Here's a photo of the obama project car.
Posted on 08/18/2011 2:40:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Back in the 1990s, when it seemed like electric vehicles were gaining traction with consumers, Costco did something unusual: the big-box retailer installed charging stations at many of its California locations. Now, however, those stations are being removed, and electric car fans aren't happy.
According to Plug In America, Costco has offered no official explanation for removing the charging stations other than the Xeroxed signs taped to each that read, "Please be advised that this electric charger will be removed on August 15th, 2011. Sorry for the inconvenience."
Costco's move seems curious for a couple of reasons. For starters, the California Energy Commission has launched a special grant program to fund the upgrade of older, AVCON charging stations to newer J1772 models that can accommodate modern electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. Costco would seem to be tailor-made for that initiative, so why not apply?
But apart from the fact that upgrading should be of minimal cost to Costco is the fact that sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids are booming these days. At a time when other companies (even McDonald's!) are rolling out the red carpet for electric vehicle owners, why would Costco yank the rug out from under them?
(Excerpt) Read more at greencarreports.com ...
Maybe we can carry this over to the OFST tomorrow.
Calm down Charlie!
That is a character in the movie Idiocracy.
I suspect that is part of it. Also a tax credit may have expired..
Where'd you get that number?
It works out to roughly $6 per second, $1600 every five minutes.
I doubt the "gross" is that high, much less the profit.
More like plugging in their lean-to’s and setting up house.
You must mean sales revenue dollars, since the "profit" Costco makes per dollar in revenue is somewhere around 1% to 2% after EDBITA
I got it from a friend that is a Costco Front end manager.
Thye per second amount looks reasonable when you consider that they deal in only large packages, and sell lots of fairly costly big items.
Where Safeway clerks would be passing single cans of veges, Costco clerks are passing 10 cans minimum, and often 24 cans at once, and a high percentage of the customers are food business customers, sometimes with an entire flatbed cart of the same item.
I agree with you. The actual checkout process typically takes 3-4 minutes, and the typical amount is 150 bucks.
This is purely anecdotal, but I stumbled into an open office there when looking for the restroom (located right next door), and there was a spread sheet on the wall showing store profit by dept.
It looked like 90% of the profit came from the pharmacy and the gas pumps.
The article is about electric car bateries getting charged.
>> “and the typical amount is 150 bucks” <<
.
No way!
easily double that.
And the 3-4 minutes will get the clerk their walking papers if it is a long time average. Most of my purchases take less than a minute to complete. Most of the time is waiting for the 4 or 5 people ahead of you.
Do you REALLY believe there are 60 people per hour going thru the avg Costco check line?
REALLY?
They might “burst” $6 per second for short periods, but $1600 every five minutes? I don’t think so.
And those figures are total gross sales; your original assertion was “$20,000 PROFIT per hour”.
I think your friend is misinformed.
He cannot be “misinformed,” he is responsible for all of it, and is one of the three guys that have to put their key in the slot for the armored car courrier to get the bags.
The two center aisles that line up with the departing main aisle have to do way more than that. Some of the ones at the ends do less, but they’re not all open all the time.
Actually, the shop was licensed - California, you know. And the equipment was bought with stimulus funds.
Here's a photo of the obama project car.
You’re saying there are Costco checkers who can regularly process an order in well less than a minute?
I’ve been going to Costco (originally Price Club) for over 20 years and I’ve never seen one who can do anywhere close to that.
If that were true, they’d never have lines at the checkout counters.
It WAS apparent that you were referring to an internal combustion-powered vehicle. To most of us, anyway.
LMAO good one!
My guess is that the investment didn’t provide any extra dividends.
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