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Costco organizational structure
Costco Wholesale Corporation‘s customers culture
Costco Wholesale Corporation‘s customers culture
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COSTCO
“When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors.”- Jim Sinegal, CEO, Costco
A Proud Organization
Costco has some of the best employer-employee relations and competitive employee packages in the industry, and this is something they pride themselves on. Have a positive work environment. By having employees that are not only satisfied with, but enjoy their job and the benefits that come with it, Costco is able to keep productivity, efficiency and overall morale high.
In speaking to a Costco employee, they spoke highly of Costco’s emphasis on employee growth within the company, particularly as a post-secondary student, and how the company strives to eliminate job complacency by perpetually challenging and motivating it’s employees.
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Participation in this program allows eligible employees enrolled in a post secondary program to work at Costco during school breaks and take time off from work during the school year. Also, original hire dates are kept as well as their accumulated hours and are considered towards their next pay increase. In short, if a student is with us for four years while attending post-secondary school on a full-time basis, they will accumulate four years of seniority and a wage commensurate with their total of accumulated hours worked.
Also, Costco’s University Graduates Retention Program (UGRP) provides employees with the opportunity to grow. Through the UGRP, employees are constantly challenged and motivated both professionally and personally. They are also given exposure to upper management, allowing them to develop into management
Promotion: Costco doesn’t have any conventional marketing/ promotion strategies like their competitors as they are not big on advertising. They email and mail their members flyers and product descriptions which help them maintain their customer retention. However, they don’t actively advertise to new customers, primarily relying on their current customers to advertise by word of mouth like Kimberley Peterson, the
Costco Wholesale Corporation was an uncommon type of retailers called wholesale clubs. These clubs differentiated themselves from other retailer by requiring annual membership purchase. Especially in case of Costco, their target market is wealthier clientele of small business owners and middle class shoppers. They are now known as a low cost or discount retailer where they sell products in bulk with limited brands and their own brand. The company is competing with stores like Wal-Mart, SAM’s, BJ’s, and Sears.
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Costco was founded on September 15th, 1983 by Jeffery Brotman and James Sinegal (Chesley). It became renowned for its warehouse club retail model, pioneered by former competitor Price Club. After a major merger in 1993 with Price Club, Costco expanded to 206 locations, doubling the size of the company (“Costco Wholesale Historical Highlights”). The decision was based on the fact Costco and Price Club shared similar business philosophies, operations, and the looming threat of being taken over by Sam’s Club. Operating as PriceCostco, international expansion began with development of stores in Mexico, the opening of two stores in England, and the licensing of a Price Club in South Korea ("Costco Wholesale Corporation").
“Culture is not the most important thing. It’s the only thing.” (Gabler, The Magic in the Warehouse, 2016). It has been said that “Costco acts more like a cheerful cult than a hard-driving business.” (Gabler, The Magic in the Warehouse, 2016). Costco hasn’t wavered from their founder’s strategy of promoting within; over 98% of their management started their careers with Costco. This strategy clearly works; the environment is one of family not just coworkers. They are loyal to the brand and motivated to work hard and climb the corporate ladder. Costco sees this as ensuring the future of their values which in turn ensures their
Which one is better Buy Now: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. vs. Costco Wholesale Corporation? Costco is doing better, but Wal-Mart stock is much inexpensive. Which one is a better buy right now? Here are two different retailers with two different strategies. The alternative norms are that Costco operations are entirely based on the warehouse model and membership fees offer customer more of an economic advantage to customers than Wal-Mart everyday low prices and flexible payment with suppliers. My objective is to analyze the two retail giants’ methodology to satisfy and maintain customer although that I anticipate Wal-Mart’s to be a better buy than Costco because of the gargantuan scale of Wal-Mart has constructed its commerce on saving the customer
Such loyalty and productivity among the employees was brought about by the way Southwest’s management treats them. As they say, the employees are willing to work hard for the company because they feel appreciated by the top management. Southwest maintains good employee relations because what they believe in is that if employees are happy, satisfied, dedicated, and energetic, they'll take real good care of the customers.
