- Shoppers have a plan for avoiding tariffs: Costco.
- Warehouse club chains saw a jump in foot traffic at the end of March, according to Placer.ai.
- Costco and Sam's Club rely on store brands, which might be attractive to tariff-wary buyers.
American shoppers are flocking to stores like Costco and Walmart's Sam's Club for refuge from tariffs.
Foot traffic at those sorts of stores — known in the retail industry as "warehouse clubs" — spiked 9.7% between March 24 and March 30 on a year-over-year basis, according to location-data provider Placer.ai. Visits were down at both grocery stores and superstores for the same period.
That "indicates a possible pull forward in demand during the weeks leading up to the expected implementation of the latest tariffs — particularly at 'stock-up' retailers like warehouse clubs," R.J. Hottovy, the head of analytical research at Placer.ai, wrote in a post on Friday.
The data aren't perfect, Hottovy added, saying that they compare the last full week of March 2025 with the same week in 2024, which included higher-than-normal foot traffic as consumers shopped for an early Easter last year.
Costco did some stocking up of its own ahead of tariffs. Executives said in an earnings call last month that the retailer was bringing in extra inventory to the US to soften the blow of the duties.
Some shoppers started stockpiling essentials, such as meat and skincare products, after President Donald Trump announced a series of tariffs on goods originating everywhere from France to Vietnam at the start of this month.
On Wednesday, Trump paused many of those tariffs for 90 days. At the same time, he upped duties on imports from China to 145%, escalating the US's conflict with one of its most important trading partners.
While it's still early, other retailers have also started to see evidence of stockpiling. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Thursday that some data indicated that shoppers were pulling forward some purchases.
Warehouse club chains tend to focus on underpricing other retailers for essentials by selling items in bulk and under their own store brands instead of national ones.
"Consumers are likely to increasingly gravitate toward retailers that offer bulk purchasing, strong private-label alternatives, and everyday low prices," Placer.ai's Hottovy wrote. Those are "areas where warehouse clubs and discount grocers with robust private-label assortments excel."
