Good day, and welcome to the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Costco. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tony James, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Dave. Good afternoon, everyone. I want to welcome you to the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Costco. As Dave said, I'm Tony James, Chairman of the Board. Before we get started, I want to make a few other introductions. John Sullivan, our Corporate Secretary, will be acting as Secretary for this meeting. Sole Luke, acting as Inspector of the Election, will be counting the ballots and reporting on the final vote. I will now introduce members of our terrific Board of Directors, all of whom are present on this webcast today. First is Sue Decker, founder and CEO of her own exciting startup, Rafter, and formerly President of Yahoo. Ken Denman, a partner in Sway Ventures and formerly CEO of Emotient, which was acquired by Apple. Helena Foulkes, former CEO of Hudson's Bay Company and Saks Fifth Avenue, and previously President of CVS Pharmacy.
Sally Jewell, formerly Secretary of the Interior under President Obama and previously CEO of co-op retailer REI. Jeff Raikes, founder of the Raikes Foundation, previously CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a former Senior Executive at Microsoft. John Stanton, Chairman of the hometown Seattle Mariners and a pioneer of the wireless industry in America. Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman of DocuSign and formerly CEO of Frontier Communications. And Ron Vachris, our terrific President and CEO, who you will hear more from later. And finally, for their last annual meeting as Directors of the Company, I want to mention Richard Galanti and Craig Jelinek. Richard was Executive Vice President and our former CFO. Richard joined Costco from Wall Street more than 40 years ago to help us raise funding, grow Costco, and take it public. When he joined, we had four warehouses. Now we have nearly 900.
We, of course, went public in 1985. Richard became our CFO in 1993 and joined the Board two years later in 1995. He has served as CFO until March of last year, and today is his last meeting as a Board member and an employee of Costco. Richard has been called America's number one CFO and has most likely served as CFO of a single public company longer than anyone else in America. But that may not be his greatest achievement at Costco. Even though he came from Wall Street, Richard brought with him his wit, storytelling talent, and most importantly, his personable nature, which made the hard work fun needed to make Costco what it is today. He will truly be missed. Richard, thank you. Craig Jelinek, our former CEO, who did a fantastic job leading the company for 12 years.
Last year, we said goodbye to Craig as our CEO, so I won't repeat all of that. Suffice it to say that under Craig's leadership, Costco's sales almost tripled while solidifying its status as one of the most admired companies in America. Today, we say goodbye to Craig as a Board member. Craig, again, thank you for all you have done for Costco. Costco would not be what it is today without you. I also want to say a few words about John Meisenbach, one of our former directors who died this past October. John was our director for over 36 years, from Costco's inception in 1983 until stepping down in 2020. He was a friend and advisor to Jeff Brotman and Jim Sinegal, our founders, and was a stalwart supporter of the company.
Among other things, he will also be remembered for his involvement and philanthropy here in the Seattle community. I thank him for his lasting contributions to Costco. Okay, on to business. We're going to do the formal part of the meeting first. I hope to make that efficient and relatively brief. We will then turn it over to Ron to give his presentation on the state of the company and open it up to your questions. The polls are open and will close approximately 30 seconds after the last item is presented. Only shareholders who held shares as of the record date for this meeting are entitled to vote. If you've already voted your shares, there is no need to vote again unless you wish to change your vote.
If you would like to vote your shares or change your vote, you may do so at any time while the polls are open by following the instructions on your screen. I would encourage you to do it soon, however. The record date for the meeting was the close of business on November 15th, 2024. Each shareholder of record on November 15th was mailed a notice of availability of the Proxy Statement on or about December 11th. The Proxy Statement was posted on our website on that date. Affidavits of the mailing and the posting of these materials will be attached to the minutes of this meeting. A complete list of shareholders of record entitled to vote is available for your inspection through the link on your meeting page. This list will be kept open for inspection during the entire meeting.
To conduct business, we need a quorum, and a quorum for this meeting is a majority of the shares entitled to vote. The Inspector of Election has reported that we do indeed have a quorum today. I will now review the four items put to a shareholder vote and the preliminary results of the voting. We will close the polls very shortly, so please vote now if you have not already done so. Item 1 is the election of directors. All the current Board members, except for Craig and Richard, who are not standing for reelection, have been nominated to serve again until the next annual meeting. I reviewed the nominees and each of their backgrounds in my introductory remarks. The votes show that the nominees have all been reelected with between 93% and 99% of the vote. Ratifying the selection of KPMG as our auditor is Item 2.
