More recently, Costco has caught investors' attention for two important reasons: Its stock has been a great pandemic play, and the company has continued to add new members quickly. Because as people spent more time at home over the past two years, some of them have relied on Costco for their household shopping needs -- for everything from desks to diapers. Costco's business still performs well when the economy is strong and inflation is low, when people are more apt to spend money on big-ticket items like big-screen TVs.