코스트코(COST) 리스크 요인 변화

이번 보고서

2026 연차보고서

10-K · 기간 말 2026. 8. 30. · 제출 2026. 10. 6.

비교 기준

2025 연차보고서

10-K · 기간 말 2025. 8. 31.

SEC 원문 ↗

새 리스크 항목

신규 문단

수정 문단

삭제

+5%

분량 변화

AI 한국어 요약

한 줄 요약

AI 관련 리스크가 경쟁, IT 시스템, 보안, 규제 항목 곳곳에 새로 들어갔어요.

주목할 변화

신규AI 쇼핑 도구가 경쟁 구도를 바꿀 수 있음AI 도구가 소비자의 쇼핑 습관을 바꿔 경쟁이 심해질 수 있다고 적었어요. AI가 가격 정보를 틀리게 보여주거나 멤버십 가치를 제대로 반영하지 못할 수 있다는 우려도 담았어요("fail to capture the full value of our membership offering").
신규외부 AI 시스템을 통제하기 어려운 위험자율적으로 작동하는 외부 AI가 내부 통제를 우회하거나 데이터 유출을 일으킬 수 있다고 새로 적었어요("could bypass internal controls"). AI 기술을 제때 도입하지 못하면 경쟁력이 떨어질 수 있다는 문장도 추가됐어요.
강화AI 때문에 빨라진 사이버 위협AI가 공격 규모를 키우고 속도를 높여 탐지·대응 시간이 줄어들 수 있다고 했어요("reducing the time for us to detect and mitigate").
신규AI 결과물의 정확성과 지식재산권 문제AI 도구가 회원이나 직원에게 틀린 정보를 줄 수 있다고 적었어요. 생성된 콘텐츠가 남의 지식재산권을 침해하면 소송이나 규제로 이어질 수 있다는 내용도 새로 들어갔어요("inadvertently infringes upon the intellectual property rights").
신규회사 문화를 리스크 요인으로 명시멤버십 리스크 제목에 "our culture"가 추가됐어요. 회원 신뢰가 오래 이어온 문화에 크게 의존한다는 문장도 새로 들어갔어요. 인력 리스크에도 "preserving our culture"가 붙었어요.
강화적용 규제 목록에 가격·AI 추가회사가 받는 법규 분야 목록에 "pricing"과 "AI"가 새로 들어갔어요.
강화무역 조치의 비용 영향을 '불리하다'고 명시예전에는 무역 조치가 일부 상품 원가에 영향을 줬다고만 했어요. 이번에는 "adversely affected"라고 방향을 분명히 적었어요.
완화경쟁사 우위 항목 축소경쟁사가 앞선 부분으로 꼽던 "greater financial resources"와 "better access to merchandise"를 뺐어요. 기술 역량과 시장 침투력만 남겼어요.

참고

팬데믹 항목은 글머리표 목록을 한 문장으로 합친 것이고 내용은 같아요. 세금 항목에서는 비소득세 조사를 받을 "수도 있다(may)"던 표현이 "일반적으로 받고 있다(generally)"로 바뀌었어요.

