PriceSmart Opens Second Membership Warehouse in Costa Rica, Eleventh in Central America & Caribbean

SAN DIEGO, May 12, 2000 /PRNewswire/ -- PriceSmart, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSMT), ( www.pricesmart.com ) today announced its second opening in less than a year of a membership shopping warehouse in San Jose, Costa Rica. "In eleven months of operations in Costa Rica, we have acquired over 65,000 accounts representing approximately 100,000 members. Clearly Costa Rica has endorsed the PriceSmart shopping concept. We are deeply grateful to our members for their vote of confidence. We are excited about the prospects for this, our second warehouse, and for the prospects of our third Costa Rican store, scheduled to open in Heredia within the next 75 days," said Kurt May, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of PriceSmart.

Within the next 60 days, PriceSmart also plans to open its second Honduran warehouse, in Tegucigalpa, and a fourth Panamanian store, in David. PriceSmart now operates eleven membership warehouses in Central America and the Caribbean region, including warehouses in Costa Rica (2), Dominican Republic (2), El Salvador (2), Guatemala (1), Honduras (1), and Panama (3).

The Company is on schedule to meet its previously stated objective of opening 10 new locations this fiscal year, 6 of which have opened to date. PriceSmart anticipates operating 15 membership shopping warehouses in the Central American and Caribbean region by Fall 2000. The Company also licenses 4 warehouses in China and 1 warehouse in Saipan, Micronesia.

PriceSmart, headquartered in San Diego, is a volume-driven merchandise and services provider, delivering quality, value and low prices to the rapidly emerging consumer class in Central America, the Caribbean and Asia.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that might cause actual results to differ from those foreseen, including the risks detailed in the Company's SEC reports, including the Company's Form 10-K filed pursuant to the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 on November 29, 1999.

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