By Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, The Seattle Times

The annual membership cost to enter Costco’s big-box warehouses and stock up on bulk groceries — not to mention the free food samples — has gone up. But that’s not stopping fans from becoming or remaining loyal members.

Since September 2024, individual members in the U.S. pay $65 per year, a $5 increase from past dues. Executive memberships have been $130 per year, up from $120.

But loyalists of the Issaquah, Washington-based retailer weren’t dissuaded: 68.3 million people held individual memberships by the end of fiscal 2025 — an upsurge from 63.7 million in 2024 and 58.8 million in 2023, according to Costco’s annual report filed this month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The number of business memberships also increased to 12.7 million in 2025 from 12.5 million in 2024 and 12.2 million in 2023.

Despite the increases, the growth rate of total paid members has slowed slightly, with a 6% increase year over year, compared to a 7% increase in 2024 from 2023.

Membership loyalty and growth are essential to our business,” the company wrote in the report.

So far, it has maintained that faith. Costco boasted a membership renewal rate in the U.S. of about 92% and a global renewal rate of around 90% at the end of fiscal 2025, according to its report.

The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Lenora Good, a resident of Kennewick, has maintained her Costco membership for over 30 years. Several factors have kept her devoted to the company: the Kirkland brand, the friendly staff and “the best deal on hearing aids that I’ve found.”

She hasn’t noticed much employee turnover at her local store. Costco offers an employee stock purchase plan, so “a lot of the worker bees are part owners,” Good said. “They have more pride in what they’re doing.”

Good admits that she didn’t notice when the membership cost went up. “I’m sure I’ve gotten the $5 back in many different ways,” she added.

Costco is attracting new members, too.

“Costco membership is becoming increasingly popular for younger customers,” said David Bellinger, a director and senior analyst at Japanese investment banking and securities firm Mizuho Securities, in an email.

Bellinger estimates that nearly half of new member sign-ups are under the age of 40, with the average member age falling in the low 50s.

“This is helping to cushion the impact from lingering inflation across the board, particularly within the food category,” Bellinger said.

He said these patrons tend to sign up online, with “modestly higher churn rates,” or the rate at which a customer cancels their membership.

According to Bellinger, Costco “senior management (is) indicating this could lead to a downtick in membership renewal rates into 2026.”

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Still, at the end of fiscal year 2025, business looked good for the retailer: Net sales jumped 8%, and membership fee revenue climbed 10%, due to new sign-ups and fee increases, the report shows.

Since first opening its doors in Seattle in 1983, Costco’s empire has rapidly expanded. The number of warehouses worldwide is growing, with 914 locations recorded as of Aug. 31. That’s a jump from 890 warehouses around a year prior.

“We intend to continue to open warehouses in new markets,” the company said in the report.

Around the globe, Costco employs about 341,000 people — 5% of whom are union-represented.

But the company said it still faces competition in the industry, as “the retail business is highly competitive,” and it’s impacted by myriad economic factors, supplier issues, changes in foreign currency rates, natural disasters and stock market expectations.

The company has made a couple changes to protect its financial well-being. Costco started tightening its policies around the common practice of sharing membership cards in 2023. The next year, the company installed card scanners required for entry into its warehouses.

Though retail theft has been a worsening problem across the industry in recent years, Costco said its related security measures are paying off.

“By strictly controlling the entrances and exits and using a membership format, we believe our inventory losses (shrinkage) are well below those of typical retail operations, according to Costco’s annual report.

©2025 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By HANNA ARHIROVA, Associated Press

SHOSTKA, Ukraine (AP) — As the lights went out in her hometown, 40-year-old Zinaida Kot could not help but think about her next dialysis treatment for kidney disease. Without electricity, the machine that keeps her alive stops working.

Kot is among millions of Ukrainians who are bracing for another winter of power cuts and possibly blackouts as Russia renewed its campaign of attacks on the country’s energy grid. Analysts and officials say that this year Moscow has shifted tactics, targeting specific regions and gas infrastructure.

In some regions — mostly those closer to the front line in the east — the season of buzzing generators has started, as well as long hours of darkness with no power or water. People are once again pulling out small power stations, charging numerous power banks, and storing bottles of water in their bathrooms.

The attacks have grown more effective as Russia launches hundreds of drones, some equipped with cameras that improve targeting, overwhelming air defenses — especially in regions where protection is weaker.

The consequences are already reshaping daily life — especially for those whose survival depends on electricity. For Zinaida Kot, who has been on dialysis for seven years, this is far worse than mere discomfort.

“It is bad. We really worry when there is no electricity,” she said from her hospital bed, connected to a dialysis machine powered by a generator that staff call “not reliable enough.”

