008, prior to the end of calendar year 2007.

Certain statements contained in this document and the pre-recorded telephone message constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For these purposes, forward-looking statements are those that address activities, events, conditions or developments that the Company expects or anticipates may occur in the future. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, domestic and international economic conditions including exchange rates, the effects of competition and regulation, consumer and small business spending patterns and debt levels, conditions affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real estate, actions of vendors, rising costs associated with employees (including health care and workers' compensation costs), rising costs associated with the acquisition of merchandise (including the direct and indirect effects of the rising cost of petroleum-based products and fuel and energy costs), geopolitical conditions, and other risks identified from time to time in the Company's public statements and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.