Costco vs Hershey Company (The)
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
NASDAQ: COST warehouse club at $249.6B FY2024 revenue with 73.4M cardholders and $50B+ Kirkland Signature; 90%+ renewal rate with $65/$130 membership fee competing with Sam's Club for warehouse retail.
About
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an Issaquah, Washington-based membership warehouse club — listed on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: COST) — operating 897 warehouse locations globally (as of mid-2025) across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Australia, Spain, France, China, and Iceland, providing paid members (73.4 million cardholders representing 136.8 million authorized users as of fiscal year end 2024) with bulk merchandise, groceries, electronics, appliances, tires, optical services, pharmacy, and the Kirkland Signature private label brand at prices consistently below traditional retail channels. Costco generated $249.6 billion in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 (ended September 2024, +5% year-over-year), with membership fee revenue of $4.83 billion providing the financial foundation that enables Costco's famously low product margins.
Hershey PA chocolate and snacks (NYSE: HSY) ~$10.2B FY2024 revenue; Reese's #1 US candy brand, cocoa inflation $2.5K→$12K/MT crisis, SkinnyPop salty snacks, competing with Mars and Ferrero.
About
The Hershey Company is a Hershey, Pennsylvania-based confectionery and snacks company — publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HSY) as an S&P 500 Consumer Staples component — manufacturing and selling chocolate, candy, mints, gum, and salty snacks through iconic brands including Hershey's (chocolate bars, Kisses), Reese's (peanut butter cups — America's #1 candy brand by revenue), Kit Kat (licensed from Nestlé for the US market), York Peppermint Patties, Jolly Rancher, Ice Breakers, Skinny Pop, Dot's Pretzels, and Pirate's Booty through approximately 18,000 employees in 80+ countries. In fiscal year 2024, Hershey reported net sales of approximately $10.2 billion, with earnings per share significantly compressed by unprecedented cocoa commodity inflation: West African cocoa prices (Ghana and Ivory Coast provide 70%+ of global cocoa supply) surged from $2,500/metric ton in 2022 to over $12,000/metric ton in early 2024 — the highest prices in 50+ years — driven by El Niño-related drought and crop disease (swollen shoot disease) reducing cocoa harvests, creating a chocolate manufacturer cost crisis that Hershey absorbed through price increases and hedging while managing volume declines as consumers resisted higher candy prices. CEO Michele Buck has guided Hershey through the cocoa inflation crisis by implementing 10-15% retail price increases in 2023-2024, reformulating some lower-margin products to reduce cocoa content, and hedging cocoa commodity exposure on a rolling 12-18 month forward basis to smooth out extreme spot price volatility.
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