财经外刊精读 · 互动版
Costco uses US$184 million in tariff refunds to lower prices — and most firms keep the cash
2026 年 9 月 28 日 · 星期一本期：关税退款 · 零售定价 · 谁承担关税
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Costco used US$184 million in tariff refunds to cut prices, but an Atlanta Fed survey shows only 14.8% of firms plan to do the same. Importers had paid $166 billion in duties the Supreme Court struck down.
Costco UsesUS$184 Million in Tariff Refundsto Lower Prices
好市多把1.84 亿美元关税退款拿来降价
PARA 01
Costco Wholesale Corp.is usingrefunds from U.S. tariffs1to lower prices at its stores.
好市多正在把美国关税退还的税款用于下调门店售价。
PARA 02
The companysaidit received US$184 million in refunds in its fourth quarter2after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act3back in February.
The items receiving the discountsincludeproduce, meat, beverages and non-food items.
获得降价的商品包括生鲜蔬果、肉类、饮料以及非食品类商品。
Costco said the discounts cover everyday items such as produce, meat and beverages, plus non-food lines like home furnishings and hardware. Photo for illustration only.好市多表示，本轮降价覆盖生鲜蔬果、肉类、饮料等日常消费品，以及家具和五金等非食品类商品。图片为示意。配图：Unsplash 无版权图库素材，非新闻原图，仅作示意
PARA 04
“We view that as really very much as giving value back to our members for the tariff refunds that we received,”Costco chief financial officer Gary Millerchipsaidduring an earnings call on Thursday.4
“Our goalwasto make sure that we spread those as we could to items that would have the most impact for members.”
「我们的目标是确保尽可能把这些钱分散投向对会员影响最大的商品上。」
PARA 06
The US$184 million, which included US$10 million in interest,camein the quarter ended Aug. 30and represents a little more than a third of the total tariff refunds Costco expects to receive,Millerchip said.
“We intend to continue investing the majority of the dollars we receive in increased member values,”hesaid.
「我们打算继续把收到的大部分退款投入到提升会员价值上，」他说。
PARA 08
“As tariff refunds and tariff refund reinvestments are nonrecurring items5that will continue to impact our financial results in fiscal year 2027,weplan to providea similar level of information about the net impact on future quarterly earnings calls.”
Overall,Costco’s total revenuerose 11 per centto US$95.7 billion,beating expectations of US$94.86 billion.
整体来看，好市多的总营收增长 11%至 957 亿美元，高于市场预期的 948.6 亿美元。
PARA 10
During the holiday season last year,tariffsforcedCostco to thin down its non-food product line and its Christmas goodsas customers were more selective with discretionary purchases.
在去年的假日季，关税迫使好市多缩减非食品品类和圣诞商品的品种因为顾客在可选消费上变得更挑剔。
PARA 11
Costco chief executive Gary Vachrissaidthe tariff-induced product changes died off by the third quarterand this holiday season is expected to be back to normal.
“(I) feel very good about the holidays, feel very good about the buying lineup that our folks have,”hesaid.
「（我）对假日季感觉很好，对我们采购团队的选品也感觉很好，」他说。
PARA 13
The refunds trace back to the Supreme Court’s February ruling,which held that the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful.U.S. Customs and Border Protectionhad collectedUS$166 billion under them from about 330,000 importers.
Duties are paid at the border and refunded to importers: CBP collected US$166 billion from about 330,000 of them before the ruling.关税在边境缴纳，退款也由进口商领取。裁决之前，美国海关与边境保护局向约 33 万家进口商征收了 1,660 亿美元。配图：Unsplash 无版权图库素材，非新闻原图，仅作示意
PARA 14
By mid-September, the U.S. Treasuryhad issuednearly US$135 billion in refunds.Big checkswent tobig retailers, including Walmart with US$2.9 billion and Apple with US$2.2 billion.
Chart 1 | Who got the biggest tariff-refund checks (US$ billion)Basis: IEEPA tariff refunds as disclosed in company filings and earnings calls, up to mid-September 2026. Only publicly disclosed companies are shown, so this is not a full ranking of all refunds.
PARA 15
A Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta surveyfoundthat 75.2 per cent of companies plan to hold onto their windfalls,6with 52.5 per cent planning to invest in research and development or capital projects.7
Only 17.2 per centplan to pass their tariff refunds on8in the form of consumer rebates,and just 14.8 per centintend to lowerprices.
