may 25 reuters  costco wholesale corp costo is expected to post a rise in quarterly earnings on thursday as the spending power of americans with store memberships remains largely intact even as surging inflation dents profits of major us retailers walmart inc wmtn and target corps tgtn bleak profit forecasts have left the retail industry rattled and highlighted the wariness of lowincome households to spend on discretionary goods costco however lies in a sweet spot as an average shopper at its warehouses makes much more in a year than a typical walmart and target customer and the warehouse club operators efforts to keep gas prices several cents below the national average also drives memberships the american consumer will go out of their way to save money on gas da davidson analyst michael baker told reuters the gas business drives traffic to the parking lot and then somewhere between 30 and 50 of those customers end up going into the club and buying something membership fee income forms a bulk of the profits at costco costcos smaller rival operator bjs wholesale club holdings inc bjn last week reported a quarterly profit above estimates as higherincome customers shopped more and made up for a slowdown in spending from others several chains have pointed to customers preferring lowerpriced private labels owned by stores which typically boost grocers margins to national brands the trade down will likely benefit costcos inhouse kirkland signature brand  analysts polled by refinitiv on average expect costco to earn 304 per share for the third quarter an increase of over 10 from a year earlier  costco reported samestore sales growth excluding the impacts from changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange of 122 and 87 for march and april respectively the chains third quarter typically ends in early may  the current average rating among 37 analysts is buy with none of them having a sell rating on the stock  the median price target pt is 58150 33 above tuesdays close and 3 lower from a month earlier in light of five pt cuts since walmarts results reporting by praveen paramasivam and ananya mariam rajesh in bengaluru editing by shounak dasgupta