“If there’s no treatment, I would die. I would not exist.”

Blackout in Shostka

In early October, a Russian strike left the small northern town of Shostka — with a prewar population of nearly 72,000 — without electricity, water, or gas. The town lies just 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the front line in northern Sumy region. Gas service was later restored, and electricity returned for only a few hours each day.

“The situation is challenging,” said Mykola Noha, the mayor of Shostka. Electricity and water are now supplied on a schedule, available for a few hours each day. “And it really worries the residents as we can’t predict power cuts. We fix something and it gets destroyed again. This is our situation.”

Shostka hums with the low growl of generators on rain-dark asphalt, blanketed in yellow leaves. They power cafes, shops, residential buildings, and hospitals. Across town, so-called “invincibility points” offer residents a place to charge devices, warm up, and even rest on cots provided.

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The hardest days, locals say, were when there was no gas — no heat or way to cook — and people made meals over open fires in the streets.

At the local hospital, where all stoves are electric, staff built a simple wood-burning oven during the early days of Russia’s invasion, in 2022, when the town came close to occupation. And now it helps to feed at least 180 patients, said Svitlana Zakotei, 57, a nurse who oversees the patients’ meals.

The hospital has spent three weeks running on generators — a costly lifeline that burns half a ton of fuel a day, about 250,000 hryvnias ($5,973) a week, said the hospital’s chief, Oleh Shtohryn. That’s nearly as much as its usual monthly electricity bill.

Power is rationed. In the dialysis ward, lights stay dim so electricity can feed the machines that keep patients alive. One of the eight units burned out because of the blackout — a costly loss the hospital could not afford to replace soon. Still, 23 patients come daily for hourslong treatment.

Russia has new strategy to bomb the energy sites

The crisis in Shostka reflects Russia’s shifting strategy. In 2022–2023, Moscow launched waves of missiles and drones across the country to destabilize Ukraine’s national grid. This year, it is striking region by region.

The recent pattern shows heavier attacks on the Chernihiv, Sumy, and Poltava regions, while Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Dnipro face less frequent but still regular strikes.

On Tuesday, Chernihiv and part of the region were left without electricity after Russia attacked the local energy grid the night before, local officials said.

“They’ve had no success hitting the national infrastructure because it’s now much better protected and operators know how to respond,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center. “So they’ve decided to refocus and change tactics.”

Front-line regions within about 120 kilometers of combat are the most vulnerable, he said. “These are attacks on civilians who have nothing to do with the war.”

And for Ukrainian energy crews, that means fixing the same lines and stations again and again — from transmission towers to thermal plants — while enduring outages at home.

“But it’s our job. Who else would do it? Nobody else would,” said Bohdan Bilous, an electrical technician. “I want to be optimistic and prepared for any situation, but the reality is extremely cruel right now.”

Svitlana Kalysh, spokeswoman for the regional energy company in Sumy region, said proximity to the front line makes each repair crew a target. “They’re getting better at knowing how to attack,” she said of the Russians.

She explained that because of the repeated attacks and the complex nature of the damage, there are ever fewer ways to transmit and distribute electricity. However, solutions have always been found to restore power.

Bracing for the upcoming winter

At a switchyard in the Chernihiv region, all seems calm — a woman tends her cabbage patch nearby — but residents are used to the explosions which intensify each year as winter nears.

The switchyard looks like a museum of nearly four years of strikes. Along the main road lined with towering pylons, a crater in the asphalt marks one of the first attacks in 2022.

The latest strike, on Oct. 4, was far more precise and devastating. In the roof of the transformer building, there’s one neat hole near the center, and another in the wall — scars left by Shahed drones.

Sandbags around the building absorbed some shock waves but couldn’t stop a direct hit. Inside, the station is cold and dark but still operating at half capacity. Thousands of homes across Chernihiv remain without steady power.

Workers are already trying to repair the damage, but even under ideal conditions — few air raids, no new strikes — it will take weeks. Each time an alert sounds, crews must leave their posts.

“If you look at this year, it’s one of the hardest,” said Serhii Pereverza, deputy director of local energy company Chernihivoblenergo. “We hope for the best and think about alternative ways to supply our customers.”

Kharchenko noted that last year Russia lacked the capacity to launch 500 or 600 drones at once, and the smaller attacks it could mount were largely ineffective.

But this year even when several air-defense points and mobile units surround a facility, the Russians simply overwhelm them — sending about six drones at each defensive position and another 10 directly at the target.

“This year they’ve roughly tripled the scale,” he said. “They’re breaking through individual sites by sheer volume and power.”

Associated Press reporters Dmytro Zhyhinas and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Bria Shea has been named president of Xcel Energy for the company’s Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota region.