This item also passed with over 95% of the shares voting. Item 3, an advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's executive officers, also passed with over 94% of the shares voting. The last item, Item 4, is an item proposed by a shareholder requesting Costco to report on the risks of maintaining its employee inclusion efforts. We'll now play prerecorded statements by the shareholder proposing this resolution and a response from me explaining why we believe this proposal is not in the company's best interest. We respectfully request that you vote against this proposal.
DEI is illegal, immoral, and detrimental to shareholder value. Diversity, equity, and inclusion may sound benign on the surface, but in reality, it is weaponized language concealing a radical Marxist agenda. Take the word diverse, for example, which up until five minutes ago meant how heterogeneous a group of people is. But now, in woke speak, it's used to describe individuals belonging to specific demographic groups that are considered oppressed. Or more plainly, it just means someone who is not a straight white male. Or take equity. It very strategically sounds like equality, but it really means the polar opposite. Whereas equality in this context refers to equality of opportunity, equity means equality of outcome. And in order to have perfectly equitable outcomes across demographic groups, you have to forcibly redistribute outcomes by race and sex and therefore can't have equal opportunity.
Hiring or promoting someone or picking a supplier because of their race or sex is wrong for a number of reasons. First, because it doesn't treat that person as an individual. It sees them first as a member of a group. Second, because it automatically classifies members of some groups as victims and wrongly assumes that they can't succeed on their own merits. So DEI is actually bigoted against the people it purports to help. And lastly, it also discriminates against those who are arbitrarily deemed non-diverse by forcibly taking opportunities away from them simply because of their immutable characteristics. It shouldn't need to be said that discriminating against somebody because they're white or because they're a man is equally as abhorrent and equally as illegal as discriminating against somebody because they're black or a woman. It has always been the case that this violates civil rights law.
But in light of the recent SFFA and Muldrow decisions, it's now clear beyond a doubt that DEI is illegal. This poses litigation risks to the company. DEI also harms the company because it comes at the expense of merit. By not hiring and promoting completely irrespective of race and sex, in other words, by merit alone, the company is not always hiring or promoting the best person for the job. And anything short of that is selling the success and the future of the company short and therefore selling shareholders short. This and the fact that DEI is just morally wrong is why the company's DEI efforts need to be audited, which is what this proposal requests.
Good afternoon. This is Tony James, Chairman of Costco's Board of Directors. I will speak to the opposition of the Board to the shareholder proposal in Item 4. As we noted in the proxy statement, we believe that our commitment to making all employees feel valued and respected is consistent with the company's values and code of ethics, which include obeying the law, taking care of our employees and members, respecting our suppliers, and rewarding our shareholders. We owe our success to the more than 300,000 employees who serve our members every day.
It is important that they all feel included and appreciated and that they transmit these values to our customers, providing equal opportunities for deserving employees to advance and have successful careers at Costco without regard to gender, race, national origin, sexual preference, or other protected classifications, benefits the entire workforce generally, not any one segment, and is core to our mission. Our members are increasingly diverse, and we believe having a heterogeneous employee base that enhances members' identification with us is important. In addition, that base brings varied experiences and knowledge and provides insights into the tastes and preferences of our members. This helps us discover new and unusual items that maintain the treasure hunt excitement that is critical to our members' shopping experiences. Our position on these issues is not new.
We have always been purposefully non-political, and a welcoming workforce has been integral to the company's culture and values since its founding. Over 20 years ago, we appointed one of our most respected Executive Vice Presidents of Operations to lead our employee inclusion efforts. This carried forward the values of our founders, Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brotman, and has been a key ingredient of our success. Our commitment to inclusion, however, does not and has never included quotas or systematic preferences, nor does it mean compromising merit. The demands of our business and our steadfast commitment to serve our members mean that we cannot afford to do anything but hire and promote the most qualified individuals. Our company has a long-term proven record for promoting our executives from within and for superb execution down to the smallest details.
This unmatched culture of excellence is dependent on hiring and promoting only the best qualified individuals based on performance, ability, knowledge, and hard work. The Board of Directors, therefore, seeks your vote against the proposal. Thank you.
We will now pause to allow for any additional votes. Okay. The preliminary vote counts show that the shareholder proposal failed to pass by an overwhelming margin, with more than 98% of the shares voting against the proposal. The official business is now over. The polls are declared closed, and the inspector of election will tabulate the final votes, and the results will be reported in our 8-K, which will be filed shortly. As chair of the meeting, I now declare the official meeting adjourned. Next up is a fun video of media clips about our company over the last year, followed by a presentation by our CEO, Ron Vachris, on the year's highlights. After his presentation, Ron will address questions and comments from shareholders. Please keep your questions and comments brief because we want everyone to get a chance to get theirs in.
Others who have comments are free to address them in writing to the Corporate Secretary.
