Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports October Sales Results

Costco Wholesale Corporation ("Costco") (NASDAQ: COST) today reported net sales of $5.68 billion for the month of October, the four weeks ended November 1, 2009, an increase of seven percent from $5.30 billion in the same four-week period last year.

For the first nine weeks of its reporting period ended November 1, 2009, the Company reported net sales of $12.53 billion, an increase of five percent from $11.97 billion during the similar period last year.

Comparable sales for the four-week and nine-week periods ended November 1, 2009, were as follows:

                       4 Weeks   9 Weeks
                       -------   -------

U.S.                         2%        0%
International               17%       11%

Total Company                5%        3%
                       =======   =======

The strengthening of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar had a positive impact on October's reported comparable sales, which is in contrast to the previous fourteen months, during which time such impact had been negative. Comparable sales for the four-week and nine-week periods, excluding the positive impact of foreign exchange, as well as the negative impact from gasoline deflation, were as follows:

                       4 Weeks   9 Weeks
                       -------   -------

U.S.                         3%        3%
International                7%        8%

Total Company                4%        4%
                       =======   =======

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 ID 75875022). This recorded message will be available today through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Friday, November 6, 2009.

Costco currently operates 562 warehouses, including 409 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 77 in Canada, 21 in the United Kingdom, seven in Korea, six in Taiwan, nine in Japan, 32 in Mexico and one in Australia. 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 five new warehouses (including the relocation of one warehouse to a larger and better-located facility), prior to the end of calendar 2009.

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 statements 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, uncertainties in the financial markets, 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 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.