Cramer’s Morning Take: Costco 12/16/25

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus. With customizable tools and charts you can access across all your devices. Try our most powerful trading platform yet at fidelity.com/traderplus. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC. Member NYSE, SIPC.

Before the trophy and bragging rights are rightfully yours, before your sleeper turns in a season no one saw coming. Before stats and projections turn into points on the board, and your lineup falls perfectly into place. You flip the lid on a can of on-nicotine pouches. And as you make your first pick, you know, this is the season where fantasy is going to surpass reality. It's on. Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Jim Cramer (0:47)

Hey, it's Cramer, and this is my morning take on the market from today's CNBC Investing Club morning meeting.

Jeff Marks (0:55)

We made a tough move in the portfolio today. One that shouldn't be a surprise based on what you wrote on Sunday. Took a trim of Costco, cut the position in half. Not an early call, but companies struggling here with renewal rates, very unlike Costco. Some of it is due to higher churn from their online customers, which tend to renew at a lower rate. It's a younger cohort. Maybe they're not visiting the stores, and they don't see all the great prices and deals that they have to offer. But when you have a high multiple stock, you really can't have any flies in the ointment to your story. Until they fix this, and they said it's going to be a few more quarters.

Jim Cramer (1:33)

I think the CFO, it sounds like a very pedestrian CFO on a call, nothing really to write home about. And he makes, he does a classic car, he says that the consumer is choiceful. And that's a canard. What that means is that your prices are too high. To blame, that's blaming the consumer on looking at labels and thinking, I'm not gonna buy that. No, cut your damn prices. And that's what Costco should be doing right now. It should be fighting inflation. Only Walmart's fighting inflation. Only Walmart is in there doing the right thing. I thought the quarter was a bit of an embarrassment, because I don't want to hear once again that young people don't want it, but young people everywhere else are searching for every single bargain in the world. But they're not searching at Costco. Young people are legendary in points, legendary in keeping their budget down, legendary in not spending a lot of money on liquor. But no, they aren't resigning with Costco. That's execution. And I'm not used to seeing poor execution from this great company.

Jeff Marks (2:34)

Yeah.

Jim Cramer (2:36)

Start your day with my outbook on the market every morning. Visit cnbc.com/morningtake to become a CNBC Investing Club member at a special rate today.

SPEAKER_4 (2:47)

All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast and in connection with the CNBC Investing Club are solely Cramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC Universal, or their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Cramer on television, radio, internet, or another medium. No specific outcome or profit is guaranteed in connection with your reliance upon or other use of the content from Cramer. The opinions offered in connection with this podcast and the CNBC Investing Club are not an attempt to induce any particular trading behavior, investment, or strategy. You should be aware of the risk of loss in following any strategy or investment discussed in the content from Cramer. To view the full CNBC Investing Club Disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com/investingclubdisclaimer.

SPEAKER_1 (3:34)

Before the trophy and bragging rights are rightfully yours, before your sleeper turns in a season no one saw coming, before stats and projections turn into points on the board, and your lineup falls perfectly into place, you flip the lid on a can of on-nicotine pouches. And as you make your first pick, you know, this is the season where fantasy is going to surpass reality. It's on. Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.