Marketing Management Unit 5

turnover, which is made possible by low prices and limited product selection. This business model is appealing for them and has many benefits. Firstly, by setting up the business approach to rapidly

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

For operations, Costco's in charge of managing their store brand Kirkland Signature. Since they have domain over that brand, they are better able to control the caliber of their product. They also maintain the packaging assembly-line in order to accomplish the goal of having an efficient shipment arrangements, and low shrinkage rates. This way Costco can have low rates for quality goods. By keeping their operational costs low they can continue to pass the savings onto their customers.

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 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 does not have distributors or retailers to supply its products to the end users. They do, however, have reseller who buy their products for their business and sell to the end user. For example, Costco’s business membership offers tax-exempt purchases to restaurant and small grocery store owners; they then sell those purchased goods to the end user.

With 360 warehouses, located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and the United Kingdom, Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest and most profitable chain of its kind.

Discussion Forum Unit #2 For this discussion, I chose Costco Wholesale as the company for ethical theory. Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American company, with headquarters in Issaquah, Washington. Costco is a public company and operates in United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, Iceland, and France.

This results in a high volume of sales from a single vendor, allowing further reductions in price, and reducing marketing costs. If Costco management feels the wholesale price of a product is too high, they will refuse to stock the product.

I chose Costco, a multinational company that is operating in eleven countries with 749 warehouses (Corporate Profile, n.d.). The main country, with the leading stores, is the United States with 519 warehouses as of March 19, 2018 (Corporate Profile, n.d.). According to the National Retail Federation (2015), Costco has been ranked second largest retailer after Walmart. Costco is a membership only retailer.

The trunk shows are a unique distribution method for wedding gowns, and this is a unique strategy for Costco as well. There are a few reasons why this method would have been chosen. The first is that the wedding gown business is highly seasonal, and that would encourage Costco to keep gowns in store for a relatively short period of time. However, the more important element is that this strategy meshes very well with the pricing strategy. Costco's objective is to sell a large number of wedding gowns in a short period of time. The trunk show accomplishes just that, by placing a tight time frame on the purchase decision. Brides-to-be are compelled to visit the store when the trunk show is on, and only then. This allows Costco to maximize the daily throughput of wedding gowns, and minimize excess inventory. Any unsold inventory from one show simply is taken to the next one.

It’s a very appealing business model because what it does for Costco is it enables them to secure vendor purchasing power in volume. With their large warehouse facilities this enables them to distribute products on their floors efficiently while being able to store any leftover in house. This increases the availability of turnover. Also, with their large warehouses and lack of design beyond what’s necessity, it enables them to provide customer service without over investing in design.

Thus, Costco has positively increased the liquidity of its assets and increased its inventory turnover over this five year period.

The strategy for Costco was that the company continued to buy merchandise at volume discounts from manufacturers, rather than distributors. The stock is usually shipped directly to selling warehouses to minimize freight costs. Stocked items are placed directly onto the selling floor or are still stacked on their pallets, reducing handling and stocking labor. The number of sales and service employees is also minimal, with a large percentage of the employees holding part-time status. Warehouses are almost entirely self-service, from finding and buying items, to loading them into a customer's vehicle. (Miller, 2011)

Costco has many competitors with the primary two being Sam’s Club, a warehouse wholesale business being managed by Walmart, and BJ’s warehouse. Sam’s Club is offering the same services as Costco. They offer their customers lower prices than traditional stores and like Costco they sell their products in bulk to keep members interested. What makes them a threat to Costco is the cost of becoming a member to shop at their stores. For Costco’s basic membership, known as a Business membership, a price