원문 비교

수정Our failure to maintain membership growth, loyalty, brand recognition, and our culture could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our failure to maintain membership growth, ~~loyalty~~ loyalty, brand recognition, and ~~brand recognition~~ our culture could adversely affect our results of operations.
수정Our failure to maintain membership growth, loyalty, brand recognition, and our culture could adversely affect our results of operations.
Membership loyalty and growth are essential to our business. The extent to which we achieve growth in our membership base, increase the penetration of Executive membership, and sustain high renewal rates materially influences our profitability. Achieving these metrics relies heavily on member trust and our long-standing culture focused on value, integrity, member service, and always striving to do what is right. Damage to our ~~brands~~ brands, reputation, or ~~reputation~~ culture may negatively impact comparable sales, diminish member trust, and reduce renewal rates and, accordingly, net sales and membership fee revenue, negatively impacting our results of operations.
수정Availability and performance of our IT systems are vital to our business. Failure to successfully execute IT projects and have IT systems available to our business would adversely impact our operations.
IT systems play a crucial role in conducting our business. These systems are utilized to, among other things, process a very high volume of transactions, conduct payment transactions, track and value our inventory, and produce reports critical for making business decisions. Failure or disruption of these systems could have an adverse impact on our ability to buy products and services from our suppliers, produce goods in our manufacturing plants, move products in an efficient manner to our warehouses, and sell products to our members. Given the high volume of transactions we process, it is important that we build strong resiliency to lessen disruption from events such as power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, viruses, internal or external security breaches and other cybersecurity incidents, errors by employees, extreme weather, and catastrophic events. Any debilitating failure of our critical IT systems, data centers, and backup systems would require significant investments in resources to restore services and may cause serious impairment in our business operations, including loss of business services, increased cost of moving merchandise and failure to provide service to our members. We are currently making substantial investments in technology and IT projects, including maintaining and enhancing our digital resiliency, and failure or delay in these projects could be costly and harmful to our business. We must also effectively monitor competitive technology trends, including the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). Any failure to effectively incorporate these technologies could adversely affect our ability to compete. Additionally, the autonomous nature of AI presents unique challenges, particularly regarding third-party systems which may operate in ways that are difficult to monitor. There is a risk that these autonomous systems could bypass internal controls, lack adequate third-party governance, or result in unauthorized access to data, data leakage, and non-compliance with applicable data privacy laws. These systems may also produce inaccurate outputs, leading to unintended operational decisions. Failure to deliver IT projects efficiently and effectively could result in the loss of our competitive position and adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations. Insufficient IT capacity could also impact our capacity for timely, complete and accurate financial and non-financial reporting required by law.
수정We are required to maintain the privacy and security of personal and business information amidst multiplying threat landscapes and in compliance with increasing privacy and data protection regulations globally. Failure to do so could damage our business, including our reputation with members, suppliers and employees, cause us to incur substantial additional costs, and become subject to litigation and regulatory action.
Increased security threats and more sophisticated cyber misconduct pose a risk to our systems, networks, products and services. We rely upon IT systems and networks, some of which are managed by or belong to third parties, including suppliers, partners, vendors, and service providers. Additionally, we collect, store, and process sensitive information relating to our business, members, employees, and other third parties. Operating these IT systems and networks and processing and maintaining this data in a secure manner are critical to our business operations and strategy. Remote work has also expanded possible attack surfaces. Attempts to gain unauthorized access to systems, networks, and data, both ours and third parties with whom we work, are increasing in frequency and sophistication, and in some cases, these attempts are successful. Cybersecurity attacks may range from random attempts to coordinated and targeted attacks, including sophisticated computer crimes and advanced persistent threats. Phishing attacks ~~have emerged as~~ are particularly prominent, including as vectors for ransomware attacks, which have increased in breadth and frequency. While we train our employees as part of our security efforts, that training cannot be completely effective. The rapid evolution of AI has automated and accelerated the scale of cybersecurity threats, potentially reducing the time for us to detect and mitigate potential information security incidents. If our security infrastructure fails to keep pace with these evolving threats, it could lead to more frequent or sophisticated compromises of our systems, networks, or data, adversely affecting our operations and member confidence. These threats pose a risk to the security of our systems and networks and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our data. Our IT systems and networks, or those managed by third parties such as cloud providers or suppliers that otherwise host or have access to confidential information, periodically have vulnerabilities, which may go unnoticed for a period of time. Our logging capabilities, or the logging capabilities of third parties, are also not always complete or sufficiently detailed, affecting our ability to fully investigate and understand the scope of security events. While our cybersecurity and compliance efforts seek to mitigate such risks, there can be no guarantee that the actions and controls we and our third-party service providers have implemented and are implementing will be sufficient to protect our systems, information, or other property.
