Posted on 08/11/2013 1:59:50 AM PDT by grundle
First off, the reason you probably haven’t heard of WinCo is partly because at this point its stores are limited to a handful of states in the West. But WinCo is a little-known player also because the company is a privately held enterprise that seems to take its privacy seriously, preferring a low-key, low-profile approach—which is extremely rare in a world of retailers boisterously begging for shoppers’ attention.
Simply put, WinCo “communicates low prices by delivering low prices,” Jon Hauptman, a partner at Willard Bishop, a retail consulting firm, told Supermarket News. “WinCo doesn’t do much to communicate price and value. It convinces shoppers of value based on the shopping experience, rather than relying on smoke and mirrors to convince them.”
It all began, interestingly enough, when two Idaho businessmen opened a warehouse-type discount store with a name that could have been pulled from a movie slyly spoofing Walmart. Waremart, it was called. The company became employee-owned in 1985, and changed its name to WinCo (short for “Winning Company”) in 1999.
Prices are kept low through a variety of strategies, the main one being that it often cuts out distributors and other middle men and buys many goods directly from farms and factories. WinCo also trims costs by not accepting credit cards and by asking customers to bag their own groceries.
WinCo has a reputation for doing right by employees. It provides health benefits to all staffers who work at least 24 hours per week. The company also has a pension, with employees getting an amount equal to 20% of their annual salary put in a plan that’s paid for by WinCo; a company spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that more than 400 nonexecutive workers (cashiers, produce clerks, and such) currently have pensions worth over $1 million apiece.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.time.com ...
didn’t say that about Aldi’s and a bunch of others?
When I was a kid I often walked to a store called Jewel-T, it was a discounter that carried a lot of generic brands, the boxes were free but the paper sacks were a nickel, you bagged or boxed it yourself.
Maybe they can get Charlie Sheen to be their spokesman! “Winning”
‘Walmart’s Worst Nightmare’ [WinCo]
_______________________________________________
Yea, I am sure they have Walmart shaking in their boots, NOT.
Is this the place you sometimes go?
-——WinCo also trims costs by not accepting credit cards and by asking customers to bag their own groceries.-——
That alone will keep them small..... You are basically cutting out a lage part of your potential customers base....
Cutting credit card overhead cost and labor will allow them to cut margins by 2 to 4 %
Seems like they figured out the “box store” concept....
We have a store like that here, and it is its own shopping center. There are days that you have to drive around the parking lot, along with a whole bunch of other cars, for an hour or more to get a parking place. It’s family owned and it’s great.
http://www.pechin.com/aboutpechin.html
You can swipe your debt card tho...I have done it...there is a WinCo in my town. Nice stores and they have a great bulk food section and canning supplies!
WinCo has a reputation for doing right by employees. It provides health benefits to all staffers who work at least 24 hours per week.Obamacare hits ‘em, they’ll sink without a trace.
“Obamacare hits ‘em, they’ll sink without a trace.”
The IRS says the lowest insurance package for a family of four will be $20,000. Dividing $20,000 insurance cost by the number of working hours in a year (2,080) gives you an hourly cost of 9.61 just for the insurance. A minimum wage employee makes 7.79/hr * 2080 hrs= $16,203 dollars. That’s less than the cost of the insurance they’d buy for a family of four. Us taxpayers are supposed to make up the difference with subsidies. This is pure insanity.
Of course they accept debit cards, otherwise 70% of their base, food stamp users, would go back to walmart.
That’s true in CA, but I think the chain started in Idaho or Utah?? Seems like a kinda “prepper”/home canning/”LDS Pantry” chain of stores to me.
Sounds more like they’re competing against a Costco or Sam’s Club. These have different business models which is why Wal-Mart created Sam’s Club.
Similar strategy being used by an upper Midwest chain called Woodmans, They do their own “warehousing”
Prices are kept low through a variety of strategies, the main one being that it often cuts out distributors and other middle men and buys many goods directly from farms and factories. WinCo also trims costs by not accepting credit cards (betcha they take EBT) and by asking customers to bag their own groceries
This is just what a liberal's wet dream must be like - a real 'collective' for the whole damn country. Like this company - employee (citizen) owned, health care and profit sharing for all (redistribution),cutting out those greedy middlemen (evil capitalists) - all that.
Which foreign country do the owners live in and are they from one of the “infiltrating” countries?.../s
> WinCo has a reputation for doing right by employees. It provides health benefits to all staffers who work at least 24 hours per week. The company also has a pension, with employees getting an amount equal to 20% of their annual salary put in a plan that’s paid for by WinCo; a company spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that more than 400 nonexecutive workers (cashiers, produce clerks, and such) currently have pensions worth over $1 million apiece.
Has anyone had to use their pensions yet? Call me cynical but I’ve worked on so many fraud and conman cases where the victims were promised the world but ended up holding an empty sack in the end. Talk is cheap.
Woodmans has a large selection of natural foods too. ¡Ay, caramba!
Here in the midwest we have Meijer stores. I actually prefer them to Walmart.
Competition is good.
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