Yahoo Finance reports that "Costco could be on pace to have a big month of sales for May as its members along the East Coast hoard gas following the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline due to a ransomware cyberattack.
"The warehouse giant is one of the country's largest gasoline distributors, often under cutting competing gas stations on price to net a sale from its members (who are the only ones allowed to buy gas at Costco)."
The story notes that "Costco is selling higher priced petrol due to limited supplies which has the effect of lifting sales and profits. And … Costco members are probably stocking up on food and other merchandise when they go and purchase gas out of fear of running out of petrol within days."
- KC's View:
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The good news is that pipeline operations are ramping up again, and so hopefully the largely psychological reactions to the shutdown will subside, and things will return to some level of normal. That said, there is renewed awareness of supply chain vulnerabilities … a year ago it was toilet paper, and now it is gasoline.
Just life in the 21st century.
