Reply With QuoteTarget is also much better than Walmart. Hell, anybody is!
Column in the NYT entitled How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart that I found pretty interesting, much to my surprise. The thing that most interested me about it was the attitude the Wall Street guys in the article seem to have toward the work force.
But not everyone is happy with Costco's business strategy. Some Wall Street analysts assert that Mr. Sinegal is overly generous not only to Costco's customers but to its workers as well.
Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."I just spent a few days in a tiny little Oklahoma town where it seemed the only place you could go to get basic staples was the Wal-Mart. And we being dunderhead first time parents, we were there every single day picking up something else we forgot. And me being a dunderhead in general, I felt guilty about shopping there every single time. Stupid liberal guilt.Emme Kozloff, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, faulted Mr. Sinegal as being too generous to employees, noting that when analysts complained that Costco's workers were paying just 4 percent toward their health costs, he raised that percentage only to 8 percent, when the retail average is 25 percent.
"He has been too benevolent," she said. "He's right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden."
It's good to be home and near Costco again. I do so heart Costco.
"Happy Halloween, Retail Rodeo shoppers. There's a Retail Rodeo special on all bulk candy on Aisle 4. Ghouls and goblins, witches and warlocks, wandering these aisles day after day...I put a Halloween curse on your hellish heads."
-Amanpour
Target is also much better than Walmart. Hell, anybody is!
Slate noted this last year during the election
Kerry = Costco
Bush = Wal-Mart
http://slate.com/id/2104988
Ladies and Gentleman, let's all take a good look at this sentence, and realize that it embodies what is wrong with corporations.One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
I thought it was this one:Originally Posted by Euri
But of course, I live in commieland, so what do I know?"He's right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden."
Over here IKEA pays like 25% higher wages than other retailers (to the lowest rung of the corporate ladder, that is). Since they're global, I wonder whether that's the case all over the world or just here?
I thought the exact same thing.
Fixed.One analyst, Bill Dreher of Douche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
Wal-Mart doesn't sell gasoline for 10 to 15 cents per gallon cheaper than anywhere else, so Costco wins.
Fixed, and with not a drop of sarcasm, either. What a jerkoff.One analyst, Bill Greyhair of Douche Bank, complained (while driving a giant sedan fueled by immolated orphan babies) last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder." He then spit in a nun's eye, and then honked at someone who had slowed down in front of him to let someone else into his lane.
Man I love Costco.
That DVD bin is nice especially considering I'm a horrible shopper and if I'm going to buy something I might as well buy enough to last me a year.
Who doesn't need a 5pack of pies? Seriously.
Here's my question, why haven't they spread?
Texas is nearly unconquered territory. I've never seen one anywhere in Texas. Sam's Clubs everywhere. Targets of course, but no Costco.
And, so far in San Diego, I've seen a Wal-Mart. Notice the singular.
Sounds like a good plan for tomorrow though.
- Explore the Costco
How much does a costco membership cost?
$45 for an annual membership for a regular household. $110 annual for businesses. But if you're anything like my parents, you easily save 10, 20, or 30 times that a year buying in bulk at Costco. Stuff that would keep a family of four or five fed easily costs 2x or 3x at a supermarket, and they've got some great, high-end brands at Costco, so you're not settling for Smelly Joe's generic cheep-o cheerio-like cereal substance.
Yeah, it's the only place you buy like a leather recliner, a 5 pack of lettuce (!), and a giant slip and slide - slide that is the size of a garage then like a mason jar of Advil.
I have a hard time thinking anyone uses everything they buy at Costco, also it looks like you are in some land of the giants with the packaging.
The gasoline discount alone pays for the membership within a few months. The only downside is that it's pretty inconvenient to only buy gas from one place and there's long lines if you go there in the afternoons on the weekends like everyone else.
But yeah, it's not going to completely replace your trip to the grocery store given the bulk you have to buy perishable stuff in. But it's great to stock up on non-perishable stuff --drugs, razors, soda, bottled water, etc. The medium- to long-term savings are limited only by how much money you can drop at once and how much storage space you have at home.
Funniest thing I ever saw at Costco was a twelve pack of home pregnancy kits. That just cracked me up for some reason.
There are CostCos in Texas. I live in Plano and have a membership to one that can't be but 2 miles away. Probably less than that.
Sam's Club does, though. At least here in Seattle.Wal-Mart doesn't sell gasoline for 10 to 15 cents per gallon cheaper than anywhere else, so Costco wins.
There are quite a few Costcos in Texas.
Nationwide list of Costcos by state.
Also note the extremely long list for California, including San Diego.
