I agree. We are members of BJ's, Sam's and Costco and live near a Wal-Mart. I went through a brief time last year when I purchased at Wal-Mart. Just last week I saw that the apple juice was from China, but they communciated it in such a way that I could barely see that before I bought it. No more food and little else from Wal-Mart.
Costco, OTOH, is always so professional. If the lines are long, they open new ones. The employees are trained to resolve problems quickly. If they can't, there's always someone close who can. And they never hold up lines when that happens.
There merchandise is excellent. If we buy anything that they later discover is problematic, we get a letter telling us about it and how to handle the problem. Sam's is improving to compete with Costo, but it still doesn't have the quality of employeees as Costco and it shows. The new BJ's in our area has terrible employees and as a result, is almost always empty. We wonder how long it will last.
I agree with this article. When you pay employees and expect performance from them in return, you get it and customers notice it and return.
The merchandise at Costco is of excellent quality. So I go to Costco, rude employees and all because their prices are good and their product is excellent.
Agree with your comparison of Sam's and Costco. I shop at both although Sam's is a bit closer to my house. It seems that Costco has marginally higher quality of goods--especially fresh foods.