Maybe Costco Was Right to Not Sweat Curbside Grocery Pickup

Over the course of the past few months, I've criticized Costco (NASDAQ: COST) for failing to take curbside pickup seriously. I understood the club-based retailer's thinking -- in-store shoppers spend more, and besides, most Costco stores just don't have the space needed to make the service work. Nevertheless, rivals Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Target were crushing it with curbside pickup service that looked destined to become the new norm. Ignoring the opportunity to win (or just keep) market share was simply short-sighted.

Apparently, I was wrong.

OK, there are degrees of wrongness. Walmart did gain market share by expanding its curbside pickup service during the pandemic. Costco's sales typically soared once consumers figured out how to live with the coronavirus overhang, but it's naive to suggest revenue wouldn't have grown even more had Costco made curbside pickup service available.

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Source Fool.com