Costco June same-store sales up 6 pct

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Costco Wholesale Corp. <COST.O> on Thursday said June sales rose 6 percent at its stores open at least a year, slightly below Wall Street expectations, as its U.S. stores reported sluggish customer traffic.

Gasoline and fresh food sales remained solid, and a strong Canadian dollar helped boost international results, but Costco said the timing of the July 4th holiday relative to the close of the June reporting period hurt its U.S. business.

Analysts had expected the largest U.S. warehouse club operator to report a 7.3 percent gain, according to estimates gathered by Reuters.

The U.S. stores reported same-store sales growth of just 4 percent, well off the year-to-date pace of 7 percent. The international division posted a same-store sales increase of 14 percent.

Total sales for the five weeks ended July 2 rose 10 percent percent to $5.74 billion.

On a recorded message detailing its June sales performance, Costco said steep gasoline prices lifted same-store sales by nearly 2 percentage points. The retailer has gas stations at many of its 351 U.S. warehouse clubs.

The average price per gallon of gasoline was $2.87 in June, up from $2.13 a year earlier.

Costco said the timing of the July 4th holiday probably pushed some sales into the July reporting period. The holiday landed on the second day of the July period this year, compared with the first day last year. As a result, Costco said customer traffic was down slightly for June, but probably would have been flat if not for the timing issue.

Foreign currency, particularly the Canadian dollar, boosted international same-store sales. They were up 11 percent in local currencies, but 14 percent as reported.

(Additional reporting by Herbert Lash)