Thank you all very much for joining us, and over to you, Ron.
We picked out prizes just for you, and here's the first one. It's Costco.
This is Gold Star Membership for 50 years, along with a Costco shopping spree to get you started.
Girl, I go to Costco like twice a week. I mean, you know, with these kids. I spent so much money on food and groceries and things, and I got a big snacker, my youngest one, Lord Jesus.
What could you guys eat competitively?
Ooh.
Every Costco sample.
Which Costco sample specifically?
Every single one of them.
That's a great restaurant, by the way, Costco. I love it.
I know Costco. Costco's a very good friend of mine. I've been a Costco member since 1992 when it was Price Club. I know every item they have at Costco.
Have you ever been to Costco?
Yes.
And?
My wife loves Costco.
She does?
Yeah.
Are you able to walk freely around Costco?
She goes to Costco with my money, so I'm at Costco.
You're at the Costco?
You can find Jay Powers on the field at every Chiefs home game. The team's prime-time showdown against the Ravens was no different.
I just wanted to wear something motivating on the sidelines, you know?
It was his outfit choice that night that caught the attention of millions. ESPN posted the video.
sideline in a headset. I got that dog in me. Costco hot dog shit.
Quickly garnering 1.9 million views, thousands of shares, and hundreds of comments.
Even joking, Costco is a great place to work. They get the money and they get all the stuff.
I like Costco.
I'm a big Costco fan. Am I allowed to say that? I don't know. And there are other supermarkets. Costco is a mess. No, I'm not allowed to say it.
I did something very adult, and I joined Costco. I got a Costco membership. I'm so excited about this.
The water's warm.
So many people were DMing me this after I am taking that picture. We bought some Christmas stuff, which was very exciting. We bought pots and pans, which was also very exciting. I know. Listen to all the things I bought. Silverware. To get some samples. I did get some samples. There you go. Love it.
Excellent. Well done.
What a sucker for samples.
You told me I was going to win.
She told me I was going to win.
What do you know? I'm up 1,500. Chef Rudie out.
So help me, God. I will tell everyone your housemaid Nokia is from Costco.
All right, time for the big talk. Now we're going to begin with the TikTok trend that's highlighting the unlikely intersection of a few harsh realities these days. First, as you know, groceries are expensive. Second, people love to brag. The result, people now bragging about the groceries they've bought.
Every time I go to Costco, I black out and I spend $1,000 because I shop like I have seven kids, even though it's just me and my boyfriend.
Yeah, that's one of countless videos popping up on social media with the hashtag supermarket haul or luxury groceries. Typically, they feature people admitting to having accidentally overspent at the grocery store, but who seem utterly unapologetic about it.
I was actually shopping. I was shopping with my girlfriend. We was at Costco. I was actually getting a hot dog. Whenever I got the call, I wasn't hungry no more, so.
Have you ever wondered if your local Costco has a particular item in stock, like Jamie's eggs, and you don't want to roam its massive warehouse looking for it? Well, Costco has launched a feature on its app that allows you to search for warehouse inventory. Already, Costco's shoppers are sounding off. Some of them love it. They looked up whether their Costco had the hot dog and drink deal, which we know they always have, and then if you're a member of Costco, don't forget they have this whole travel program. You get resort upgrades, room upgrades, even shop cards to shop at Costco as a rebate, and you can go to Hawaii, Costa Rica, Fiji, some really exotic destinations for Costco members.
It's not just a big tub of mayonnaise over there at Costco.
The Costco where I'm at this morning, it's about $2.87 a gallon. You can compare that to about $3.30 a gallon at the gas station down the street. We talk about it all the time. How much can Costco, for example, really save you? It's a $65 membership, and I did the math this morning. You can save about $20 a month if you fill up at Costco, and then you can compare that with the annual fee. It's going to take about three-four months to make up that annual fee, so that might be an option for you to consider.
I think it's going to be Costco.
Yeah, they got a story. I'm going to bust some plume here.
Okay.
Because they are the single greatest inflation fighter of our time.
Costco is a retailer that will thrive in any kind of recessionary market or even a thriving market in the economy. That's why we like it. You could wait for a pullback. We just had earnings, but they're constantly a dividend grower as well. So that's another reason why we like Costco.
You like Costco too. Does it have the same AI factors going for it?
Costco's earlier in the journey. The big takeaway for Costco is it's a membership model. A lot of retention, a lot of happy customers, only 3,000 products. So back to the basics with Costco, but very much improving mobile experience, rapidly improving. The Kirkland brand is legendary too. You have also the likes of Costco, which had been a super hot stock into the middle of the year. That's one of the biggest Nasdaq 100 names.