只有 17.2%计划把关税退款以消费者返现的形式转出去，而仅有 14.8%打算下调售价。
Chart 2 | What firms plan to do with their refunds (% of respondents)Basis: Atlanta Fed survey, September 2026. Firms could pick more than one option, so the total exceeds 100%.
PARA 17
The refundsrepresentan average 1.7 per cent of annual revenues,according to the Fed researchers.
这笔退款平均相当于企业年营收的 1.7%，美联储研究人员称。
PARA 18
Walmart has pledgedto use its tariff refund to cut prices,and FedEx has set up a refund portalfor eligible customers.
沃尔玛已承诺用它的关税退款来降价，而联邦快递也开设了退款通道供符合条件的客户申请。
PARA 19
Consumershave launchedclass-action lawsuits against the companies themselves.9Nike is one target: customers allege the company stands to recover the same tariff payments twice —once from consumers through higher prices,and again from the federal government through tariff refunds.
“Tariffs are collected at the border, but families pay them at checkout — and importer refunds generally do not reach consumers,”William Pletcher, litigation director at Consumer Watchdog,wrote.
“Tariffs are collected at the border, but families pay them at checkout” — who ends up with the refund is the heart of the dispute.「关税在边境征收，但买单的是结账台前的家庭」——谁最终拿到退款，是这场争议的核心。配图：Unsplash 无版权图库素材，非新闻原图，仅作示意
PARA 21
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sandershave pressedthe administrationto include consumer relief.
参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和伯尼·桑德斯已敦促政府把消费者补偿纳入方案。
PARA 22
“Without such a plan, President Trump’s reckless trade policy risks becoming nothing but a multi-billion-dollar schemeto transfer wealth from consumers to giant corporations,”theywrote.
A tax on goods crossing a border, paid by the importer when the shipment enters the country — not by the foreign government that made the goods.
Why it matters here ▸ Every dollar in this article traces back to tariffs: Costco’s US$184 million is money it had already paid at the border before the court struck the duties down.
Extended note: Who really pays a tariff — the “tariff incidence” question — depends on pricing power and how easily supply chains can be rerouted. Studies of shipment records find U.S. buyers absorb the vast majority of the cost.
2refund/ˈriːfʌnd/点击看中文解释 ↓
Money paid back to whoever paid it in the first place. In trade, a tariff refund goes to the importer of record — the firm named on the customs entry.
Why it matters here ▸ Costco’s US$184 million is exactly that: duties it had paid, returned by the U.S. Treasury after the court ruled the tariffs unlawful.
Extended note: A refund is not the same as profit. Where it lands in the accounts depends on which year the original payment was booked, which is why companies disclose whether a refund was recognised in the current period or as a prior-year adjustment.
3IEEPA/ˌaɪ iː iː piː ˈeɪ/点击看中文解释 ↓
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 U.S. law that lets a president freeze or block economic dealings with a foreign country during a declared national emergency. In February 2026 the Supreme Court held it does not authorise tariffs.
Why it matters here ▸ This is the legal hinge of the whole story: the duties were struck down under IEEPA, so the US$166 billion collected has to go back.
Extended note: When one legal basis fails, the executive switches statutes. Section 122, Section 232 and Section 301 are the usual substitutes, which is why the refund fight is far from over.
4earnings call/ˈɜːnɪŋz kɔːl/点击看中文解释 ↓
A conference call where a listed company walks analysts and journalists through its quarterly results, usually on the day they are published.
Why it matters here ▸ Both quotes in this article — Vachris on the holidays, Millerchip on the refunds — come from Costco’s quarterly earnings call, which is why the wording is so hedged.
财报电话会：上市公司在公布季报当天召开的说明会，管理层逐项讲解业绩并回答分析师提问。文章里 CEO 与 CFO 的原话都出自这场会议——这类场合措辞通常很谨慎（「我们打算」「我们计划」），因为可能被投资者和监管引用。
Extended note: On an earnings call, analysts’ questions often reveal more than management’s answers. Here the pushback was that the price cuts had not produced a visible sales bump.
5nonrecurring item/ˌnɒnrɪˈkɜːrɪŋ/点击看中文解释 ↓
A gain or a cost that is not expected to repeat, so investors look past it when judging how the underlying business is really doing.
Why it matters here ▸ Costco labels both the refunds and the price cuts “nonrecurring items” — a signal that this money is a one-off windfall, not a new source of profit.