수정We are required to maintain the privacy and security of personal and business information amidst multiplying threat landscapes and in compliance with increasing privacy and data protection regulations globally. Failure to do so could damage our business, including our reputation with members, suppliers and employees, cause us to incur substantial additional costs, and become subject to litigation and regulatory action.
The potential impacts of a cybersecurity attack include reputational damage, litigation, government enforcement actions, penalties, disruption to systems and operations, unauthorized release of confidential or otherwise protected information, corruption of data, diminution in the value of our investment in IT systems, and increased cybersecurity protection and remediation costs. This could adversely affect our competitiveness, results of operations and financial condition and, critically in light of our business model, loss of member confidence. Further, the insurance coverage we maintain and indemnification arrangements with third parties may be inadequate to cover claims, costs, and liabilities relating to cybersecurity incidents. In addition, data we collect, ~~store~~ store, and process is subject to a variety of U.S. and international laws and regulations (such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, California Consumer Privacy Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and China's Personal Information Protection Act), evolving rules concerning ~~artificial intelligence,~~ AI, and other privacy and cybersecurity laws and restrictions on use of member information that may also impair our ability to utilize data, consistent with member consents and preferences, which may carry significant potential penalties for noncompliance. laws. The use of AI carries risks related to the accuracy and reliability of its outputs. If these tools provide incorrect information to our members or our employees, or if the content generated inadvertently infringes upon the intellectual property rights of third parties, it could lead to reputational damage, legal claims, and increased regulatory scrutiny. Laws and restrictions on use of member information may also impair our ability to utilize data, consistent with member consents and preferences, which may carry significant potential penalties for noncompliance.
수정Inability to attract, train and retain qualified employees could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends on the continued contributions of our employees, including members of our senior management and other key operations, IT, merchandising, and administrative personnel. Failure to identify and implement a succession plan for senior management could negatively impact our business. We must attract, ~~train~~ train, and retain a large and growing number of qualified employees, while controlling related labor ~~costs~~ costs, preserving our culture, and maintaining our core values. Our ability to control labor and benefit costs is subject to numerous internal and external factors, including regulatory changes, prevailing wage rates, union relations, and healthcare and other insurance costs. We compete with other retail and non-retail businesses for these employees and invest significant resources in training and motivating them. There is no assurance that we will be able to attract or retain highly qualified employees in the future, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
수정We face strong competition from other retailers and warehouse club operators, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The retail business is highly competitive. We compete for members, employees, sites, products and services, and in other important respects with a wide range of local, regional and national wholesalers and retailers, both in the United States and in foreign countries, including other warehouse-club operators, supermarkets, supercenters, online retailers, gasoline stations, pharmacies, hard discounters, department and specialty stores and operators selling a single category or narrow range of merchandise or services. Such retailers and warehouse club operators compete vigorously and in a variety of ways, including pricing, selection and availability, services, location, convenience, store hours, and the attractiveness, and ease of use of websites and mobile applications. The evolution of retailing in online and mobile channels has improved the ability of customers to comparison shop, which has enhanced competition. Additionally, the emergence of AI tools may change consumer shopping habits and increase the competition we face. AI may also present inaccurate pricing or product data, or fail to capture the full value of our membership offering, impacting member purchasing decisions by prioritizing immediate or inaccurate price comparison or logistics over member loyalty. Some competitors have greater ~~financial resources and~~ technology capabilities, including the faster adoption of ~~artificial intelligence, better access to merchandise,~~ AI technologies, and greater market penetration than we do. Our inability to respond effectively to competitive pressures, changes in the retail markets or customer expectations could result in lost market share and negatively affect our financial results.
수정General economic factors, domestically and internationally, may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Higher energy and gasoline costs, inflation, levels of unemployment, healthcare costs, consumer debt levels, foreign-currency exchange rates, unsettled financial markets, weaknesses in housing and real estate markets, reduced consumer confidence, changes and uncertainties related to government fiscal, monetary, and tax policies including changes in interest rates, tax rates, duties, tariffs, or other restrictions, sovereign debt crises, pandemics and other health crises, and other economic factors could adversely affect demand for our products and services, require a change in product mix, or impact the cost of or ability to purchase inventory. Additionally, trade-related actions in various countries have adversely affected the costs of some of our merchandise. The degree of our exposure is dependent on (among other things) the type of goods, rates imposed, and timing of the tariffs and policy changes. The impact to our net sales and gross margin is influenced in part by our merchandising and pricing strategies in response to potential cost increases. Higher tariffs could adversely impact our results.
