Costco raised its Gold Star annual membership fee to $65 in 2024. It had been $60 for the past seven years. The membership fee started at $25 in 1983. Back then, blue-collar workers earned around $11.22 an hour in compensation (wages and benefits). This puts the time price at around 2 hours and 14 minutes. Blue-collar workers earn closer to $36.92 today, putting the $65 membership time price at 1 hour and 46 minutes. Memberships are actually 21 percent cheaper today compared to 1983.

Charlie Munger from Berkshire Hathaway is supposed to have said that the membership card is an important filter:

Think about who you’re keeping out [with a membership card]. Think about the cohort that won’t give you their license and their ID and get their picture taken. . . . That cohort will have 100 percent of your shoplifters and 100 percent of your thieves.

Costco introduced its hot dog and soda combination in 1985 for $1.50. The price has not changed in 39 years. Blue-collar hourly compensation was around $12.50 an hour back then. It took 7.2 minutes to earn the money to enjoy this American treat. Today, at $36.92 an hour, it only takes 2.4 minutes. You get three combos today for the time it took to earn one back in 1985.

Costco went public on December 5, 1985. After adjusting for stock splits, the initial price was around $1.67. Today, shares are selling for around $892. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 17.47 percent. If you had invested $1,000 in Costco the same year it introduced its $1.50 deal, you would have $534,131, enough to buy 356,087 hot dog and soda combos.

Long live the entrepreneurs at Costco who make our lives so abundant.

This article was published at Gale Winds on 9/6/2024.

“According to the paper, the share of total household expenditure on food has declined substantially in rural and urban areas across all states and UTs.

‘It is the first time in modern India (post-independence) that average household spending on food is less than half the overall monthly spending of households and is a marker of significant progress,’ it said.

The paper is a comprehensive analysis of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022/23 and comparison with 2011/12.

‘Overall, there has been a significant increase in households’ average monthly per capita expenditure across rural and urban India across all states and UTs,’ the paper said, adding that the magnitude of the rise is substantial but varies across states and regions.”

From Business Standard.

“Solid-state batteries—which pack more energy into each unit of volume than current batteries and will stretch the range of electric vehicles—have long felt just out of reach. 

But they are getting close, and recent progress helps to clarify when the first models may arrive.

Samsung SDI said in March that it will produce solid-state batteries for use in high-end vehicles by 2027. The vehicles would be able to travel more than 600 miles before needing to be recharged. Samsung, based in South Korea, didn’t say which automakers would use the battery, but the company has relationships with GM, Hyundai and Stellantis.

A range of 600 miles would be roughly double the ranges of today’s most popular models.”

From Inside Climate News.

“The average worker in wealthy countries now works only about half as many hours per year as in the late 19th century.

Based on data from economic historians Michael Huberman and Chris Minns, the average worker used to work between 2,700 and 3,500 hours per year, which is about 50 to 70 hours each week.

Recently, using data from the Penn World Table, workers worked about half that amount, between 1,300 and 1,800 hours a year, or about 25 to 35 hours a week.

This decrease has come from working fewer hours each day, fewer days each week, and fewer weeks each year.”

From Our World in Data.