Speaking of Costco, the wholesale retailer, solid sales in August, total traffic increasing.
Killed it.
E-commerce sales increasing.
Costco in Daytona Beach officially opening its doors this week. It is Central Florida's newest location. It's got some pretty special features. You can find the new Costco in One Daytona. It's right across from the Speedway. And inside, the theme is a nod to NASCAR. So this is a pretty big deal because this is the first Costco to open in Volusia County.
The largest wine selection in the Bay Area is now open and ready to be explored. This is inside Napa's brand new Costco. Napa's mayor attended the grand opening this morning. He says the warehouse benefits customers and the community.
It's a lot about staying off our roadways. We don't have to travel to another county to shop Costco. So we're excited that we'll reduce our carbon emissions.
Good afternoon. This is Ron Vachris, and welcome to the business update of today's meeting. I'd like to go ahead and get started. Looking at Costco today, we are now the third largest global retailer. We're the 11th in the Fortune 500. And as of January 10th, we have a $416 billion market cap. In fiscal year 2024, we achieved $250 billion in sales. We did that in our 131 million sq ft of space with an average of 147,000 sq ft per warehouse. Our new average sales per warehouse hit a new level of $260 million per warehouse. We have 322,000 outstanding employees worldwide.
Looking at our members this past year, we have 77 million households with a Costco card, 139 million cardholders. These members renew at the rate of 92.8% in the U.S. and Canada and north of 90% worldwide. We collected $4.9 billion in membership fee income over the last 12 months. Looking across the geographic layout of the company, we have 897 warehouses today doing business in 14 regions. Keys to our success is our high sales productivity. Again, as I mentioned, our sales per warehouse average at 260 million per warehouse, sales per square foot at $1,800. We have comparable sales at 5.3%, and we turn our inventory 13 times per year. Fiscal 2024 results: $249.6 billion in sales, net income of $7.3 billion, and a diluted earnings per share of $16.56 compared to $14.60 the year prior. The first quarter of fiscal 2025 is off to a strong start.
Sales in the quarter were $60.9 billion, with net income of $1,798. Diluted earnings per share in the first quarter of $4.04 compared to $3.58 the year prior. Key to our success in volume is our continued traffic. If you look from fiscal year 2010 to 2020, our traffic ran at about 3.8%, just shy of 4%. We saw the peaks and valleys through 2021 through 2023 with COVID, but have stabilized out at over 5% and a strong start to fiscal year 2025 at 5.1%. Some highlights from 2024: again, sales of $250 billion. We had 247 locations with volume exceeding $300 million. We had 49 locations with volume that exceeded $400 million. We added 29 net new warehouses to the company. We continued to invest in our employee wages. Along with our standard raises that we gave, we had a fourth quarter increase that was off cycle.
We gave back a record $9.3 billion return to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. Expansion: in fiscal year 2024, we began the year with 861 locations. We had a net new of 29 new warehouses opened up and ended the year at 890 warehouses. As we stand today, we're at 897 warehouses. Some of those locations that we've opened up: in October of 2023, we relocated our Billings, Montana location to a larger facility, bigger parking lot, larger gas station, and also an e-commerce big and bulky delivery segment on the back of the warehouse. Anchorage, Alaska is our 26th business center in the U.S. This warehouse not only serves a greater Anchorage market, but goes all the way up to the North Slope in Alaska. This building has been a great addition to our business in Alaska.
Nanjing, China is our seventh warehouse that we opened up in May of last year. Nanjing is also the first Costco in China with a gas station that has had a great reception from our members. Northwest Omaha is our third building in the greater Omaha market, again equipped with a market delivery operation at the back of the warehouse for e-commerce big and bulky deliveries. In August, we opened up our 19th location in Korea, which is Cheongna. This is a suburb of the greater Seoul market, and Okinawa, Japan, our 36th location in Japan, was opened on the island of Okinawa and has been off to a great start as well. We're often asked, have we met saturation in North America or anywhere around the world, and our answer continues to be no.
Over the next 5 to 10 years, we see at least 25 to 30 new openings a year that will be comprised of infills, new markets, international expansion, and also additions of more business centers throughout the world. Looking at our geographical footprint and where we feel we can grow, we see a road map to over 1,100 warehouses in the next 10 years, with the greatest growth coming still in North America and Asia. I'd like to move into some merchandising highlights and the successes our merchants have seen in this past year. Our jewelry and precious metal business was very strong this year. We sold 518,000 carats of diamonds and also the introduction of precious metals such as gold and silver.
