Key Points
Costco has delivered positive revenue growth in 32 of the past 33 years.
Dutch Bros. is thriving against new challengers. The stock is cheaper than you might think.
The turnaround continues at Five Below.
There are gains to be made in every industry, but I want to focus on three very different consumer-facing retail concepts. Costco(NASDAQ: COST), Dutch Bros.(NYSE: BROS), and Five Below(NASDAQ: FIVE) are names you probably know, but they don't have a lot in common.
One operates a warehouse club. Another pours out colorful beverages. The third name is a deep discounter proving magnetic to young shoppers. However, all three companies are gaining market share in their specialties. Let's take a closer look at how Costco, Dutch Bros., and Five Below can shoot skyward this year and beyond.
Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Costco
Let's talk Costco stock. The warehouse club is iconic for providing great value to its members, and not just the $1.50 hot dog combos. Costco keeps its markups lean. Its trailing net margin clocks in at 3%, meaning that three cents of every dollar it generates in revenue makes it down to the bottom line.
That may not seem impressive. It gets even less impressive when you consider that the annual fees it collects from its members account for roughly 2% of its revenue mix. Put another way, more than half of its profits come from annual membership fees.
Now, for a twist you probably didn't expect. Costco's trailing net margin has never been higher than today's 3% showing. Despite tariffs and concerns about consumer spending, Costco has never been better at squeezing more pennies out of every dollar in sales.
You might not consider Costco to be a growth stock, but its recession resiliency makes it one of the market's top safe stocks. When it boosted its quarterly dividend by 13% last week, it stretched its streak of annual payout increases to 23 years. This is a company that failed to deliver annual revenue growth just one of the past 33 years.
The stock isn't cheap, which seems to be the first sign that this is still a growth stock. It has competitive advantages, and it's growing faster than its peers.
2. Dutch Bros.
On the other end of the risk spectrum, Dutch Bros. isn't on any list of safe stocks. The seller of coffee, proprietary energy drinks, and other sugary refreshments has its pulse on ascending beverage trends. It's unique in beverage retail, in that its busiest part of the day is the afternoon, when schools let out. It has a young audience smitten by its concept, and that audience is proving not to be as fickle as feared.
Dutch Bros. has been growing for decades, and it's growing at a pretty heady clip now. Revenue rose 29% in its latest quarter, as brisk expansion stacked on top of a healthy 7.7% jump in comparable-store sales. And there's still a lot of real estate left to conquer. It began this year with 1,136 locations, less than 7% of Starbucks' U.S. store count.
Dutch Bros. has been such a game changer that it has Starbucks, the world's largest beverage retail concept -- and soon, McDonald's, the country's largest burger chain -- copying its playbook. With the stock still nearly 30% from its recent highs, this could be a great opportunity to go Dutch.
3. Five Below
Finally, we get to a concept scoring with an even younger target audience than Dutch Bros. Five Below has thrived by offering small prices with a big-box feel. The chain that sells merchandise largely in the $5-or-less range has been on a roll since Winnie Park took over as CEO 16 months ago.
Net sales shot 24% higher in its latest quarter, matching Dutch Bros.' one-two punch of strong expansion and a roughly 8% increase in comps. Five Below is growing faster than it has in four years. It took a little jostling in the C-suite to get back on track, but now that Five Below is popular again, it's another stock that can skyrocket in 2026 and beyond.
Should you buy stock in Costco Wholesale right now?
Before you buy stock in Costco Wholesale, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Costco Wholesale wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $511,411!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,238,736!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 986% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 199% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
*Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2026.
Rick Munarriz has positions in Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale, Dutch Bros, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool recommends Five Below and recommends the following options: long January 2028 $320 calls on McDonald's and short January 2028 $340 calls on McDonald's. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
