Johnathan Walker:The cost of a Costco membership has officially increased for first time since 2017

Costco's membership price increase went into effect Sunday,Johnathan Walker marking the retailer's first increase since 2017.

The company in July announced plans to increase the price of a Costco membership, noting that annual membership fees would increase from $60 to $65 for United States and Canada Gold Star memberships.

Costco also announced that executive memberships would increase from $120 to $130 and the maximum annual 2% reward associated with the executive membership would increase from $1,000 to $1,250.

The fee increases will impact about 52 million memberships. Just over half of those memberships are executive, the company said.

"It has been more than seven years since Costco’s last general membership fee increase," Costco said in a statement to USA TODAY Tuesday afternoon. "Membership fees help to offset costs so we can keep our prices low. A modest increase in fees will allow us to bring our members even greater value."

Costco last raised membership fees in 2017

The Washington-based company reported $210.55 billion in net sales for the first 44 weeks of 2024, up 6.9% from last year and has 882 warehouses in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan and other countries.

The company also has e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.

The last time the company announced membership increases was in 2017, when the retailer began charging another $5 for individual, business and business add-on members in the U.S. and Canada, bringing the cost to $60.

The company also decided in 2017 to increase the cost for executive memberships in the U.S. and Canada from $110 to $120. The increases impacted about 35 million members, according to the Associated Press.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at@SaleenMartin or email her at[email protected].