News

Costco Travel Launches Consumer Travel Website

HyperTech Solutions' PleX® Booking Engine Powers Costco Website and Call Center

White Plains, New York - December 17, 2008 - Costco Travel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST), has just launched its U.S. consumer travel website, and with 40 million Costco members as the potential nationwide audience, the website had to be a real powerhouse. To ensure the website ran smoothly, Costco worked closely with its technology partner HyperTech Solutions to create its booking engine using HyperTech's PleX® product.

The Costco relationship with HyperTech Solutions began in 2005 when the core application was installed as the booking system for the Costco Travel call center operation. Based on the success of the PleX engine, Costco decided to base the upgrade of its consumer website on the same core PleX application and again turned to HyperTech Solutions.

"We are very happy with the HyperTech relationship and the help they have given us since 2005. Together, we were able to develop a travel website that gives our members the power to book high-quality vacation packages at the best value from the convenience of their personal computer." said Peter Gruening, general manager for Costco Travel.

"Our PleX Travel Suite product has been widely regarded as the most flexible and comprehensive travel application available in the marketplace and is the backbone for many major travel companies. We have enjoyed working with Costco to make sure that their 40 million members instantly get the best possible deals available through Costco Travel's many negotiated contracts," said Rakesh Mishra, President of HyperTech Solutions.

About Costco Wholesale Corporation

Costco currently operates 546 warehouses, including 400 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 76 in Canada, 20 in the United Kingdom, six in Korea, five in Taiwan, eight in Japan and 31 in Mexico. The Company also operates Costco Online, an electronic commerce website, at www.costco.com and at www.costco.ca in Canada. The Company plans to open an additional four new warehouses prior to the end of calendar year 2008.

About HyperTech Solutions

HyperTech Solutions is headquartered in Elmsford, NY, with offices in London. The company was founded in 1999 to serve the leisure travel industry and HyperTech's PleX application enables its travel industry customers to cost-effectively source, package and sell complex travel products. It can be configured to operate either stand-alone or integrated into a client's existing software platform. PleX is a suite of powerful Java-based applications that can provide, expand or support the technical infrastructure of selling the dynamic packaging needs of flexible independent travelers through tour operators, travel consolidators, cruise companies, online vendors and resort/hotel property managers. For more information on HyperTech Solutions please contact Tim Wright on 914-372-1313 or visit the website at www.hypertechsolutions.com