Costco Case Analysis Essay

From a financial perspective, Costco’s income statement shows it has increased its total revenue from its domestic and foreign stores every year. Operating income, total and net assets, and number of warehouses have increased steadily each year. However, long-term debt has sharply increased after 2006 and stockholder’s equity has been inconsistent for the past few years. Newer warehouses are being built to its maximum size and top volume warehouses would exceed $5 million in sales per week.

The gross profit margin for CC is right around the industry average. Although the numbers seems to be decent, the costs of goods sold are too high. Next, looking at the operating profit margin, the numbers don’t look as great as they should. The numbers are low compared to the industry average in years 2001, 2004, and 2005. This may indicate that CC should look into their prices and costs. In 2001 the net profit margin was very low compared to the industry average. I am assuming this is due to the major expansion. It is also important to look more deeply into the numbers though because the net profit margin is lower compared to the industry average in all of the years. Once again CC should look into their costs and how efficient they are converting sales into actual profit.

Majority of Costco warehouses is located in U.S. and Canada. Therefore, Costco’s financial and operational performance is highly dependent on U.S. and Canadian operations. Within the U.S. it is highly dependent on its California operations, which contained almost third of U.S. net sales. Any substantial decline in California operations could

Costco 's assets-to-equity ratio has fallen slightly from 2.21 to 2.06. This means that for every dollar of invested capital Costco acquires $2.06 worth of assets in 2001 verses $2.21 worth of assets in 1997. This may indicate that less assets are being acquired. If less assets are acquired, less sales may be generated and if less sales are generated there is less net income yielding less return for shareholders and a less attractive investment opportunity.

“We want to build a company that will still be here 50 and 60 years from now." This is a quote from the famous CEO Jim Sinegal, who is best known for his benevolent style of management. He is known to offer employees

Moving onto the income statement portion of the common-size financial statements, an increase in cash and equivalents (3.20% of total assets in 1997 to 5.97% in 2001) and receivables (2.69% of total assets in 1997 to 3.22% in 2001) coupled with a decrease in inventory signify Costco’s improving efficiency over this five year period. It is important to mention two points. First, the decrease in inventory as a percentage of total assets from 30.8% in 1997 to 27.14% in 2001 signifies an increase in the turnover rate, perhaps due to

Target Corporation uses an interesting capital-budgeting system. Projects are proposed using Capital Project Requests (CPRs) and must be approved before money can be spent. The level of approval needed depends on the amount being requested. For projects requiring less than $100K, lower management can approve, but anything above this amount goes to the Capital Expenditure Committee (CEC) which is comprised of 5 executive officers. For projects requiring greater than $50 million, the Board of Directors must approve.

“Trader Joe’s has designed jobs to increase job satisfaction by showing appreciation in providing more benefits to their employees than other chain grocers. They provide starting benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, company-paid retirement, paid vacation, and a 10% employee discount, Pg. w-100.” Traders Joes also recruits people with certain personality traits that the company wants in their stores. They are able to enrich their employees with knowledge of their products that they are selling, as well as inducing customer involvements. As a result, they are able to have higher job performance because they are able to train and

availability of substitutes 1, and the threat of retaliation from incumbents (by lowering price, for

The first of Porter’s Five Forces that impact Costco is the threat of new entrants. The threat of new entrants into the wholesale and membership retail space is low. There are several reasons why the threat of entrants into the market is low. The leading reason why the threat of entry is low is because an emerging company will struggle to have the volume necessary to compete with Costco. Costco is the sixth largest retailer in the U.S. As a major retailer, Costco has the highest discounts on a majority of its

What is Costco’s business model? Is the company’s business model appealing? Why or why not?

Potential new entrants into the market are a low threat for Costco. We have the advantage of economies of scale and having learned by doing. Our economies of scale come from better management coordination of processes, long term relationships with our suppliers, and enhanced employee performance with low turnover (Pearce et al., p. 100). The cost for a new entrant would be significant given the capital investment required to start up a warehouse business. Any

The Costco strategy for getting into the wedding gown business is to have a set of touring trunk shows at its Western stores during the season where people are planning their weddings. Costco's typical pricing strategy is to undercut competition and make up for this with high volume sales. The company applies this strategy to the wedding gown business as well. Costco offers one of the lowest prices of any company on its wedding dresses. The company's business plan ensures that the details have been fleshed out, and that has led to the unique distribution strategy for wedding gowns.

Torres’ common-size financial statements also show the changing composition of Costco’s financing structure over time. The fact that interest expense consistently fell over the five year span from -0.35% of net sales in 1997 to -0.09% in 2001 demonstrates Costco’s ability to reduce its overall amount of debt during these years. Exhibit nine’s balance sheet portion supports this reduction, documenting an increase in total current liabilities from 35.86% of total assets in 1997 to 40.76% in 2001 and an increase in accounts payable from 25.46% of assets in 1997 to 27.03% in 2001. This signifies that the company’s debts or obligations due within one year increased, further corresponding with the fact that short-term borrowing increased from 0.46% of assets in 1997 to 1.93% in 2001. With an increase in short-term borrowing it is logical to expect to see a decrease in long-term borrowing. The income statement proves that this is indeed the case, documenting a decrease in long-term debt from 16.74% of sales in 1997 to 8.52% in 2001. This relates back to the decrease in Costco’s interest expense on the income statement, representing the company’s decision to switch to short-term and away from long-term methods. Furthermore, the decrease in long-term debt helped account for a decrease in total liabilities from

When USAA started in 1922, they were a property and casualty insurance company however, with time they expanded their services to their members and became a financial institution.