Posted on 07/22/2005 7:17:48 AM PDT by TaxRelief
... Some Wall Street analysts assert that CEO Jim 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."
Mr. Sinegal begs to differ. ...Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco's customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers' expense. "This is not altruistic," he said. "This is good business."
...Costco's stock price has risen more than 10 percent in the last 12 months, while Wal-Mart's has slipped 5 percent. Costco shares sell for almost 23 times expected earnings; at Wal-Mart the multiple is about 19. Mr. Dreher said Costco's share price was so high because so many people love the company. "It's a cult stock," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have some bad news, it looks like based on this report Walmart has changed its giving patterns, to a 50-50 split:
"Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), the current frontrunner for the 2008 presidential nomination, received a $5,000 check from Wal-Mart in February. Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN), a Democratic candidate for Senate and rising star within the party, also took a $5,000 contribution. And Congressman Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, received $5,000 from Wal-Mart in April. This year, Wal-Mart's giving has been nearly even between the two parties."
You shouldn't. What does that have to do with my original comment(s)??
Your original comment was that Wal Mart sells cheap crap..........I just stated they aren't the only one and I shouldn't need to spend more for the same things.
No, my original comment was a comparison between Costco merchandise and Wal*Mart merchandise.
They sell the same things.
We live in the Lacey-Olympia-Tumwater, Washington area....three towns that are smack dab on top of one another...our local Costco is over in Tumwater(we live in Olympia), so its a long cross town drive....and that lot is always jammed, no matter what day we go on, no matter what time of day...that lot is never, ever empty...jostling for parking spots is an ever present sport....
Now they are currently building another Costco, very near to us...and I expect, it will also be jammed as well...our area of the state is fast growing population wise, and no doubt Costco, will do great business in the newest Costco as well...it will relieve the jammed lots over at the other Costco, and people like us who live much closer to the new one, will go there instead...
I do wonder tho...clear across the road, and a few blocks back, is our local Wal-Mart, which was built only a few years ago....I do suspect, that bargain hunters will make a day of it...half the day at Wal-Mart, and the other half at Costco....
From the different Costcos I have seen in different parts of the country, I find it amazing that your Costco, according to your report, is usually empty...that would seem to be the exception...most Costcos I have ever seen, are always, always jammed....
Ah hell. It's never easy, is it?
Yesterday.
You are really sick.
I have to agree with you afnamvet....we always go to the book section in Costco, and I have found Bibles there, as well as other religious books, including Christian books...
NMH....I dont know why you think it takes audacity to sell Bibles or other religious books in various different stores....I dont find it audacious at all...places sell books to make a profit, plain and simple...
I dont take note of what the affiliation of Safeway stores may be....yet, I do note, that last Christmas, when looking for books for small children, I found several books that were stories from the Bible, in our local Safeway store...they were lovely, beautifully illustrated, ,and the stories were told in a way that children would understand them...
There are all kinds of stores, that deal primarily in something else(like Safeway deals primarily in food), that also carry Bibles, and other Christian books....I dont find it at all unusual, or audacious or out of the ordinary...
btt
More info here: http://www.gadgetonline.com/MOB.exe
Never mind about the link to the motor oil bible. It used to be a free link to good information, but now you have to by the password to unlock the ebook.
Sam drove that cheap truck to his $30 million dollar private planes jet setting around the country. Kind of ruins the whole premise, since it was more for PR than anything.
Oooookaay. Did we hit a nerve or something, or are you just an @sshole?
Point taken. It doesn't negate my personal experiences however. Another one of Sam's PR stunts was advertising sales of American made products in his stores. I still don't like the Walmart mentality of wringing every last penny of profit from vendors and employees. It's just a race to the bottom.
The American way of life is dependent upon more than just "robber baron" greed. History shows what happens when the robber barons come along. There is eventually a backlash, which gives us such wonderful things as the New Deal, the Great Society, and other such crap that we will have to pay for until the end of time. If human beings would ever learn that the secret to everything is balance, instead of pendulum swings, we'd all be a lot better off. The backlashes that come from the extremes will always come, though the short sighted never can see them coming.
I think it is sick for someone who claims to be a conservative to go around and say Republicans have not heart.
Capitalism is your friend. If you were a vendor, which would you prefer.