수정Suppliers may be unable to timely provide us with quality merchandise at competitive prices or may fail to adhere to our high standards, resulting in adverse effects on our business, merchandise inventories, sales, and profits.
Suppliers may be unable to timely ~~supply~~ provide us with quality merchandise at competitive prices or may fail to adhere to our high standards, resulting in adverse effects on our business, merchandise inventories, sales, and ~~profit margins.~~ profits.
수정Suppliers may be unable to timely provide us with quality merchandise at competitive prices or may fail to adhere to our high standards, resulting in adverse effects on our business, merchandise inventories, sales, and profits.
Our suppliers (and those they depend upon for materials and services) are subject to risks, including labor disputes, union organizing activities, human ~~and~~ rights violations, animal ~~rights~~ welfare violations, financial liquidity, climate change, natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, environmental degradation, public health emergencies, supply ~~constraints~~ constraints, and general economic and political conditions and other risks similar to those we face that could limit their ability to timely provide us with acceptable merchandise. One or more of our suppliers might not adhere to our quality control, packaging, legal, regulatory, labor, human rights, environmental, or animal welfare standards. These deficiencies may delay or preclude delivery of merchandise to us and might not be identified before we sell such merchandise to our members. This failure could lead to recalls and litigation and otherwise damage our reputation and our brands, increase costs, and otherwise adversely impact our business.
수정Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
The emergence, severity, magnitude, and duration of global or regional health crises are uncertain and difficult to predict. A pandemic could affect certain business operations, demand for our products and services, in-stock positions, costs of doing business, availability of labor, access to inventory, supply chain operations, our ability to predict future performance, exposure to litigation, and our financial performance, among other things. Other factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the severity and duration of pandemics; evolving macroeconomic factors including general economic uncertainty, unemployment rates, and recessionary pressures; changes in labor markets affecting us and our suppliers; unknown consequences on our business performance and initiatives stemming from the substantial investment of time and other resources to the pandemic response; the pace of post-pandemic recovery; the long-term impact of the pandemic on our business, including consumer behaviors; and disruption and volatility within the financial and credit markets.
수정Changes in or failure to comply with laws and regulations could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to a wide and growing array of federal, state, ~~local~~ local, and international laws and regulations relating to (among other things), product and food safety, marketing, information security and privacy, pricing, AI, labor and employment, imports and customs, transportation, intellectual property, anti-corruption, and environmental or social matters. These laws and regulations may expand mandatory reporting, increase the scope and complexity of matters that we are required to regulate, assess, and disclose, potentially limit our sourcing flexibility, or require extensive system or other changes that could increase the cost of doing business. Failure to comply could result in harm to our members, employees, workers in the value chain, or others, significant costs to satisfy environmental compliance, remediation or compensatory requirements, or the imposition of severe penalties or restrictions on operations by governmental agencies or courts that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
수정We are subject to risks associated with the legislative, judicial, accounting, regulatory, political and economic factors specific to the places where we operate, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to risks associated with the legislative, judicial, accounting, regulatory, political and economic factors specific to the ~~countries or regions in which~~ places where we operate, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
수정We are subject to risks associated with the legislative, judicial, accounting, regulatory, political and economic factors specific to the places where we operate, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
At the end of ~~2025,~~ 2026, we operated ~~285~~ 292 warehouses outside of the U.S. (31% of all warehouse locations), and we plan to continue expanding our international operations. Future operating results internationally could be negatively affected by a variety of factors, many similar to those we face in the U.S., certain of which are beyond our control. These factors include political and economic conditions, regulatory constraints, currency regulations, policy changes, and other matters ~~in any of the countries or regions in which~~ where we operate, now or in the future. Other factors that may impact international operations include foreign trade (including tariffs and trade sanctions), monetary and fiscal ~~policies~~ policies, and the laws and regulations of the U.S. and foreign governments, agencies and similar organizations, international conflicts, and risks associated with having major facilities in locations which have been historically less stable than the U.S. Risks inherent in international operations also include, among others, the costs and difficulties of managing international operations, adverse tax consequences, and difficulty in enforcing intellectual property rights. New reporting obligations globally are increasing the cost and complexity of doing business.
수정Changes in federal, state and foreign tax rates and legislation, could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to a variety of taxes and tax collection and remittance obligations related to federal, state, and foreign jurisdictions. ~~Additionally, at~~ At any point in time, we ~~may be~~ are generally under examination for value added, sales-based, payroll, product, ~~import~~ import, or other non-income taxes. We may recognize additional tax expense, be subject to additional tax liabilities, or incur losses and penalties, due to changes in laws, regulations, administrative practices, principles, assessments by authorities, and interpretations related to tax, including tax rules in various jurisdictions. We compute our ~~income tax~~ income-tax provision based on enacted tax rates in the countries in which we operate. As tax rates vary among countries, a change in earnings attributable to the various jurisdictions in which we operate could result in an unfavorable change in our overall tax provision. Additionally, changes in the enacted tax rates or adverse outcomes in tax audits, including transfer pricing disputes, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
