Costco 2011 Annual Report Download - page 46

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
The Board of Directors and Shareholders
Costco Wholesale Corporation:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Costco Wholesale Corporation
and subsidiaries as of August 28, 2011 and August 29, 2010 and the related consolidated statements
of income, equity and comprehensive income and cash flows for each of the 52-week periods ended
August 28, 2011, August 29, 2010, and August 30, 2009. These consolidated financial statements are
the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these
consolidated financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material
misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and
disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting
principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall
consolidated financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis
for our opinion.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material
respects, the consolidated financial position of Costco Wholesale Corporation and subsidiaries as of
August 28, 2011 and August 29, 2010, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for the
52-week periods ended August 28, 2011, August 29, 2010, and August 30, 2009, in conformity with
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (United States), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of August 28, 2011,
based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), and our report dated October 14,
2011 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over
financial reporting.
Seattle, Washington
October 14, 2011
44