Costco’s Painful Move Shows the Cost of Relying on the Gulf, Especially as Walmart and Amazon Are Still Unaffected

Costco Wholesale Corp trailer by- Sundry Photography via iStock Costco Wholesale (COST) is known for holding prices down, so its recent move was out of the ordinary. The retailer nearly doubled the price of its Kirkland Signature full-synthetic motor oil. The 10-quart pack, which was previously priced around $30, is now being sold for $58. Costco also capped members at two packs a week and put limits on its Mobil 1 packs, too. Here's the issue that forced the price hike. Synthetic oil depends on something called Group III base oil, and the U.S. imports close to 44% of it from the Persian Gulf. Conflict in the region has made this complicated.