Costco Now Sells Packs of Silver Coins Online as Well as Gold Bars

E-commerce sales surged 18.4 percent in the quarter, driven by strong demand for gold and silver bullion, appliances, and gift cards, the retailer said.

Shoppers exit a Costco store in Washington on May 5, 2020. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

Costco has begun selling silver coins online for the first time, a top executive has confirmed.

On its website, Costco is offering a 2024 1-ounce silver American Eagle Silver Coin in a pack of 20 for members. It also offers a 1-ounce Canada Maple Leaf Silver Coin in a pack of 25 for about $680, but those are sold out.

Costco’s finance chief, Richard Galanti, confirmed the sales of silver coins to CNN in a recent interview.

“E-commerce showed strength in several areas led by sales of gold, and very recently silver,” Mr. Galanti also told investors this past week, referring to the firm’s website sales in the quarter that ended on Feb. 18.

Costco’s e-commerce sales surged 18.4 percent in the quarter, driven by strong demand for gold and silver bullion, appliances, and gift cards, the retailer said.

In recent months, the company started selling gold bars on its website for members, and there was a rush to purchase them before they were sold.

“You’ve probably read about the fact that we’re selling 1-ounce gold bars,” Mr. Galanti said in December. “We sold over $100 million of gold during the quarter.”

Gold prices reached an all-time high of $2,164.09 this past week, while spot silver prices also have been on the rise over the past year. In the past five days, silver rose by about 1.82 percent and stands at $24.28 as of the afternoon of March 12.

Precious metals like gold and silver can be considered a hedge against inflation, which has remained elevated despite multiple Federal Reserve rate hikes. Some also consider it a safe-haven investment in anticipation of when the Fed decides to cut those rates.

“We are expecting gold to be pushed higher by a Fed easing. Also, this comes with a weaker dollar,” precious metals analyst Joni Teves of UBS bank told CNBC in February.

“Silver has been underperforming gold quite a lot. So there is a lot of catching up to do and I think the move could be quite dramatic,” she added.

Inflation

On March 12, a government report found that inflation rose again in February, which will likely force the Fed to wait before lowering interest rates.

The consumer price index, a measure of goods and services costs, increased 0.4 percent for the month and 3.2 percent from a year ago, according to the Labor Department. That was slightly ahead of what analysts had predicted.

“Inflation continues to churn above 3 percent, and once again shelter costs were the main villain,” Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, told CNBC.

“With home prices expected to rise this year and rents falling only slowly, the long-awaited fall in shelter prices isn’t coming to the rescue anytime soon. Reports like January’s and February’s aren’t going to prompt the Fed to lower rates quickly.”

Lower Revenue

Costco’s total sales were up 6 percent at $58.44 billion but missed London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) estimates of $59.16 billion, according to its quarterly report.

The company said that net sales were negatively impacted by a shift in the fiscal calendar and gasoline price deflation.

With elevated day-to-day costs hammering household budgets, customers have kept a tight lid on their spending, particularly for big-ticket, non-essential purchases such as home furnishings, sporting goods, and garden supplies, analysts have said.

In January, U.S. retail sales fell by the most in 10 months with decreases in sales of electronics and appliances as well as clothing, health, and personal care products.

However, demand for Costco’s consumables and groceries held steady. They helped the company’s comparable sales, excluding the impact of fuel and currency fluctuations, to jump 5.8 percent in the second quarter.

“The same store sales actually came out better than the street expected, which again was weird because you kind of knew what the number was heading into this year,” Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman told Reuters.

Reuters contributed to this report.