Costco Is Now Selling Ozempic and Wegovy, Because of Course They Are

This a story about Costco, and we’re going to start with the ironic twist, because it’s too delicious to ignore.

The warehouse chain famous for selling giant packages of muffins, supersized bags of chips, and rotisserie chickens that haven’t budged from $4.99 since the Clinton administration is now in the weight loss drug business.

Costco announced recently that it’s selling Ozempic and Wegovy — the wildly popular GLP-1 drugs that have become household names — at more than 600 of its pharmacies nationwide.

Members with a prescription will pay $499 out of pocket for a four-week supply. That’s about half the list price for Ozempic, and about two-thirds less than Wegovy’s sticker price.

If you have health insurance, the cost at the end of the day will depend on your plan.

I don’t think Costco expects to make much money — if any — on these drugs themselves. And that’s exactly why it’s such a smart move.

The membership model strikes again

If you’ve been reading my column for a while, you know I’m fascinated by Costco’s business model. It’s beautifully simple: Get people to pay an annual membership fee (at least $60), then use that recurring revenue to keep prices low on everything else.

With 85 million members paying membership fees, that’s more than $5 billion annually before Costco sells a single physical product.

This means Costco doesn’t need the same profit margins other retailers do. It can sell rotisserie chickens as loss leaders. It can cap profit margins at 15 percent on most items. It can undercut competitors on designer jeans and North Face jackets.

And now, apparently, it can sell weight loss drugs.

Meeting people where they are

“We want to make sure we offer the real, authentic Wegovy and Ozempic where patients seek care,” David Moore, president of Novo Nordisk U.S., told NBC News. “We know that Costco is a trusted brand.”

This matters because Novo Nordisk is racing to stay ahead of compound pharmacies and medical spas selling cheaper copycat versions of their drugs.

By partnering with Costco — the third-largest retailer in the world by revenue — they’re putting authentic versions where massive numbers of people already shop.

For Costco, it’s another category where they can offer something valuable that keeps members coming back. Just like they did with $7 billion worth of designer clothing that some people never even knew they sold there.

The access problem remains

Now, let’s be clear about what this doesn’t solve.

At $499 a month, these drugs are still out of reach for many of the people who need them most.

As Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale School of Medicine, pointed out:

“The people who have the greatest need for these medications are precisely the people who are in lower socioeconomic strata who have either poor insurance or no insurance.”

The Washington Post notes that Americans spent an estimated $71.7 billion on GLP-1 drugs in 2023 — a 500 percent increase compared to five years earlier.

And a 2024 survey found that 54 percent of people taking these drugs said it was somewhat or very difficult to afford them.

Costco’s $499 price matches what Novo Nordisk already offers on its website, at CVS, and at Walmart.

So the pricing isn’t revolutionary – it’s all about the distribution.

The bigger picture

It’s the same strategy that’s worked for rotisserie chickens, Kirkland Signature products, and everything else Costco does.

And it’s something every smart business owner can learn from.

The irony is just the cherry on top — or maybe the icing on the giant package of cupcakes — that the place built on selling food in bulk is now helping people eat less of it.

Or else, you can pick up some Ozempic at the same time as you get your $1.50 hot dog and soda.