Costco Is A Well Known Corporation That Has Excelled At Surpassing Customer Expectations

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

According to the Top 25 Companies for Compensation and Benefits 2014 that was released by Job-hunting site Glassdoor.com, Costco ranked 2th, which was just behind Google. Costco has one of the most competitive benefits packages in the industry. Its employees not only have a full spectrum of benefits, but also may elect coverage for their spouses, children and domestic partners. The company pays a larger percentage of the premiums than do most other retailers, and employee-paid premiums are withheld pre-tax, which means employees get to keep more of their hard-earned money. Costco even runs a website www.costcobenefits.com for its employees to learn its benefits plan.

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

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

In order for Costco to stay competitive in the market and ahead of its competitors, it is essential to venture into different products and services. Costco’s main products vary, which include: groceries and frozen products, fresh meats and produce, bakery goods, beverages and liquors, health and beauty products, seasonal goods, office products, appliances and electronics. To increase Costco’s product differentiation over its competitors and increase sales, Costco began to introduce other products; such as pharmacy, gasoline, auto insurance, and a food court. In addition, extends more services to executive card members that include check printing, payroll services, identity protection, free roadside assistance with Costco’s auto insurance, and traveling benefits.

Renee McDonald (“Plaintiff”) allegedly sustained personal injuries on October 8, 2015 while shopping at a store owned and operated by Costco (“Defendant”) in Brooklyn Park, Maryland. According to the plaintiff, while walking through the store, she tripped on mop water which caused her to fall to the ground and suffer “severe bodily injuries.” The Plaintiff claims that her fall was caused by the mop water. The mopped area had been secured with a yellow caution sign that warned customers of the wet floor. At the time of the Plaintiff’s fall, however, the sign had fallen down and was lying on the floor. Plaintiff alleges that the store did not have proper signage to warn of the hazardous condition.

Another top stakeholder within Costco’s organization is its customer clientele. After careful research, the author noted several variables that contributed towards Costco’s highly-rated customer service and satisfaction ratings that speak from sales in addition to positive feedback. The author will briefly dissect this stakeholder group and display, in writing, why this group aids Costco in providing low prices on select items, its continuous service method which has proven, both financially and through praise, to be one of the more successful methods in retail, and to demonstrate why Costco

Costco is one of the most profitable retail stores in the United States at the moment. This is in spite of the prevailing tough global economic times and stiff competition from stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. Costco, a members’ wholesale retail store, was founded in 1983 in Washington by Jeffrey Brotman, who serves as the current Chairman of the board of directors and James Sinegal, the current company president. Costco has not been spared by the current global economic conditions. They have affected it in a number of ways that have made the company’s management respond in a manner that is meant to ensure that the business not only survives but grows even stronger. First, Costco has taken strong measures to keep

Costco Wholesale has generated a revolution in how people shop: for the first time, many Americans are willing to 'pay' for the privileges of membership to a store so they can buy its products and save money. Like Wal-Mart, Costco prides itself on its low, low prices. However, in stark contrast to Wal-Mart, Costco has also made its exemplary treatment of its employees part of its marketing and sales strategy. It advertises itself as an ethical company, a company where it is a pleasure to work. This use of its HR police as a marketing strategy has proven to be effective, particularly with its target audience. While it caters to a wide and diverse audience in terms of its product diversity, on the whole Costco's target consumer is more affluent and educated than the average consumer at a big box store like Sam's Club. Costco's target audience members are interested

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

Imagine a store that never advertises, has no signs in its aisles, doesn’t bag what you purchase, and charges you a fee just to walk in the door; Costco Wholesale is that shop. The purpose of this report is to illustrate how Costco as a multinational corporation strategically manages its marketing operation across global markets. For research purpose, this report will be focused on Costco wholesale in Japan and USA.

This is due to the fact that customers are forced to buy in bulk. A strategy taken by Costco wholesales to increase store turnover and profitability. Additionally, to increase its market influence, Costco has added services such as automobile, gas, optometry, pharmacy, and printing at very low prices in the past decade. “What’s better than to rotate my car’s tires, fill my prescription, gas my car, all the while I am finishing my shopping”, a dad might say while shopping at Costco. Finally, unlike any other mega-retailer, Costco has included its own employees as primary target market. By respecting the employees and paying them high wages, Costco has created a positive feedback loop for itself. Highly paid employees will have high loyalty toward the company, and they will shop at Costco for their needs. At the same time, due to their high loyalty, staff will provide high quality customer service for common customers. This generates positive word-of-mouth advertisement leading to an increase in membership sig-ups translating into higher profits for the company (Ingram, 2013).

“The key elements of Costco strategy are extremely low prices, a limited selection of naturally branded and private label products, a treasure hunt shopping environment, strong emphasis on low operating costs, and ongoing expansion of its geographic network of store locations.” To provide low prices Costco caps its markup on brand merchandise at 14% compared to 20% to 50% at other supermarkets. The equals out to a sales revenue that only equales several million dollars. This number excludes all other operating factors including the membership fees. Another important element of the strategy is that unlike other retailers they don’t offer window displays or any other thrills with in the stores. They know because of the reputation and because of the value that they offer their customers that the items that they sell offer value over all else.

Costco is one of the nation’s top three retailers and the world’s largest membership warehouse chain, Costco wholesale Canada operates about 80 membership warehouse clubs across Canada. The company never advertises, charges its 64 million members to shop there and doesn’t mark up any product more than 15 percent, even at this lowest profit margin, 15% for Kirkland private brand, the products were 20% lower than comparable to other brand products. Costco works with this business model and generating $93 billion in annual sales.