This category has been a unique way for our buyers to find a way to bring new value to our members through a different segment of our jewelry business. Our fresh foods business globally has grown 7%. This is a true signature category for our company. That success was met with some of the standard items that we do so well with, such as our rotisserie chickens. We sold over 154 million chickens this last year. A great example of continuous innovation is our new sushi program that we're expanding in Canada and the U.S. This product is made daily in our warehouses, only using fresh fish and real crab and bringing a 20% value to restaurant quality sushi in the Costco warehouse. Our buyers have also introduced gourmet take-and-bake pizzas to our delis. We now have a margarita and a combo take-and-bake pizza at a 55% and 45% value.
Our pharmacy and health and beauty over-the-counter business has grown 7% this past year. Our buyers continue to find new ways to bring value in our ticket program, expanding travel, activities, restaurants, movies. We've grown over 80% this past year in the ticket program. Our buyers continue to find ways to bring member value outside the four walls of the Costco warehouse. We've been in the home improvement kiosk business but continue to innovate with new offerings such as windows and doors from Marvin or artificial turf from Shawgrass. Our buyers continue to find new ways to bring value to the member in these arenas. We continue to see new brands at Costco with suppliers such as Wrangler, Magic Spoon, Gap, Ruggable, and as I mentioned before, Infinity from Marvin. Kirkland Signature is the brand Costco's built.
Many key attributes to this brand and what we deliver to our members: we control the quality and value. We have the ability to build and create a better item. We can innovate with packaging, clean ingredients, and full traceability. Key to the Kirkland brand is ensuring global supply for the future. We average 20% value to the national brand. And most importantly, we continuously innovate in the products we offer our members. Some of those examples of newness is this year we launched the Kirkland Signature Egg Bites, two items there at $11.99 with a 20% value. Our Kirkland brand diaper that has been around for some time has been a great quality diaper, but our buyers have been able to innovate and improve this, and we will see this roll out this next year. The new value to the brand will be 31%-35%.
We'll expand the pocketed waistband to all sizes of diapers. They'll have two times the stretch in the waistbands, longer and thicker absorbent layers. And we've been listening to our members who say they want smaller packs for sizes one and two when the babies are very young. So we've downsized those packs to make sure that there's not waste. We see continuous innovation in our non-foods areas with introductions of the Shearling Slipper. The Kirkland Signature motor oil category continues to expand with a 5W-30 adding this year. And our price on Kirkland Signature Oil has gone from $38.99 90 days ago. Now we're at $35.99. And the introduction of the Kirkland Signature Iron Set that is at $4.99 with a 58% value. The next segment in our golf category. Our food and sundries business continues to be innovative and fresh with organic ghee.
Our lightly breaded chicken breast fillets have been off to a great start, along with our Kirkland Signature Tortilla Soup. The liquor category has been very strong for our brand. This past year, we launched the Kirkland Signature Mimosa that will be back again this spring. Hitting our warehouses very soon is a Kirkland Signature Vodka Soda. And in our warehouses today is a Kirkland Signature Old Fashioned with a 36% value. Often asked, does everything Kirkland work? And the answer is no. But our buyers continue to innovate and continue to strive to meet that right item that they want to deliver to our members. The beer category is a great example of that. In 2014, we launched our first Kirkland Signature Light Beer, which did okay, but our buyers were not satisfied with those sales. In 2015, they moved into the Kirkland Signature Craft Beer.
That item also did okay, but again, they were not satisfied with the results. Coming to where we are today, in 2024, we launched the Kirkland Signature Lager. This item, I think, has really hit the mark. Our members have spoken, and the sales are outstanding in this item. So very exciting to see the tenacity of the buyers continuing to work on things until they get the right item. Costco Online, we have eight full-selling websites, and we've just launched our micro-site for same-day delivery in China this past year. Our primary focus on e-commerce will be to complement the core warehouse. We want to bring greater convenience of big and bulky to our members. We've added grocery online and same-day delivery for our members. We can offer an expanded selection that we can't in the warehouse online all year round.
And we also are able to expand the treasure hunt items with new categories and new items. One of the keys to E-commerce is that we have the ability to better communicate the values of buying at Costco, such as appliances and what we offer as far as installation, haulaway, and delivery. Computers and the warranties and the technical support that we can give. And things like in tires, how we include installation, balancing, flat repairs, rotations, and warranties. The mobile app has had a great year this year. Our IT focus has been to improve this app and listen to what our members are saying. We've seen a 100% increase in our rating now to a 4.8. This app holds our digital membership card. We now have warehouse inventory available on the app. We have receipts available for warehouse, gas stations, and online purchases.
