All the major retailers have started using Meta’s new Threads platform — except Costco

• Threads, the latest text-based social network from Meta, just hit 100 million signups in five days.
• All of the largest retailers have activated their accounts, with the notable exception of Costco.
• It’s another way the warehouse club’s digital strategy seems to lag behind its industry peers.

Meta’s Threads, the latest alternative to Twitter, has already rocketed to more than 100 million users in just five days.

And corporate accounts from major brands are helping boost those numbers.

Indeed, all but one of the ten largest retailers, including Walmart and Kroger, have already activated their accounts — a process as simple as downloading the Threads app and logging in via an existing Instagram account.

The lone exception? Costco.

Costco’s Instagram page meanwhile has over 1.3 million followers and posts about once per day with a mix of family-friendly memes and cute snapshots of kids and pets showing the Costco lifestyle. Most often, though, posts feature a product centered in front of the looming aisles of one of its warehouses. The company’s official Facebook page has more than twice as many followers. But it seems the warehouse club has elected not to tap into that following just yet. Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are part of Meta. 

Costco did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on this story.

That’s not to say Costco doesn’t have a presence on Threads — it’s just not official. Dozens of Costco fan pages have already activated their accounts and are racking up thousands of followers.

The lack of urgency on Threads is yet another way the brand takes a slower approach to embracing new digital tools and services.

Unlike big-box competitors such as Walmart, Amazon, Target, or Home Depot, Costco’s investment in boosting its social media presence and streamlining its ecommerce operations has remained comparatively minuscule.

One reason for this could be the fact that digital sales still aren’t nearly as big of a revenue driver for Costco as for other retailers.

The company said it made about 7% of total revenue from web and app purchases in 2022. That’s about half of what Walmart reports percentage-wise for its US sales “related to eCommerce,” and far below Target’s 17% of “digitally originated” sales, per the respective companies’ earnings statements.

Plus, Costco sees far less profit from product sales than it does from memberships and in-person shopping. Costco execs know the real money comes from two things: getting people to sign up for paid memberships and getting those members to come into the warehouse where they buy a lot more stuff than they were planning to.

Unless Threads shows it can drive those two behaviors, it seems the famously frugal Costco will be content to sit this one out.

Look no further than its official Twitter account, which contains zero posts and a bio reading, “Our Twitter account is currently inactive. Stay in touch with us via Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.”