Posted on 09/03/2013 5:43:22 PM PDT by grundle
Yes, as an investor. Many of us are not investors.
Costco treats their employees well and pays a livable wage. Those employees in turn have more money to spend, unlike Walmart who hands out public assistance info to their employees. Cosco employees have disposable income, minimum wage people not so much. They are also contributing to the tax base, unlike Walmart Co. employees, and taking nothing out in social services.
Along with company profits, you have to take into account how many stores each of them have. Walmart is everywhere. Cosco is still growing and doesn’t have the number of stores Walmart has.
Where I live, I haven’t heard a single bad word about Cosco, but I have heard dissatisfaction with Sams and Walmart.
The left loves Costco? Ha! This hard-core conservative loves Costco! Does that make me a lefty in your eyes? LOL.
Every time I go to Wal-Mart I leave with nothing feeling as if I’ve just escaped from a mass genetics experiment gone way bad.
Oh, and I buy my guns at Cabela’s. They actually have real people working their gun counter.
Your posts reveal your feelings on these two stores, strong feelings.
The left does love Costco and their involvement in democrat politics.
Go to DU and compare their political acceptance of Costco compared to their hatred of Walmart, or as they like to call it, "wallyworld".
I said that in 2004 when I saw the political contributions and I have stuck to it.
I have BJ's and Sam's Club memberships - each has their own strengths and weaknesses.
True, Costco is in a "better" neighborhood, but they have multiple door receipt checkers, whereas the others only have one (wonder if they count them in the sales/employee figure).
And wasn't it at Costco that the serviceman was killed because he was wearing his legal weapon?
Thanks grundle.
#1, one would never guess this disparity of employment level based on the experience of the respective checkout lanes; Sam’s Club is faster than WalMart, but the WalMart checklanes are the worst I’ve ever seen, anywhere. Costco lines are always deep, but the checking out is swift, and friendly, and generally two employees per lane. The Sam’s Clubs in Holland Mi and Muskegon are trying “do-it-yourself” express lanes, and having used them, I can tell you, I waaaaay prefer them to the “real thing”.
#2, WalMart got big by high volume and low margins; the old saying about Costco is, it’s the only company WalMart fears, but over time Sam’s Club will probably push Costco toward a lower-margins model, and that will involve cutting wages/bennies.
#3, from what I see (I have a retailing background, among other things) in the local clubs (I belong to both) Costco’s been raising prices (for example) on DVDs and BluRays (Costco used to beat Sam’s Club by $1 to $3 on new releases, nearly every time) and pushing generally more expensive (and hence, more profitable) durable goods harder than ever before.
#4, OTOH, Sam’s Club also has catered to small indie retailers (convenience stores and liquor stores, which are largely owned by Asians ‘round these parts, probably we’re catching up to the rest of the country) throughout its local run (Sam’s bought a different club, called “The Warehouse Club”, a small chain I think, which is how it arrived in this area), and that was great, because I love some of those little snack sticks and candy items and prefer them cheaper and in bulk. That seems to be ending all of a sudden, suggesting Sam’s Club is moving toward the Costco model. That is probably bad news for Costco, which I prefer (it’s much brighter inside than dreary gray Sam’s Club, for starters) — WalMart Inc didn’t get that big by accident, you know.
Ditto on the hours — the Business members can enter at 7 am, and plus members (I’m in that category) can also. The only reason I’m a Plus is for the kickback checks (same at Costco, that’s an even better deal when using Amex) thanks to the Obama Gasoline Prices, it makes it worth my while.
Having to pay to get in, uh, adjusts the demographics a little, from an economic standpoint. Po’ folks who want a giant TV can pay for their membership multiple times in a year out of what they save (this 40” 1080p 4 HDMI Philips was a shade over $300 in 2012), then just quit. :’) Familes will save on food and (depending on how stupidly they eat and/or shop) eat better.
You tried to blow off politics, but there are real political reasons why the left hates Walmart and keeps it out of so many major cities, just as their are political reasons that the left loves them some Costco.
Walmart is the only supermarket that I know of that is kept out of markets serving 10s of millions of Americans.
Unless something has changed in the last 3 years or so since I last checked, they were kept out places like San
Diego and Los Angeles, and NYC.
Well said.
/bingo
Food at Costco is too expensive for careful shoppers.
I think that Costco is hardly on the radar of Po’ folks who want a giant TV. More likely RentACenter.
It’s gotten inane. I rarely go anymore.
I just looked it up cuz I couldn't remember one way or the other. Costco apparently has a no guns policy. They are being sued for not posting same.
Comparing Costco with Walmart is truly apples-and-oranges. You go to Costco to buy large volumes of high-quality items of a type you don’t find at Walmart. At Walmart you can buy a single candy bar, but at Costco you have to buy a commercial-sized box of candy bars. You can’t buy one pound of hamburger; they provide a tray of ten gigantically thick and beautiful restaurant-quality pork chops, like nothing you’re ever going to get at Walmart. They sell a lot to local retailers and to people who own restaurants. On a per-pound basis you save a lot of money, but Costco gets it back from you because you probably can’t resist the gorgeous down comforter that is half the price of what it would be in a department store. Yes, I find the $50 annual fee to be more than worth it because I save far more than that by buying large quantities of food and freezing them.
Oh no. Has China’s lead-based paint gotten into their apple juice, too?
There’s a Costco under construction three miles from my house. If I’m still out of work when it is finished, you can be sure I’ll apply for a job there.
Costco has an amazing return policy. No questions asked, for one year.FWIW Costco, like Home Depot, Lowes and who knows who else make their vendors honor the returns. It's no sweat off of Costco...Which is why they often won't be carrying the same product(s)/brands each time you go in.
Costco did however change their return policy on electronics because low-life cheaters were returning their TV's, computers, etc. every year simply to up-grade.
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