Like Toyota, the employees of Chick-fil-A, value their opportunity to work for Truett. “Retention rates for franchised Operators, their Team Members and Chick-fil-A corporate staff remain among the highest in the
Lowe’s tries to foster collaboration and strength in a variety of methods; many are through leadership training tracks and supporting employees and their families. During times economic uncertainty, it is important that individuals know that they an organization that cares and supports them. In a comprehensive report released by Lowes, the company detailed improvements Lowe’s achieved in important focus areas, including the health, safety and engagement of employees, the company’s advancement towards its 2020 goals and its partnership with suppliers to maintain the highest ethical standards and improve the products it sells (Lowe’s Companies, 2015a). According to Lowe’s Companies (2015a), “For the first time in Lowe’s annual Employee Opinion Survey, all of its U.S. stores, distribution centers and customer support centers all reached the company’s benchmark engagement goal of 65 percent, indicating a highly engaged and satisfied staff” (para 4).. “Career Bliss recognized Lowe’s as one of the 10 happiest retailers to work for in 2014” (Lowe’s Companies, 2015, para 5). To keep an organization running efficiently and effectively, you need a good customer base; you cannot achieve this without helpful, courteous and willing employees. Lowe’s understand that to keep up in the industry, they need to ensure they employees are taken care of
Key Issues: At the end of 2012, Costco was a successful business; however, there are some issues that they would need to deal with. These issues mainly arise from their previous successful ventures as a warehouse wholesale company. The first issue is that Costco has competitors that can actually be and are a threat to their success. Competition allows a company to improve itself and prove its prowess to its customers. However, when a competitor is able to provide the service at a much reduced cost, problems will arise.
The promotion of employees from within is a fact and testament of their successful development and training program. Southwest Airlines has a program designed to strategically developed managers in an intensive Manager-in-Training program that prepares them for the next level. The university is the umbrella for training and development for Southwest since 9/11 which has focused on enhancing its curriculum to help employees achieve their goals. Southwest Airlines provides a Career Development Group that helps employees focus on personal and career growth. This is accomplished by working on a component that will align the employee’s personal development needs and strengths so they can grow more. It also encompasses a skills assessment that’s structured toward helping employees align their degree to a specific job within the company. As stated before, Southwest’s purpose is designed to encourage employee fulfillment and by their Career Development services help them become more fulfilled in their jobs. According to their philosophy, Southwest Airlines hires for attitude and trains for skills. This is why they have become a company with high retention rates. Southwest Airlines is voted “the best place to work” for a simple reason. The company invests in their employees and are committed to their values and
The company’s approach to motivate employees has been working in a positive way. The employees are satisfied with the family style community, and the productivity has increased as well. The company’s style of treating employees as important partners has been successful in other manufacturing companies too. For example, when Honda opened its first factory in the U.S., the CEO and employees shared the same cafeteria, just like Lincoln.
As we all know Costco is a membership warehouse club, dedicated to bringing members the best possible prices on quality brand-name merchandise. "Great health and dental insurance plan, 401k, paid vacation, paid holidays and paid sick time for both part time and full time employees." In my opinion it doesn’t get any better than that! Employees regularly rave about their exceptional employee benefits. Unlike many companies Costco offers health insurance to part-time employees that work 23 or more hours per week. “There is a variety of health plans you can choose from and they are very affordable. The company 's contribution allows full and part time employees to participate in the program.” The majority of the employee based reviews in reference to Healthcare benefits are positive and this company was given a 4.67 stars on GlassDoor.com. “After 20 years you have 5 weeks off, 9 days’ sick time, and 7 paid holiday closures. You basically get 8 weeks off if you want to use it all. You can roll over 40 hours of vacation time and sick time is paid out every year on your anniversary.” A lot of employees are very vocal about how Costco has a generous leave policy and allows employees to take unpaid time off during the first quarter of the year if they don 't have enough vacation. However, receiving time off is problematic, particularly around holidays if you are stationed at a small
The 2001 documentary film "Store Wars: When Walmart Comes to Town" reported that turnover was about 70% a year, which is much higher than the rest of the retail industry. Since then it has fallen (Ritholtz). In the article by Coleman Peterson, an internal data analysis of Walmart showed that an associate leaves within the first 90 days because conflicts on their schedule or they prefer to work in a different area (Peterson). To address this issue, various promotions along with training & development strategies are used to support the company’s HR needs and increase employee morale. One way Walmart empowers their employees is by helping them achieve a higher status academically. Some universities like American Public University have agreed to give academic credits to company’s employees based on performance reviews and duration of employment. The company’s objective in using this method is to maximize cost-effectiveness of recruitment
...s in the corporate world by setting new standards to promote and better satisfy their employees. We chose four leading companies in four different industries. The above analysis definitely reveals that perhaps one of the reasons why these companies are the leaders in their industry is because they are well aware of the importance of the work force. They mention in their mission statements as well that yes in deed customers are important but in order to make the customer happy they first need to motivate and satisfy the employee as well. According to Citibank, the general belief is that a happy worker is a motivated and loyal one. So keeping employees' spirits high is a sure-fire way of maintaining a productive workforce. A productive work force would ultimately lead to a healthy organization which would not only promote the society its working for but also itself.