I call it "Costs a C-Note Co." I don't think you can get out of there without dropping at least a hundy. ON ALL THE WOW GREAT BUYS!!!
The nice thing about Costco is you can return almost anything, anytime, with or without a reciept. I learned this when I couldn't decide on what digital camera to purchase. It took me almost a year and a half (and 3 cameras, all high end digital SLRs) to settle on my current Cannon Rebel.
I spoke to the sales guy about their return policy. He said if I get sick of the Rebel anytime between now and 2011 I can just bring it back in for a full refund (save the docs and the stupid CDs!). I was just astonished that I could bring in my Minolta, which I had for 8 or 9 months, with no reciept, and get full credit on it toward the new camera. They were able to look up my purchase on the computer. Nice.
Yeah, and they warrantee their electronics for life.
Yeah cost co is the greatest thing ever. Its one of the things I miss about living in WA I was 10 min in any direction from a cost co. I literally had 4 with in 10 min of me. It was great.
They are finally building one here in this area and I am gonna get a new membership when it finally opens.
That comment about the c note is 100% dead on. The only way I managed to figure out how to get outa there with out spending over 100 was to not get a cart. I mean really you cant carry that much shit.
I tried using the 'ranvarian smuggle' tactic before, and it doesn't seem to work for me. Invariably if I don't have my hands full of a cart I end up buying more expensive and smaller items. There is a good half of the store (that you must first walk through, non-food items) of cool shit that I have been warned against going into, but the siren's song is strong.
I also don't think they offer warrantee so much as an opportunity to return for cash, which I suppose is sort of like a warrantee, but I was told it was only good for six years on electronics.
I have also noticed signs about not accepting returns on laptops after 6 months from date of purchase. I suppose people were taking advantage of the return policy with laptops and just doing a rolling upgrade each time a better model came out. You could probably still do that even if you returned it every six months, but you might need one of those external USB hard drives to manage rolling your data along. :)
Oops, I guess I meant "guarantee."I also don't think they offer warrantee so much as an opportunity to return for cash, which I suppose is sort of like a warrantee, but I was told it was only good for six years on electronics.
I have also noticed signs about not accepting returns on laptops after 6 months from date of purchase. I suppose people were taking advantage of the return policy with laptops and just doing a rolling upgrade each time a better model came out. You could probably still do that even if you returned it every six months, but you might need one of those external USB hard drives to manage rolling your data along. :)
Costco does a good job on researching the products they sell, and picking the better quality products. I remember way back in the days of netwrking over my phone line, I went to Costco to get a phone modem. Most of teh stores with inexpensive modems were selling the crappy winmodems. For about the same price at Costco, I picked up a regular USR modem.
I still shop at Costco. My wife thinks its my favourite store. That's not true. I reserve that for Winners.
When we lived in Connecticut, we'd shop CostCo all the time. It was the place where we got everything for the "family" needs: paper products, sodas, frozen or packaged meals -- that sort of thing. You buy that stuff in bulk, you end up shopping once every other month and saving a bundle.
We moved out here to Wisconsin and suddenly we're left without Costco. Now, there's a Sam's Club a couple of blocks away from our home, and we'd never thought to try it out. Then they sent us a coupon for a 30 day free trial. We tried it out. Guess what?
It was laid out exactly like the Costco; down to the placement of the electronics section vs. the discount clothing vs. the freezer section. It was like going home again.
The prices are good, too.
I try to be extra nice to the workers. Apparently they're not getting paid as well.
I might add that Costco has an excellent meat section. High quality beef that is actually less expensive and far superior to local supermarket beef. Their rib roast is almost as good as the stuff I get at Whole Foods/Harry's but 40% cheaper.
That appears to be the heart of the Wall Street dissatisfaction with Costco. They aren't trying to wring every last possible cent out their operation by putting the squeeze on their employees. It's good that a company can operate and compete with Walmart (or really Sam's Club) without being evil bastards.
Yeah. As a bachelor, it's not worth it for me to buy meat at Costco, because I can buy 20 pounds of excellent beef, but most of it will freezer burn over before I can even get a chance at eating it. But if you've got a family of four or five (or in my case, seven), Costco can be a godsend.
I think Costco is reducing the minimum size of some of the offerings. For example, strip loin steaks were being sold in packs of 4 in the meat section. That's miniscule by Costco standards.
And for other major purchases, Costco is quite good. I bought my wife her computer at Costco. It's a nicely tricked out HP with a 17" LCD panel monitor and speakers. She loves it, and it saves me the aggravation of trying to maintain her aging Win98 POS that takes a good half hour to boot even after my best efforts of delousing and tuning.
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