Economic Audit - Costco Wholesale Corporation

Domain: Economic Entity scope: Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) - membership warehouse-club retailer. Costco’s own sourcing (incl. Kirkland Signature private label) is in scope; third-party brands Costco merely resells are distinguished and flagged as a supplier nexus. Costco operates no warehouses in Israel. Compiled: 2026-06-21 Method: Live web search only

Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

Kirkland Signature / own-label (Costco’s own sourcing - in scope): Kirkland Signature Minoxidil Topical Solution USP 5% is manufactured by Perrigo at its Yeruham, Negev, Israel facility, per the FDA DailyMed label record; it is packaged in Allegan, Michigan and distributed by Costco.¹ Kirkland Signature Diclofenac Sodium Topical Gel 1% is similarly manufactured by Perrigo with Israeli manufacturing origin per the same database.² These are Costco’s own private-label products, so the decision to use an Israeli manufacturer is Costco’s own commercial relationship. Yeruham is within sovereign Israeli territory (pre-1967 Green Line), not occupied territory. Perrigo is a long-standing Kirkland Signature manufacturing partner across multiple OTC categories; the Israeli footprint is a subset of that broader relationship.³

Settlement-origin produce (third-party resold): Costco sells Medjool dates supplied by Mehadrin, Israel’s largest agricultural exporter; Who Profits documents Mehadrin operating a packing house in the settlement of Beka’ot in the occupied Jordan Valley with operations across additional settlements, and names Costco as a retail distribution partner.⁴⁵ Advocacy groups note roughly 60% of Israeli Medjool dates are grown in the occupied Jordan Valley.⁶ Costco has also sourced Israeli clementines seasonally - a Costco senior vice president publicly described an Israel/Spain/California rotation.⁷ Costco Business Centre Canada has listed Organic Medjool Dates with Israel among countries of origin, associated with Jordan Valley growers Hadiklaim and Mehadrin.⁸

Keter products (third-party resold): Costco Canada carries Keter Plastic garden and storage products; CJPME identifies Keter as having manufactured in the settlements of Barkan and Oranit in the occupied West Bank.⁹ These are third-party brands resold by Costco, not Kirkland Signature.

SodaStream (third-party resold): Costco sells multiple SodaStream models, confirmed on Costco’s website in April–June 2025.¹⁰ SodaStream relocated its main production from Mishor Adumim in the occupied West Bank to the Rahat/Negev area by 2019 following BDS pressure, and was acquired by PepsiCo in December 2018 for $3.2 billion;¹¹ current manufacturing is within sovereign Israeli territory. SodaStream is a third-party brand, not Kirkland Signature.

Sabra hummus (third-party resold - ownership changed): Costco historically sold Sabra, a 50/50 joint venture between PepsiCo and Israel’s Strauss Group; Costco reportedly tested replacing Sabra with the Cedar’s brand in a limited number of stores in 2024, per industry reporting.¹² Strauss Group agreed in November 2024 to divest its 50% Sabra/Obela stake to PepsiCo for approximately $244 million, making PepsiCo the sole owner;¹³ as of mid-2026 the Strauss/Israeli-equity connection is historical.

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

US Customs and Border Protection rules require goods produced in the West Bank by Israeli settlers to be labelled “West Bank” rather than “Israel”;¹⁴ no confirmed enforcement action against Costco for mislabelling settlement-origin products has been identified. Prior to SodaStream’s factory relocation, a complaint filed with the Oregon Department of Justice prompted SodaStream to label US packaging “Made in the West Bank” - a concern now moot given the 2019 relocation.¹⁵ Costco carried Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics (manufactured at the Mitzpe Shalem settlement) until February 2010, when it discontinued the line following the “Stolen Beauty” campaign; no evidence of relisting since.¹⁶¹⁷ Civil-society campaigns have documented Israeli-origin clementines and dates at Costco with origin labelling not distinguishing settlement-versus-sovereign provenance,⁶⁸ but no regulatory action against Costco for mislabelling was identified.

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

Costco (NASDAQ: COST) is a large-cap company whose top institutional shareholders are major US/global index-fund managers - Vanguard, BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, Norges Bank Investment Management, and Fisher Asset Management among others.¹⁸ No public evidence identified of Israeli sovereign wealth funds or Israeli institutional investors holding material positions beyond ordinary global index exposure (Norges Bank is Norwegian, not Israeli). Perrigo Company plc - Costco’s Kirkland Signature pharmaceutical manufacturer - is Ireland-incorporated with significant Israeli operations (Perrigo Israel, Petah Tikva); Costco’s purchasing supports Perrigo’s Israeli manufacturing base but Costco holds no equity in Perrigo.

Operational Presence & Market Activity

Costco operates approximately 924 warehouses across 14 countries as of early 2026 - US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, UK, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New Zealand; Israel is not among them, and no Costco warehouse or retail presence of any kind has been established in Israel.¹⁹ In February 2023, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote to Costco’s chairman and CEO inviting Costco to enter the Israeli consumer market to drive down retail food prices;²⁰²¹²² no public Costco response or subsequent market entry has been identified through June 2026. Reported barriers to entry include import tariffs, VAT, kosher requirements, and the concentration of the Israeli retail food market.²³

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

No public evidence identified of Costco having Israeli co-founders, board directors of Israeli nationality, Israeli joint-venture partners, or structural corporate ties to Israeli entities. Costco is a US-incorporated membership warehouse-club corporation headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, and characterises its stance as one of political neutrality.²⁴ Current and recent leadership have made no public statements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

Costco’s purchasing of Kirkland Signature pharmaceutical products manufactured at Perrigo’s Yeruham facility contributes to Perrigo’s Israeli manufacturing revenues and employment; the scale of Costco’s specific orders relative to Perrigo Israel’s total revenue is not broken out in public filings. Costco’s sourcing of settlement-origin Medjool dates from Mehadrin contributes revenue to a company with documented operations in occupied West Bank settlements,⁵ though the volume of Costco’s purchases is not publicly disclosed. Costco does not operate in Israel and does not remit profits to any Israeli entity; its economic contribution to Israel flows indirectly through supplier payments to Israeli-nexus companies (Perrigo, Mehadrin, historically Strauss Group via Sabra).

End Notes