We have native search on the app as well. And we also include a warehouse finder with hours and gas prices. Costco Next, the marketplace of Costco, continues to grow. You get more of what you want with exclusive member-only values and expanded selection of goods curated by our buyers. We have redesigned the site as of October 16th. Categories are now by brand. We've updated navigation, and we've got an overall design improvement for a better user experience. We now have 100 partners on Costco Next. Categories such as exercise through NordicTrack, Travelpro luggage, Big Timber structures for patios and outdoors, and Gorilla Playsets that are quite extensive. We have 32 business centers in the company, 26 in the U.S., and we've opened now our sixth location in Canada. These offer both walk-in and delivery for our business members.
Inside our business centers, we also take care of our e-commerce fulfillment for our online two-day grocery program as well. Our business centers are quite unique to our standard warehouse. We focus deeply on categories such as food service, convenience stores, office supplies, and also volume sales such as pallet or truckloads to distributors, grocery stores, restaurants, and of the sort. Our pharmacy business, tremendous growth this past year, filling 72 million prescriptions. Some of the key attributes of our pharmacy business: along with offering prescription pickup at our warehouses, we offer prescription delivery by mail. We have same-day delivery of pharmaceutical goods and over-the-counter drugs. We have pet prescriptions that can be filled either at our warehouse or via mail. We offer a Costco member prescription discount card. Along with our standard immunization program, we also offer travel immunizations for our members.
And coming soon, we have a pharmacy pay-ahead option on our app for pickup in the pharmacy, as well as we're expanding our pharmacy pickup lockers around the world. Our optical business, 8.9 million pairs of glasses sold in fiscal year 2024. We offer frames, lenses, contact lenses, and sunglasses in optical. Eye exams are available at nearly most locations. We accept most vision insurance plans. And all of our lenses are made in-house at one of our four optical labs. And we have expanded our selection of brand-name designer frames such as Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss, Vera Wang, and Police. We sold over 900,000 units of hearing aids in fiscal year 2024. Great member values. And our food courts have hit a new record of hot dog and soda combos with over 229 million combos sold this past year.
Costco gasoline, we sold 8.1 billion gallons of fuel in the past year, and a little more about the fuel that we sell. Kirkland Signature fuel sold globally exceeds the quality requirements established by the North American top-tier fuel program, ensuring greater efficiency and cleaner burning. Costco fuel stations also use the best available pollution control technology in the regions where we do business. Globally, we've saved our members over $312 million when comparing to the lowest-priced competitor, and we currently have an expansion in place on 63 locations to better serve our members. Some exciting news effective January 19th. The standard 4% cashback reward we had on gasoline has now moved to 5% for gasoline purchased at Costco warehouses. This is in partnership with Citi Visa. Our fuel team has continued to expand into the electric vehicle charging strategy as well.
Kirkland EV charging expansion offers DC Fast Chargers for optimum member experience. We use all Costco-owned equipment in all of our facilities. We continue to focus on member value and how we improve that for charging purchases moving forward, and we will have 90 warehouses that will be equipped with charging stations by the end of the year. We sold over 11.4 million tires this past year in our Costco tire centers. Our tire centers offer tires from Michelin and Bridgestone, both premium tires. Our tire installation and services are all completed by certified technician, and we've expanded our member value. That tire prices include things such as installation, balance, nitrogen inflation, and road hazard warranty. A purchase of a tire at Costco comes also with life maintenance services and rotation and tire repair.
Costco Travel, we serve our members in four key verticals: cruises, vacation packages, rental cars, and hotels. On top of those four categories, our buyers also work with our members to develop those vacations of a lifetime. One example of that is a couple of our members purchased a $290,000 cruise this past year. A 150-night cruise starting in Fort Lauderdale that was for two adults in the Club World Owner's Suite. When our members arrived on the boat, they received a $13,000 onBoard credit. Stopped at several ports of call over the 150 days, as you can see here. And at the conclusion of the cruise, our members received a Costco shop card with a value over $25,000 as their executive members. I'm proud to report that this year, Costco took the top spot in the American Customer Satisfaction Index at 85%.
This is our first year taking the top spot. All the things I've spoken about are the products of our outstanding people. We provide good jobs, great wages, and benefits. Careers are available to all Costco employees. We've always focused on promoting from within, and everyone is included. This is a good business for our people and our members. We have 322,000 fantastic employees worldwide. 94% of those employees are benefit eligible, and 97% of those are enrolled in our benefits. Our employees are highly compensated with an average wage of greater than $30 per hour in the U.S. And we have very low turnover, less than 9% in the U.S. after the first year. We're very proud that Costco was recognized by the American Opportunity Index as the top retailer and the number two in overall amongst all industries.