Bria Shea. (Courtesy of Xcel Energy)

Shea, joined Xcel Energy in 2008 and has held several leadership roles on the regulatory team. She most recently was regional vice president for Planning and Policy. In that role Shea led government affairs and regulatory strategy for resource, transmission and distribution planning for energy systems throughout the Upper Midwest. Xcel Energy serves customers in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

In her new role Shea will oversee strategic planning, financial results and operational outcomes as well as leading teams focused on customer, community, regulatory, legislative and government affairs.

Shea serves on the board of the Minneapolis Clean Energy Partnership and has held board positions with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and YWCA Minneapolis. She has an undergraduate degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and law degree from William Mitchell College of Law.

Shea succeeds Ryan Long, who was named executive vice president, chief legal and compliance officer, earlier this year.

Xcel Energy has 1.6 million electricity customers and 600,000 natural gas customers across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. The operating company accounts for about 40% of the company’s consolidated earnings and has a mix of energy resources, including nuclear, wind, solar and natural gas.

By JAMES POLLARD

NEW YORK (AP) — Young jobseekers, challenged by a rapidly changing labor market, are having a tough time.

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The U.S. unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-old degree holders is the highest in a dozen years outside of the pandemic. Companies are reluctant to add staff amid so much economic uncertainty. The hiring slump is especially hitting professions such as information technology that employ more college graduates, creating nightmarish job hunts for the increasingly smaller number who do complete college. Not to mention fears that artificial intelligence will replace entry-level roles.

So, Citi Foundation identified youth employability as the theme for its $25 million Global Innovation Challenge this year. The banking group’s philanthropic arm is donating a half million dollars to each of 50 groups worldwide that provide digital literacy skills, technical training and career guidance for low-income youth.

“What we want to do is make sure young people are as prepared as possible to find employment in a world that’s moving really quickly,” said Ed Skyler, Citi Head of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs.

Employer feedback suggested to Citi Foundation that early career applicants lacked the technical skills necessary for roles many had long prepared to fill, highlighting the need for continued vocational training and the importance of soft skills.

Skyler pointed to the World Economic Forum’s recent survey of more than 1,000 companies that together employ millions of people. Skills gaps were considered the biggest barrier to business transformation over the next five years. Two-thirds of respondents reported planning to hire people with specific AI skills and 40% of them anticipated eliminating jobs AI could complete.

Some grantees are responding by teaching people how to prompt AI chatbots to do work that can be automated. But Skyler emphasized it was equally important they fund efforts to impart qualities AI lacks such as teamwork, empathy, judgment and communication.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all effort where we think every young person needs to be able to code or interface with AI,” Skyler said. “What is consistent throughout the programs is we want to develop the soft skills.”

Among the recipients is NPower, a national nonprofit that seeks to improve economic opportunity in underinvested communities by making digital careers more accessible. Most of their students are young adults between the ages of 18 and 26.

NPower Chief Innovation Officer Robert Vaughn said Citi Foundation’s grant will at least double the spaces available in a program for “green students” with no tech background and oftentimes no college degree.

Considering the tech industry’s ever-changing requirements for skills and certifications, he said, applicants need to demonstrate wide-ranging capabilities both in cloud computing and artificial intelligence as well as project management and emotional intelligence.

As some entry-level roles get automated and outsourced, Vaughn said companies aren’t necessarily looking for college degrees and specialized skillsets, but AI comfortability and general competency.

“It is more now about being able to be more than just an isolated, siloed technical person,” he said. “You have to actually be a customer service person.”

Per Scholas, a no-cost technology training nonprofit, is another one of the grantees announced Tuesday. Caitlyn Brazill, its president, said the funds will help develop careers for about 600 young adults across Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago and the greater Washington, D.C area.

To keep their classes relevant, she spends a lot of time strategizing with small businesses and huge enterprises alike. Citi Foundation’s focus on youth employability is especially important, she said, because she hears often that AI’s productivity gains have forced companies to rethink entry-level roles.

Dwindling early career opportunities have forced workforce development nonprofits like hers to provide enough hands-on training to secure jobs that previously would have required much more experience.

“But if there’s no bottom rung on the ladder, it’s really hard to leap up, right?” Brazill said.

She warned that failing to develop new career pathways could hurt the economy in the long run by blocking young people from high growth careers.

Brookings Institution senior fellow Martha Ross said the fund was certainly right to focus on technology’s disruption of the labor market. But she said the scale of that disruption requires a response that is “too big for philanthropy” alone.

“We did not handle previous displacements due to automation very well,” Ross said. “We left a lot of people behind. And we now have to decide if we’re going to replicate that or not.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.