If they were taking a loss on those items, isn't it practically a guarantee that they were doing that with VC money in order to grow their customer base either to build a sustainable business later or make them a more attractive acquisition target? Either way, I wouldn't expect it to continue. Not even after a normal acquisition, and certainly not from WalMart. WalMart (in)famously pinches every penny; they don't sustain money-losers.
It's hard to tell because their pricing strategy is so complicated with the dynamic discounts based on quantity, what else is in your cart, paying by debit card vs credit card, etc.
The items that were cheaper than Costco weren't way cheaper, maybe 5–10% less, so I considered that they may have some kind of higher level membership that I don't know about.