As you can see, the attributes that we were recognized for, along with Costco, is a top employer in this year's index because it creates opportunities for employees to flourish in many different ways. A good example of that is our current 897 warehouse managers. 87% of these managers that are operating our buildings across the world started with the company as an hourly employee. 10% started as other managers, and only 1% of those people began with the company as a warehouse manager. We had 802 graduates worldwide in 2024, and we believe in giving back to the communities and where we do business. Our charitable contribution target is 1% of the prior year's pre-tax profit. Quality is a word that's synonymous with Costco, and it's quality in all things we do: people, our facilities, our merchandise, and our management team. Our key is we never become complacent.
We continue to innovate, and we continue to make the business better. Turning to sustainability, in December, we updated on Costco.com our sustainability commitment. This is focused on doing the right thing for our community and for the world. Digging into our four pillars of our sustainability commitment starts with our people and communities, supporting the people impacted by our business. Operations, maintaining the efficiencies in our environmentally responsible manner, in merchandising, strategically sourcing merchandise in a sustainable manner, and then concluding with our climate action plan, doing our part to address climate change and its impacts. Looking at communities, again, as I spoke earlier, 1% of our prior year pre-tax profit donated, or over $84 million in 2024. We work with organizations such as United Way and Children's Hospital, Black Economic Development Fund.
Feeding America as a strategic partner for Costco, we granted $8.5 million in grants and 138 million pounds of food and other products through our warehouses were donated in 2024, and World Vision is a vendor that has accepted 21.5 million pounds of merchandise donated with an agreement between Costco and our vendors to be repurposed somewhere in the world. Looking at operations, our focus is to remain efficient, low-cost operator. We expand our STAR Program globally to help us by remaining compliant with regulations, thereby reducing water, reducing energy, reducing waste, and reducing emissions. Turning to the merchandise, the six questions that we ask our suppliers: Can our suppliers map your supply chain? How are the people treated through that supply chain? How are the animals treated? And how is nature and biodiversity treated with a focus on water, forestry, and fisheries?
Is the best possible packaging being used for that product, bringing it to market? And what are our suppliers' emissions, and what are the plans to reduce them? Our financial position as of Q1 and fiscal year 2025: $10.9 billion in cash equivalents and short-term investments, $29.3 billion in property and equipment. We have $5.7 billion in long-term debt and $24.4 billion in stockholder equity. Turning to dividends, which were initiated in May of 2004 at $0.40 per year. We are currently at $4.64 per year and a growth rate of 13%. We've given back over $2 billion annually. Five special dividends in the last 12 years for $19.5 billion to date. Our stock repurchase program, inception, fiscal year 2005, there's been $11.5 billion in total expenditure. 135.8 million shares have been retired with an average share price of $84.77.
In fiscal year 2024, $698 million were purchased at $695 per share. Our company's annual growth since going public in 1985, net sales have grown at 12%, net income has grown at 13.3%, and the stock price has grown at 18%. The S&P 500 has grown at 9.2% annually. All the things I've talked about today follow Costco's code of ethics, which is to obey the law, take care of our members, take care of our employees, respecting our suppliers. And if we do those four things right, we will reward our shareholders. As we look ahead to our future, we're going to follow these key principles: maintaining our core values and culture, taking care of our members, taking care of our employees, and doing the right thing.
We're going to continue to innovate the business moving forward with the merchandise and services that we offer and the way we operate our business. We're going to continue to expand the warehouses worldwide, and we will continue our focus on digital growth throughout the organization. Along with Tony's earlier comments regarding Craig Jelinek and Richard Galanti, on behalf of all the employees and managers throughout the organization, we would all like to formally thank Craig and Richard for all their contributions, leadership, and hard work over the years. We wish you a happy and healthy retirement. With that, we will move to our questions and answers portion.
Ron, the first shareholder question is, what is Costco doing to reduce its dependence on single-use plastic containers?
You know, our buyer's normal protocol is to review packaging along with all the other factors of the merchandise that we buy for our members. We're always focused on what is the most effective packaging to deliver the merchandise and the best quality at the lowest possible price. Eliminating packaging and also reducing single use is a big focus of that as well. So it's part of the normal culture and the criteria of the buying process.
Next question, Ron. Costco should be a force for good. Will you please pressure Citi to stop funding oil and gas or take your business elsewhere?
As many of you know, Costco has taken important steps and has made ongoing commitments to reduce its CO2 emissions. We've engaged with Citi on the topic of climate, and we note that they've made public commitments to progress. In the meantime, we are focused on our efforts in areas that are most impactful to our business.
Next question, is the food court truly switching back to Coke products?
Yes, that is accurate. This summer, we will be converting our food court fountain business back over to Coca-Cola.
Next question, Ron, please explain the Board's stance on DE&I.
