In late November, Costco sued the federal government to get a refund for the tariffs they’ve paid over the last year. Other companies to do so include Walmart, L’Oreal, Staples, and FedEx. The outcome of the lawsuit was contingent upon the Supreme Court’s decision as to whether Trump’s tariffs, declared under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), were legal. A few weeks ago, SCOTUS ruled that the tariffs were unconstitutional, which means the companies that sued now have grounds for a refund. What it doesn’t necessarily mean is that they are required to refund customers. While one judge has found that companies are due their money back, very little noise has been made about how ‘We The People’ will get our money back.

One company that has vowed to make it right is Costco. During an earnings call last week, Costco’s CEO didn’t need to performatively eat a hot dog for clout. Instead, he announced that if the tariff refunds come through, they’ll lower prices.

Tariffs have considerably impacted U.S. businesses since early 2025, and while possible refunds may be on some executives’ minds, Costco appears to be thinking about its customers first.

Costco CEO Ron Vachris said during an earnings call on March 5, that the company would return any recovered tariff charges to its members “through lower prices and better values.”

“As we’ve done in the past, when legal challenges have recovered charges passed on in some form to our members, our commitment will be to find the best way to return this value to our members,” Vachris added.

Despite the promise, Varchis warned that the “future impact of tariffs remains extremely fluid,” and that “it is not yet clear what the process will be, what refunds, if any, will be received, and when this will happen.”

During the same call, Costco executives said the company did not pass the full cost of tariffs to its consumers via increased prices; instead, it absorbed much of the tariff costs.

The comments from the Costco CEO come only days after a U.S. trade court judge ordered the government to begin paying potentially billions of dollars in refunds to importers who paid tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled last month were collected illegally.

[From USA Today]

I’ve been a Costco member since summer 2017, so I’ve tracked their prices for almost nine years now. The cheap rotisserie and $1.50 hot dog/soda combo are legendary, so as long as they stay the same, it really would be quite easy for Costco to raise prices on literally everything else and blame inflation, rising costs, etc. Did the price of eggs fluctuate for a while there? Yes. But, their prices rose and fell with the tide a helluva lot less than everyone else’s did. And while I’ve noticed an increase in some prices over the last year, the biggest raise has been in gas prices over the last week. At my Costco in NC, the price rose around $0.80/gallon to about $3.15.

Unlike other companies, I believe Costco will go out of their way to make things right for members. They are very good at tracking your purchases. I bet that they also have some sort of system that’s kept track of what tariffs have been passed along to their members, which would also make it easier to figure out if they’re owed a refund or not. If Costco computed these numbers and sent every member a check for what they’ve paid in tariffs, it would be excellent PR for an already beloved company. And if they can’t do that, then lowered prices and other incentives will be more than welcome.

Photos are screenshots from a Wall Street Journal interview with Vachris. Other photos credit Natalia S on Pexels