Low wages means high turnover. That is a reality often discussed too little when analyzing the economic cost surrounding employees. When salaries are increased, employees show increased loyalty and turnover costs are reduced. In a 2006 paper published by the Harvard Business Review, Wayne Cascio a professor of Management at the University of Colorado demonstrates this effect using big chain retail stores. Costco and Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club take up a large percentage of the market for cheap merchandise. With almost 200,000 employees in total, these two chains account for 90% of the US market. Both businesses have very similar operations, but a remarkable disparity is exposed in their wage and benefits structures. At Costco, the average pay is …show more content…
91% of Costco’s employees are included in their retirement plan while at Sams club the number is only 64 and the amount contributed per employee is half. Costco’s practices appear to come at an increased price however it creates an offsetting cost-containment effect: Costco's treatment of employees creates an unusually low turnover, at 17%. Once an employee has been at Costco for a year that number drops to 6%. Conversely, turnover at Wal-Mart is 44% a year, close to the industry average. When dealing with these low skilled jobs, the complete cost of substituting a worker who leaves is usually 1.5 to 2.5 times the worker’s annual salary. If a Costco employee quits, the cost of replacing him or her is, therefore, $21,216. If a Sam’s Club employee leaves, the price is $12,617. Initially, it may seem that the low-wage approach at Sam’s Club would result in lower turnover costs, but when adjusting for the turnover rate, 44% versus 17% it tells a different story. The entire annual cost to Costco of employee turnover is $244 million, while the total annual cost to Sam’s Club is $612 million. That’s $5,274 per Sam’s Club employee and only $3,628 per Costco
Price: All the Costco products have a maximum mark up of 15%, keeping their prices competitive and almost always cheaper than their competitors which usually mark up at 25%. In the video the founder is seen comparing the price of one of their products (a toy truck) to Sam’s Club which was offering it at a lower price, and reconsidering their pricing for it. Their pricing does however force the consumer to buy the product in bulk- making them assume that they are getting the best possible price.
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.
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an international chain of membership warehouses operating on the concept that offering members lower prices will produce high sales volume and rapid inventory turnover (“Annual Report” 4). While Costco warehouses are designed to help reduce costs for small-to-mid-sized companies, memberships are also available for individuals (“Company Profile”). The two memberships offered by Costco include Business and Gold Sta...
Compare your shopping experiences at retailers like Costco, Nordstrom, or Whole Foods with experiences you may have had at Walmart, Sears, or Kroger.
Wal-Mart has become a household name with many positive attributes but they have been riddled with a large amount of negatives. Their motto of “Always low prices, always” have created soaring profits at the expense of their employees. Most Americans loves the convenience and low prices offered by Wal-Mart. Do Americans know what it actually costs for Wal-Mart to keep prices so low? With thousands of lawsuits filed each year it is a wonder why Wal-Mart refuses to change its practices. It is fairly safe to say that Sam Walton would not approve of how his company has been completely changed from its original intent by such a large margin. Employees are no longer happy working at Wal-Mart and to make matters worse the employees can no longer afford to work there. The average Wal-Mart associate earns about $1000 less t...
Let start with Costco. Costco is Wholesale, Retail Corporation which operates an international chain of membership distribution centers that provides quality, brand name merchandise at noticeably more affordable rates than a conventional wholesale or retail sources. Costco 's warehouses display the largest and great product categories such as groceries, candy, appliances, television and media, automotive supplies, tires, toys, hardware, sporting goods, jewelry, watches, cameras, books, house wares, apparel, health and beauty aids, tobacco, furniture, office supplies and office Their ability to distribute the cut rate from their operating proficiencies in supply chain management and cash flow, permits them to offers items at discounted rate and a lower price than their competitors. For Costco the meaning of being the low-cost provider while also differentiating from the competitors is ambiguous at best. Costco’s CEO, Jim Sinegal, is certain that low priced, and the high value merchandises are exactly what is needed maintain and achieve a staying power in the industry.
The top two reasons for such success in ranking first in retail store market, is because Wal-Mart is convenient globally and so are there prices in the competitive market . Wal-Mart has three segments which are superstores, discount stores, and Sam's Club stores, all of these are scattered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, and Asia. One downfall was from Sam's club because too many were opening all over internationally it decreased the number of customers per location. Overall despite the company's decline on Sam's club sales, the Corporations did well over all with the figures brought in and conditions.
In the warehouse segment, Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club competes harshly with Costco. Costco has fewer warehouses but greater sales and revenues. Costco customers also shop at Costco more frequently than Sam’s Club customers and, on average, spend more each visit as well. Costco’s dominance may be the result of better innovation. Costco offers luxury items and was the first to sell fresh meat and produce, and gasoline. This is important because innovation is a key factor in assessing competitors in an industry.
Costco has many competitors with the primary two being Sam’s Club, a wholesale business being managed by Walmart, and BJ’s wholesale club. 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 increase had to occur to outweigh price increases from their suppliers. This led to the Costco Business membership annual fee being set at $55. When looking into the case study assembled by Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland (2014) they point out that Sam’s Club is able to offer similar benefits ...
This case study was about the president of Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a restaurant chain specializing in seafood, whose practice structure and secret to success was to have and maintain minimal management turnover. In fact, his focus on turnover was so successful that he did not have a general manager leave for 3 years, and he has decreased management turnover from 36% to 16% in 2 years. The motivation of an organization’s employees significantly affects it success. Additionally, employee turnover, absenteeism, and tardiness weaken employee productivity.
Without understand the negative impacts of turnover, a company may be placing itself in a position that will ultimately lead to their demise. We are going to solve our problems and set our company on the path to success, a success that is not only reflected in our bottom line but also our employees’ morale.
The first thing a company usually investigates when trying to increase employee retention is employee wages. Family Video does not need to focus on altering employee wages because we already offer competitive wages. The area where employee retention is low includes the in store employees. This includes the part time employees, assistant managers, and store managers.
Voluntary and involuntary turnover have an effect on organizations. Rapid changes in job descriptions, organizational structures, and inter-organizational competitiveness increase the importance of studying turnover and its relationship with organizational change. According to Leana and Van Buren (1999), "the loss of key network members can severely damage an organization 's social fabric and perhaps eradicate its social capital altogether." When businesses lose a high number of employees, problems can occur, costing the company time and money. Some of the costs incurred are associated with training, drug testing, physicals, and orientations to hire replacements that may take several months to learn the job and to achieve competency. There is a saying, “Good help is hard to find---and harder to keep”. This saying refers to good organizations trying to reduce turnover when the competition for retaining good employees is intense.
I have managed a McDonald 's for over 11 years. There are plenty of potential problems that I deal with daily. One of the biggest issues I have to deal with is turnover. With any job turnover is bound to happen. Especially in a fast paced job with high customer demands. There two sides to this argument involve the pros and cons of turnover. Not all turnover is considered bad, however it can become very expensive if turnover rate is extremely high. I plan to approach this problem in my project my looking into ways of retaining employees and finding ways to reduce turnover. My main objective is how turnover specifically relates to employee engagement and management leadership skills.
Because of this, many employees tend to leave when they have found a job with higher pay. This increases the training costs for their employees, as they tend to not stay for too long.