I believe all of you have heard Tony James, and he shared our statement and the statement of the Board on DEI. That, along with the overwhelming support of our shareholders' vote, really puts an answer to that question.
What is the company's plan to train, encourage, and retain quality employees?
You know, all of our managers continuously work on best training practices and how we can best bring our people on board and train them through their careers. But it has to stay as far as retention of employees. It really comes down to the careers that we offer, the outstanding pay that we provide our employees, and the industry- best benefits that are applied to our employees as well. We create opportunities for careers, not just jobs. And I think most of that's reflective in our less than nine% turnover rate with our employees after the first year of employment with Costco. But we continue to make efforts to get better in all of those areas.
Next question, Ron. What is the status of the company's discussions with the Teamsters on a new contract, and what is the company's position in those discussions?
I think to answer that question, I've got to go back a little bit in history. You know, the Price Club has had unions since its inception. After the merger of Price Club and Costco in 1993, these remained in place, these locations, and all new locations were opened up as non-union. Less than 10% of our employees are union represented today. As many of you know, last year, Costco's location in Virginia voted to join the union. That warehouse was smoothly folded into the existing national agreement covered by the other warehouses. For four decades, we maintained good relationships with the Teamsters and amicably reached many collective bargaining agreements. The current Teamsters leadership has chosen a different path. We will do what we've always done, negotiate in good faith, respect the wishes of our employees who choose to union representation, and treat all employees fairly.
We believe the terms and conditions are superior to those that other retail employers have. For one point of example is that our average wage at greater than $30 an hour is more than 50% higher than any other major retailer in the United States, along with industry- best benefits. So we will continue to negotiate fairly, and we're very confident we'll get to a good resolution.
Ron, the next question, can more healthy options be sold in the food courts and in the deli selection?
Our buying group continues to strive to find some healthy options for our food courts around the world, so yes, we're going to continue to challenge that business and continue to see if we can't bring newness and some healthy options for our members.
Next question, will Costco have another $10 a share special dividend within the next two years?
You know, there is nothing to report today on special dividends, but I can assure you that that continues to be a topic in our Board meetings, and we will continue to look at that going into the future.
The next question, wondering if you were having any supply chain issues, and if so, in which categories?
You know, the supply chain issues will ebb and flow through times. If I had to speak of something that comes to mind right now, it is the shortage that we're seeing in cocoa around the world, and then based on the avian influenza issue, eggs are also a real challenge for us in many areas. Our buyers are on top of this. They're sourcing from new areas. We're doing everything we can to take care of our members' needs, but those are two of the most prominent things that come to mind.
Ron, with the Costco stock price closing in on $1,000 per share, is the Board considering splitting the stock?
Again, on that question, we have nothing to report today as far as the stock split going. But I can tell you that it is a continued point of conversation that we have with our Board, as we normally do through our Board meetings.
Ron, in your presentation, you referenced percentage value relating to Kirkland Signature items. What does that mean?
What the percentage value means in those slides is it's a reference point to the Costco price of Kirkland Signature compared to the national brand that best compares with the item sold under the Kirkland brand. So it's a percentage of savings for our members by choosing a Kirkland item.
Ron, why did Costco stop selling books?
You know, we have greatly reduced our book selection and removed it from several warehouses across the U.S. and in other countries. It was really based on sales. I mean, our members have spoken, and it was a key category for Costco many years ago, but continues to decline, and we've had to do the responsible thing and use that space for a more relevant category for our members today. We will not completely stop selling books. We will bring in select items and bring in- and- outs of Treasure Hunt in that area. The traditional book section, as you're used to it, Costco has reduced significantly or been taken out of certain buildings. It was really a function of lack of sales.
What is your plan to address lack of adequate parking in your warehouses?
There are many different facets that we approach to try and attack parking. One is opening up warehouses nearby and what we would call cannibalizing these buildings to take some pressure off. We look at adjacent properties when we can, if we can acquire any property adjacent to that. In some of our buildings, we've put upper decks of parking and a second level out there as well. We continue to look at that along with the efficiencies in our building as how can we efficiently get our members through the process and turn over parking spaces. Many different things that we look at to ease some of the pressure on parking, and it is forefront of all of our operators' minds.
Ron, will Costco prioritize offering organic products?
You know, organic category has been a big category for us at Costco, and we always continue to look at organic offerings in all the categories, and we will continue to look for cleaner ingredient decks and organics in the certain categories that are really relevant to our members. So prioritizing, yes, we will always evaluate that. With that being said, that's all the time we have for questions. For relevant questions that could not be answered due to time constraints, we'll provide prompt responses on the investor relations section of our website with similar questions grouped together and responded to collectively. Thank everybody for your attendance, and this concludes our meeting.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.