the recent spike in gas prices has hurt many consumers which may seem like bad news for retailers yet one group may benefit—warehouse club discounters earlier this week costco wholesale ticker cost reported samestore sales that jumped 192 in march or 122 excluding the impact of foreign exchange and gasoline costco has been a big winner throughout the pandemic repeatedly putting up strong monthly comparable sales so in one sense the march data was just a continuation of that trend yet it also points to how gasoline could be another way for the company to win clubs like costco often offer fuel discounts as one of the perks of membership that in turn can lead shoppers to return more often than they might otherwise have to in order to fill up their tanks—and their carts as well moreover consumers understandably associate these discounters with low prices another point in their favor at a time when inflation is pushing up the costs of essentials and eating into household budgets jefferies’ stephanie wissink makes that point in her latest note “clubs are known for having the lowest prices at the pump which historically has served well for customer acquisition and driving instore sales” she writes that recent foot and search traffic trends bear that out with the former seeming to show the biggest improvements for costco and bj’s wholesale club holdings bj and the latter for bj’s and sam’s club owned by walmart wmt she expects discounthungry consumers will favor clubs estimating gas is a highsingle digit to low doubledigit percentage of sales and noting that “gas price discounts can be an attractive logic leap to justify club membership driving incremental signups” gross margins are another story wissink believes club retailers will keep their prices lower to attract and reward members which would keep margins down yet she argues that the overall benefit of attracting and retaining customers will outweigh that sacrifice and investors are more likely to focus on merchandise margins than those for gasoline anyway she reiterated buy ratings on costco bj’s and walmart  with price targets of 670 78 and 175 respectively