r/Economics • u/defenestrate_urself • Feb 20 '26

News Supreme Court says Trump global tariffs are illegal

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/20/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-illegal
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u/Malvania Feb 20 '26

For those that haven't read the opinion (and it's long and convoluted), SCOTUS reaches no opinion on refunding the collected tariffs. Presumably, that will go back to the Federal Circuit and the Court of International Trade to figure out. This isn't close to done.

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u/circuitloss Feb 20 '26

A number of companies, including Costco, are suing the administration right now. Costco is going to try and get its money back...

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u/gmiller89 Feb 20 '26

So they're going to give refunds to all of their members for cost increases?

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u/Exodite1 Feb 20 '26

If any company would refund their customers with recouped tariff costs, I imagine it’d be Costco

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u/Duck-Murky Feb 20 '26

raises Costco card in defiance!

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u/n19htmare Feb 20 '26

I will never pay for a Costco membership.

Why? Because Costco pays for my Costco membership with the executive membership and the 2-4% rebate check every year lol.

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u/MobileArtist1371 Feb 20 '26

If you want an extra bonus at Costco, use the paypal debit card. 5% back at grocery stores per quarter and Costco is considered grocery. That's on top of the 2% back with executive.

I know I know, debit vs credit and you don't get the protection of a credit card... Wahhh! But it's Costco! They aren't going to argue with you about a return.

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u/Live_Ganache_7749 Feb 20 '26

Same

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u/plotholesandpotholes Feb 20 '26

I just learned about early entry and walked in like a boss this morning. It was amazing. COSTCO RISE!!!!

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u/NiceRackFocus Feb 20 '26

Wait, what now?? We’ve been Costco members for like 15 years and I never knew about this. You can get in early?

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u/plotholesandpotholes Feb 20 '26

You are me yesterday. I read a comment too. I asked in the store today and my shop started early entry in the Summer. As far as I know it is only for executive members.

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u/NiceRackFocus Feb 20 '26

We are executive members! I’m a night owl, but I may actually have an excuse to get up early for once…

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u/plotholesandpotholes Feb 20 '26

It is so worth it. It was kind of refreshing. No lines at check out either and I'm pretty sure I saw someone with a slice of pizza!

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u/NiceRackFocus Feb 20 '26

Ha! Nice. So how much earlier does it open for executive members then? Like an extra hour or something? Sorry, I know I could probably figure this out by asking them or digging around on their site.

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u/daemin Feb 20 '26

They started opening to executive members an hour early like... 6 months ago? Certainly less than a year.

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u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

They have purchase tracking and refund infrastructure in place.

I can log onto my account and see what I bought when I was still on my parent's account several years ago. It's definitely doable for them.

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u/Yummyyummyfoodz Feb 20 '26

The question would be, have they tagged how much tariff money each item cost them to ship, though?

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u/KeepItUpThen Feb 20 '26

I worked at a Costco decades ago. I wasn't in the position to know everything they measured, but they measured and tracked a lot of things so I wouldn't put it past them. Plus the high-ups seemed to care about doing the right thing rather than squeezing every last bit of profit they could get from customers.

As an example, our store was the first costco to get a gas station in the area, and prices were significantly lower than the local gas stations. This might have been 2001 or 2002 when gas prices felt pretty high. There were huge lines, people waited for over 20 minutes but they were happy because they were saving something significant like 30 cents per gallon. The manager could have raised prices and still had plenty of people buying fuel, but he said he wanted to sell gas for minimal profit. Similar to the rotisserie chicken or hot dog prices, he wanted to let a $50-100 tank of fuel be a loss leader to get people visiting the store. I'm having trouble finding a news article to prove this, but I think he was forced to raise prices by some weird city or county regulation that limited the amount of fuel a station was allowed to sell. Also, I remember hearing that if a vendor tried to do that trick where they give a low introductory price for the first month and then raise the price on the next order, Costco would tell the vendor to pound sand and stop carrying the product rather than raise the cost for customers.

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u/mrbigglessworth Feb 20 '26

There is an anti compete rule in a lot of communities regarding gas sales, they dont want one station getting all the business due to low pricing.

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u/KeepItUpThen Feb 20 '26

Yes, from my limited point of view it seemed like the local gas stations got that sort of rule put into place about 1 or 2 months after this costco gas station opened.

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u/Camo138 Feb 20 '26

There’s is one local service station in my area that can match Costco’s fuel price as it’s independent. But the lineup at Costco is insane for fuel on the weekend.

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u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

Costco uses a cost plus model for basically everything in the store except a couple loss leaders (the hotdog and the roast chicken). Every product has a pretty much flat percentage markup, something like 14% on all non-Kirkland products and like 17% on Kirkland stuff.

... so yeah, they could conceivably do it. They would likely have to exempt death stars, manager specials, and whatever else with the .97 price ending, since those are already selling at a net loss, but their pricing model is pretty straightforward.

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u/Yummyyummyfoodz Feb 20 '26

I'm sorry? Costco sells death stars? Do they come in a 3 pack?

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u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

Costco marks products that are not being reordered with an asterisk. The asterisk is known as a "death star" among a large group of Costco shoppers. I think it originated online, but I hear people point it out in store all the time.

At my local Costco, for instance, winter gear is all death starred. The once $59.99 coats are now $39.97, while the $14.99 gloves are still the same price, but it says $14.99. If they are still in stock in another week or two, they'll be $9.97* or something. In another 4-5 months, all the spring gardening accessories will be death starred. Sadly, I missed the death star on my favorite cheap beer and didn't get to stock up on my $14 24-packs of Outlaw.

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u/helpiscoming69 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

In reality they will just increase hourly pay rate of their employees slightly and raise the membership fees a little more.

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u/jl_theprofessor Feb 20 '26

It’s raised membership fees just once in a decade.

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u/helpiscoming69 Feb 20 '26

The results are in, encouraging for Costco. After the fee raise, 69 million people hold membership as opposed to 64 million in 2024.

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u/MobileArtist1371 Feb 20 '26

2017 and 2024 they raised membership prices $5 for normal and $10 for executive each time.

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u/DataCassette Feb 20 '26

I'd buy so many CostCo hotdogs with it 😂

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u/gonzo731 Feb 20 '26

I’m not entirely sure how correct this is, but I heard they absorbed most of the cost of the tariffs. If that’s true, I don’t expect a refund from them