수정Failure or perceived failure to meet our environmental, social or governance (ESG) goals or expectations set by changing public interest and government regulation of ESG topics could result in reputational harm or adversely affect our business.
We are committed to doing what is right for the business, our members, employees, and shareholders over the long-term. Costco has set public targets and disclosed intentions for future action regarding sustainability. There are dependencies outside of our control impacting our ability to meet our goals, including but not limited to: economic conditions, ability to access technology at an appropriate cost or scale, the ability to procure sufficient clean energy at competitive market rates to meet future operational and supplier needs, unforeseen operational and implementation challenges, termination or contraction of policies or systems which support our capital investments, and collaboration with third parties. We may not make adequate and timely investments or successfully implement strategies that will effectively achieve our sustainability-related goals. Furthermore, international, federal, ~~state~~ state, and local regulatory authorities, private organizations and individuals may challenge our approach to ESG issues, including allegations that we failed in our efforts, should not have undertaken such ~~efforts~~ efforts, or that we improperly engaged other entities in our approach to ESG issues. A failure or perceived failure to meet our goals or otherwise meet evolving and diverse stakeholder expectations could lead to reputational harm. ~~For example, multiple~~ Multiple states ~~are implementing~~ have enacted or proposed extended producer responsibility laws ~~that will require~~ requiring us to enact policies and processes and will increase expenses in the form of fees paid to the state governments, ~~else be~~ or subject us to fines and penalties, among other effects.
문장 삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
Other factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to:
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•The severity and duration of pandemics;
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•Evolving macroeconomic factors, including general economic uncertainty, unemployment rates, and recessionary pressures;
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•Changes in labor markets affecting us and our suppliers;
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•Unknown consequences on our business performance and initiatives stemming from the substantial investment of time and other resources to the pandemic response;
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•The pace of post-pandemic recovery;
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•The long-term impact of the pandemic on our business, including consumer behaviors; and
삭제Pandemics and other health crises could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.
•Disruption and volatility within the financial and credit markets.
사소We are highly dependent on the financial performance of our U.S. and Canadian operations.
Our financial and operational performance is highly dependent on our U.S. and Canadian operations, which comprised 86% and ~~84%~~ 83% of net sales and operating income in ~~2025.~~ 2026. Within the U.S., we are highly dependent on our California operations, which comprised 26% of U.S. net sales in ~~2025.~~ 2026. Our California market, in general, has a larger percentage of higher volume warehouses as compared to our other domestic markets. Any substantial slowing or sustained decline in these operations could materially adversely affect our business and financial results. Declines in financial performance of our U.S. operations, particularly in California, and our Canadian operations could arise from, among other things: slow growth or declines in comparable warehouse sales (comparable sales); negative trends in operating expenses, including increased labor, healthcare, and energy costs; failing to meet targets for warehouse openings; cannibalizing existing locations with new warehouses; shifts in sales mix toward lower gross margin products; changes or uncertainties in economic conditions in our markets, including higher levels of unemployment and depressed home values; and failing to consistently provide high quality and innovative new products.
사소We are subject to payment-related risks.
We accept payments using a variety of methods, including select credit and debit cards, cash and checks, co-brand cardholder rebates, Executive member 2% reward certificates, and our shop card. As we offer new payment options to our members, we may be subject to additional rules, regulations, compliance requirements, and higher fraud losses. For certain payment methods, we pay interchange and other related acceptance fees, along with additional transaction processing fees. We rely on third parties to provide payment transaction processing services for credit and debit cards and our shop card. It could disrupt our business if these parties become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We are also subject to fee increases by these service providers.
사소Fluctuations in foreign-exchange rates may adversely affect our results of operations.
During ~~2025,~~ 2026, our international operations, including Canada, generated 27% and ~~34%~~ 35% of our net sales and operating income. Our international operations have accounted for an increasing portion of our warehouses, and we plan to continue international growth. To prepare our consolidated financial statements, we translate the financial statements of our international operations from local currencies into U.S. dollars using current exchange rates. Future fluctuations in exchange rates that are unfavorable to us may adversely affect the financial performance of our Canadian and Other International operations and have a corresponding adverse ~~period-over-period~~ effect on our results of operations. As we continue to expand internationally, our exposure to fluctuations in foreign-exchange rates may increase.