Extended note: One-off items cut both ways: they flatter one quarter and make the next comparison harder, which is why Costco promised to keep disclosing the net impact through fiscal 2027.
6windfall/ˈwɪndfɔːl/点击看中文解释 ↓
A sudden, unexpected amount of money — literally fruit blown down by the wind, which nobody had to pick.
Why it matters here ▸ The Atlanta Fed calls the refunds a windfall for firms; the argument is whether a windfall that came out of shoppers’ pockets should simply be kept.
Extended note: How a company treats a windfall is itself information: retaining it or spending it on capex signals that management sees growth or defensive needs rather than a duty to hand it back.
7capital project/ˈkæpɪtl ˈprɒdʒekt/点击看中文解释 ↓
A long-term investment in physical assets — warehouses, machines, data centres, stores — rather than day-to-day running costs. Its spending is usually called capex.
Why it matters here ▸ In the Fed survey more than half of firms said they would put refunds into research or capital projects — spending that shows up over years, not in the price on a shelf.
Extended note: Redirecting a windfall into capex keeps it inside the company and often carries tax benefits, but it only pays off if demand follows — otherwise the asset base carries the risk.
8pass on/pɑːs ɒn/点击看中文解释 ↓
To hand a cost or a benefit along to the next party in the chain — a supplier passing costs to a retailer, or a retailer passing savings to shoppers.
Why it matters here ▸ The phrase is used in both directions here: firms raised prices to pass tariff costs on to customers, yet most now decline to pass the refunds back.
Extended note: Pass-through runs in both directions and depends on pricing power and competition. With shoppers unusually price-sensitive, retailers competing on traffic have an incentive to convert refunds into lower shelf prices.
9class action/ˌklɑːs ˈækʃn/点击看中文解释 ↓
A single lawsuit brought on behalf of a large group of people with the same complaint, instead of thousands of separate cases.
Why it matters here ▸ U.S. customers are using class actions to demand a share of the corporate refunds — the pressure point companies have so far declined to address on the call.
Extended note: Consumers argue importers stand to be made whole twice; companies counter that shoppers received the goods they paid for. Courts must decide whether the refund obligation runs to the payer of record or to the final bearer of the cost.
读后测验 · Check Your Understanding
3 道题。点选项立即判分；解析需要单独点开。
Q1How much did Costco receive in tariff refunds in its fiscal fourth quarter, and what does that amount represent?
正确答案：A
原文是 “represent about a third of what they are expecting in total”：第四财季收到 1.84 亿美元（含 1,000 万美元利息），约为预计退款总额的三分之一多一点。b 错在把它当成全部——好市多明确说这只是「首笔」，并会继续收到退款；c 把「营收 957 亿美元」与退款混为一谈；d 的 29 亿美元是沃尔玛的退款金额，与本句无关。 Millerchip said the refunds his company received in the quarter represent about a third of what they are expecting in total.Only A matches the call: the US$184 million is explicitly partial, and the other figures belong either to revenue or to a rival’s refund.
Q2According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta survey, what does the largest group of companies plan to do with their tariff refunds?
正确答案：B
调查里最大的两组是：75.2% 打算把钱留下，52.5% 计划投入研发或资本项目；只有 17.2% 打算以消费者返现的形式转出去、仅 14.8% 打算降价。所以「留下」才是占比最大的一组。a、c 都是少数公司的选择，d 与事实相反——退款本来就是财政部发给进口商的，不存在「退回」。 the survey found that 75.2 per cent of companies plan to hold onto their refunds, with 52.5 per cent planning to invest in research and development or capital projects.The headline number is 75.2% holding on, far ahead of the 14.8% who intend to lower prices — keep the two apart.
Q3What is the central criticism made by Consumer Watchdog and the two senators?
正确答案：C
普莱彻的原话点得很明白：「关税在边境征收，但买单的是结账台前的家庭——而进口商拿到的退款通常到不了消费者手里。」沃伦与桑德斯进一步称，这可能沦为「把财富从消费者转到巨型企业」的数十亿美元级财富转移。a 不是本文的争点（争议在归谁、不在快慢）；b 文章没有评价好市多降价幅度；d 与事实相反——他们正是以裁决成立为前提，要求政府把补偿延伸到消费者。 Tariffs are collected at the border, but families pay them at checkout — and importer refunds generally do not reach consumers.The grievance is about who ends up with the money, not how fast it moves: importers claim and receive the refund, while households that paid higher prices get nothing.