1. You make 10 cents a piece selling 10,000 widgets to a thousand different vendors.
2. You make 2 cents a piece selling 5 million widgets to Wal Mart.
I know a local guy who nets $500,000 a month from Wal Mart. He chose number 2. Everything Wal Mart does lowers the cost of what you and I buy everyday. It's a giant nationwide tax cut.
Okay, thanks for explaining that. I should have said some Republicans. And I stand by it. Some Republicans don't have a heart (as well as some Democrats, although with Democrats it's usually lack of a brain).
I heard Ann Coulter on the radio yesterday say something that ties into this somewhat. She said Republicans under the Bush administration are playing to the stereotype of being "countryclub" Republicans, supporting the rich at any cost, and shying away from conservative principles when they might offend the media or the Democrats (in the context of Pres. Bush nominating a "stealth" conservative for the Supreme Court). She also said that history shows that when Republicans stand as the true conservative party (anti abortion, anti gay marriage, etc.), instead of the country club rich party, is when they win elections. She's right.
From my experiences, stereotypes are based in fact. Republicans have the stereotype as the heartless, elitist, country club rich party. Democrats have the stereotype of being the limp wristed, sing Kum-bay-ya with your enemies, halfway commie party. Both stereotypes are based in fact. If both parties would work away from these stereotypes, America would benefit greatly. Unfortunately, getting either party to admit to them is the hardest part. I could care less which party steers America back to its founding principles. As long as it gets done. As it stands now, if the Democrats are in power, we go to hell in a bucket quickly. If the Republicans are in power, its just a slower ride.
As an aside, as far as stereotypes go, that used to be the wonderful thing about America. People were free to ridicule other people for their stereotypes. It had the effect of making them move away from those behaviors. For example, I'm about as Irish as they come. My family has more than their share of Irish drunks in our past. Knowing this, I know not to indulge in drinking very much. Nowadays, due to political correctness, you can't ridicule or say anything based upon stereotypes, so the behavior continues. I think the same is true of political parties. If they won't admit the truth of their stereotypes, they will never correct them. I believe it's driving the Democrats to extinction. That's the price they will pay for initiating political correctness in our society. I would prefer that the Republicans not do that. So I am not "sick", I'm actually trying to help them.
I understand, and know that capitalism is the best way. With Walmart (and Costco too probably), your friend will find that one day they will come to him and say, sell them to us at 1/2 cent apiece, or we quit buying from you, and buy them from China (or even from an American vendor who may be making cheap junk with illegal immigrant employees who can barely eke out an existence). Walmart could care less either way, because they only look at the dollar, just like a lot of other corporations do now.
The problem with buying goods from China is that they are a Communist dictatorship, and they are taking the profits and buying weapons to destroy us with, and enslaving their own people. That is not going to be a good thing in the long run, and will cost America more in both money and lives if we're not careful. We're already spending at the gas pump what we've saved by buying cheap goods from China, due to the increased fuel demand from them. Along the way, we're subsidizing evil. Morality is being ignored, and there is always a HUGE price to pay when you ignore morality.
I know Costco does the same thing, but they do tend to treat their employees better along the way, from everything that I hear. At least they pay lip service to treating them right, I don't know from any personal dealings. I know capitalism is great, but it must be underpinned with good sense and morals. I'm just not seeing that nowadays. Heartless (and I would also say mindless) capitalism has been tried before in America, and the results gave us socialism lite as a backlash. I don't know what the answers are, but I'd just like to not see that (or worse) happen again. The Bible doesn't say money is the root of all evil, but it does say that the love of money is the root of all evil. In other words, when you love money more than God (and doing what is right morally), you will pay the price, and it will be higher than you think. The purpose of a business shouldn't be just to make the owner rich, but should be to provide a quality product or service, at a decent profit, enabling the employees to make an honest wage for honest labor (both physical and mental). There's more to life than the almighty dollar, and in the business world today, I'm seeing people worship the almighty dollar to the exclusion of everything else. In my opinion, Walmart had led the way in this. I don't think specifically the people of Walmart are bad or anything, it's just that there is a mindless herd mentality that can go along with any human endeavor. Right now the herd says "buy it somewhere else" if you can save a d@mn penny, no matter the origins of the product, the situation of the people making it, or the ramifications of putting money in the pockets of people who openly talk about nuking your cities (i.e. China). Sorry to be so long winded, and I'm guilty of buying this junk also. The decision needs to be made at the federal government level to just not allow this Commie made junk in here, and quit allowing illegal immigrants in here just so we can save a penny on our yard mowing and construction projects.
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