Costco External Analysis Essay

The strategic objective of Costco is based on the concept of offering members very low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private label products in a wide range of merchandise categories while producing high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover. This rapid inventory turnover, when combined with the operating efficiencies achieved by volume purchasing, efficient distribution and reduced handling of merchandise in no-frills, self service warehouse facilities, enables Costco to operate profitably at significantly lower gross margins than traditional wholesalers, discount retailers and supermarkets. (1)

Costco Wholesale Corporation operates an international chain of membership warehouses, which carries quality, brand name

Costco has a simple strategy for being one of the leaders in the wholesales, which is concentrating on driving sales. If the sales of a company are good than everything else will take care of itself. While other companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and BJ’s pour money into marketing; Costco has a no-frills approach and doesn’t advertise. Costco focuses on selling fewer items which increases sale volume and

Costco’s former CEO Jim Sinegal designed the Wholesale Club Notion in 1983. Stores were quickly spread throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. According to Michaud (2012), “By the end of 2008, there were 550 stores in 40 states and 7 countries, with 54 million members” (Para. 3). The company creates a global chain of warehouses that carry value products as per their slogan. Michaud further discussed that “Costco is also one of the largest corporation in the world with 663 stores

Costco has many risks associated with its financial and operational performance. One of the biggest risks that Costco is facing todays is the competition from other retailers and wholesalers, such as Wal-Mart and Target. Costco compete with its competitors for customers, qualified employees and management personnel, suitable sites and suppliers. The retail business is extremely competitive and continues to get even more completive. Such events as the evolution of retailing in online channels has improved the ability of customers to compare prices and products and as a result enhanced competition. Any significant increases of competition may adversely affect Costco’s financial performance, and make Costco incapable to compete successfully in the future.

Costco Wholesale club is the second largest retailer in the United States. It is a $42.5 billion company that operates wholesale club stores in seven countries across western Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.

Costco may have awesome pizza, happy employees and heaps of cheap, wholesale products, but they also sell poison. That's right, amongst the miles of shelf space selling your favorite goods are pockets of poison. Here are five to look out for.

It was in the twentieth century that the world was first introduced to a now well-known household name, Costco. In 1976 that the first Costco was opened, formerly known as Price Club, in San Diego. The philosophy of this company is simply stated, “Keep costs down and pass the savings on to our members.” (Costco.com) It has held onto its philosophy of keeping prices low for almost half a century. Costco is self defined as a “membership warehouse club.” (Costco.com) It provides a wide variety of brand name products in their warehouse-style store, and strives to provide all members with the lowest prices that they can offer. Today, Costco is a well known and loved company by consumers.

The US warehouse club and superstore industry includes about 20 companies; however the major competitors that Costco faces are Sam 's Club (owned by Wal-Mart), BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Meijer. The club superstore industry is so competitive that these four companies alone hold over 90 percent of sales. These superstores are able to offer competitive pricing because as large companies they can offer a wide selection of products and have purchasing, distribution, marketing, and financing advantages. Due to low margins, the profitability of these individual superstore companies depends on high volume sales and efficient operations. This is where Costco has been able to succeed and set itself aside from the competitors.

Costco as a company began operations in 1983 with its headquarters in Issaquah, Washington (Costo 1). It was founded in Washington, United States by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman. Brotman comes from a family that had been involved in retail business before the establishment of Costco. Therefore assuming that his background may have prepared him for running Costco

On September 15,1983 the world had witness the opening of Costco the first warehouse on Seattle, Washington by James Senegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman. The owners had started in distribution their wholesale by working for Price at both FedMart and Price Club and Brotman, an attorney from an old Seattle retailing family, had also been involved in retail distribution from an early age.

According to Deloitte’s 2014 Global Powers of Retailing Report, it identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for fiscal 2012 encompassing companies’ fiscal years ended through to June 2013; however, here mainly focuses on the Top 10 retailers’ analysis.

According to Blacktown City Council (2014), Costco Wholesale Corporation operates an international chain of membership warehouses which carry quality brand name merchandise at substantially reduced prices compared to other conventional wholesale or retail outlets. It began its operations in 1983 in Seattle, Washington and later merged with The Price Company in October 1993 operating under the name PriceCostco, had 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales (Costco Wholesale, 2015). As of December 2014, the Company operated a chain of 671 warehouses in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico (474 locations), nine Canadian provinces (88 locations), Mexico (34 locations), the United Kingdom (26 locations), Japan (20 locations), Korea (11 locations), Taiwan (10 locations, through a 55%-owned subsidiary), Australia (seven locations) and Spain (one location). The Company’s online business also operates websites in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Mexico (Costco Annual Report, 2014).

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

Costco Wholesale Corporation, which began operations in 1983 in Seattle, originated the membership wholesale club retail concept. By providing low prices on consumables like fresh foods, health and beauty care items, high-quality apparel, electronics, jewelry and other general merchandise, the company pioneered the retail concept that encourages members to visit regularly to achieve savings. In the meantime, the retailer has been successful in encouraging members to spend the savings on impulse big-ticket, discretionary purchases.