Costco: Code of Ethics
When you hear the company name Costco what is the first thing that comes to mind? The bulk items, the friendly employees you interact with, or maybe the incredible prices? Or possibly all of those and then some? Many people who know of, and or about Costco, members of the company or not probably only think of those answers and never anything above. I however, am going to go a little more in depth about the company and how or why it made the Forbes 500 list. The Code of Ethics with any company large or small is the key to having a successful future, and without theses, many companies lose the focus of the big picture; the employees who are there to make the income for the company while enjoying their job, and the customers, who purchase from the company and keep the company going. Without either of these stakeholders, you cannot successfully keep a company afloat. Costco has a list of five things that make the company successful, number one being, “Obey the Law”. Costco is known for many things
Jessica 2 however, if they do no choose to obey the law, they have too much too loose. Costco believes that all employees deserve the proper pay for example, if they were to pay employees less then the minimum wage, they would be breaking the law and their first code. If Costco continued to do this for all employees, they would not have a
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Goldberg, Bill Ritter). While hiring with in a company has its negatives, it also has many positives as well and Costco has many examples, one being, over half of the employees at Costco have started at the very bottom and have worked their way up being promoted to higher positions (Kevin Short). Giving employees the opportunity to expand in a company such as Costco, will create a much stronger work ethic among employees because it gives them something to work towards. If happy and hard
A code of ethics is essential in today business world, and customers honestly base a company’s reputation on these bases. Simply defined a code of ethics is a set of core values designed to help professionals manage a business that is honest and possess integrity. For example, a code of ethics document should highlight the mission and the values of a business. As well as, illustrate how professionals should approach issues, the ethical principles based on the company’s core values, and caliber to which the professionals are held. It is highly critical that a company like the Cheesecake Factory withholds an ethical and socially responsive code of conduct.
Ungar, Rick. Walmart Pays Workers Poorly And Sinks While Costco Pays Workers Well and Sails-Proof That You Get What You Pay For. Forbes, 17 April, 2013.
Customers are able to trust Costco. The company makes sure that people will know the better quality goods that it sells than other companies. The first thing that customers get successful their budget. Many customers or other business will know that their finances would start off growing well. Costco always advertises to customers about their discounts. Customers will have annual to come and Costco, using their member card. They can browse all products Costco will carry. “The Consumer Reports National Research Center surveyed more than 26,000 subscribers about their shopping experiences at 10 of America’s major chains: Costco, JCPenney, Kmart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Meijer, Sam’s Club, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart.” (Herb Weisbaum)
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.
“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
The Wal-Mart Corporation is a multi-billion dollar low-cost retail organization, consisting of 6400 stores and 1.8 million sales associates worldwide. Wal-Mart’s influence on the retail world and the enormity of their corporate size is unparalleled. Wal-Mart can easily report sales of $312.4 billion dollars per fiscal quarter and net profits of $3.8 billion dollars. Wal-Mart promises her customers "Always low prices. Always!" and upholds this motto by providing low prices to her customers and high return on investment to her stockholders. One way that Wal-Mart has managed to maintain a competitive edge over other low cost retail giants and provide low prices is by cutting wages and by not offering too many company benefits to their employees. Full-time employee working at Wal-Mart only make $8 an hour, while only 45% of the workers can afford to be covered by health insurance. Wal-Mart also increase part time employees from 20 percent to 40 percent so that they do not have to cover all of their employees for health insurance . Although Wal-Mart may not provide excellent benefits to her employees, it successfully performs as a legitimate business operating in a capitalistic society. Wal-Mart upholds the primary fiduciary duty to satisfy her stockholder and follows free the market libertarianism model, which states that a business should not interfering with the free market. In a free market Wal-Mart has a direct responsibility to her primary stockholders rather than the employees of a company.
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. Costco also entices their customers with low prices on designated set apart products available only at their stores. Within these designated products, Costco provides a limited selection of nationwide brand-named merchandises in some wide categories. Their approach comprises of selling a limited number of items, keep their costs down, maintain a high volume, compensate employees well, ensure that customers buy their memberships, and target upscale small-business owners through their business only
Costco, a company also known for low prices, but more importantly, known for treating their workers better. Costco workers earn “70 percent more than the average full-time Wal-Mart worker and 40 percent more than the average Sam’s Club worker.” Costco stays true to their business model and their employees. As a veteran and doing research on how companies treat their employees, I saw that Costco has a really amazing recruitment program which is highly veteran friendly. Costco proves that you can have a highly profitable company while treating your employees right (giving them a slice of the
After news of the scandal of Enron, one of the hottest items on e-Bay was a 64-page copy of Enron’s corporate code of ethics. One seller/former employee proclaimed it had “never been opened.” In the forward Kenneth L. Lay, CEO of Enron stated, “We want to be proud of Enron and to know that it enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty and that it is respected (Enron 2).” For a company with such an extensive code of ethics and a CEO who seemed to want the company to be respected for that, there are still so many unanswered questions of what exactly went wrong. I believe that simply having a solid and thorough code of ethics alone does not prevent a company from acting unethically when given the right opportunity.
Their boards are similar in member size (Walmart with 12 and Costco with 13). Both companies also advocate for a separate CEO and Chairman. They also have a similar number of meetings per year (Walmart 6 and Costco 5) (Spencer 4). Both companies also utilize executive sessions and Costco, like Walmart, has at least two executive sessions a year for independent directors (Costco 11). Finally Costco also has a code of ethics that applies to all employees, directors and executives. They
The human resource services at Albertsons appears to be much better than their chief competitor Wal-Mart’s .It is mentioned that the average Albertsons employee earns more than a Wal-Mart ‘s employee. Also employees at Albertsons enjoy benefits like health insurance and retirement packages
... when dealing with the code of ethics. When becoming an employee at a Dunkin’ Donuts establishment it is important for them to have a personal responsibility to understand and apply ethical behavior and act with the highest degree of ethics. The Code of Ethics provides managers and employees with guidelines and expectations on how to behave when working in the workplace. It is extremely important to provide workers with a Code of ethics because without it employees would be lost and wouldn’t have guidelines on how to be their best when working at the said Dunkin’ Donuts establishment. The Dunkin’ donuts industry is extremely dependent on they’re every day dealings with their co-workers. The Code of Ethics makes it easier for each worker to do the best they can when working for Dunkin’ Donuts and comply themselves to all their responsibilities the greatest they can.
Many laws have been put into place to make sure corporations act ethically, so they do not harm people or the environment. Corporations have a social responsibility to follow these laws and various other ethical actions; Johnson & Johnson, considered to be one of the most admirable companies according to Fortune, is one company that included their corporate social responsibilities in their code of ethics. Their code of ethics states that executive officers cannot financially benefit from unethical transactions or that their management must be competent and ethical (Code of Business Conduct, 2015). It is important for corporations to act ethically and hold up to their social responsibility, especially within the workplace; ethics are especially
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil
Business Ethics are much more than the buzz word stories on late night news. The Corporate Social Responsibility of a company goes well beyond that. “Business Ethics are moral guidelines for the conduct of business based on notions of what is right, wrong and fair.” (Bellow, 2012). Individual backgrounds play a huge role in person by person code of conduct can vary from employee to employer. To help solve some grey areas in what is ethically correct, companies now make a code of conduct that is over everyone in the company. This code of responsibility helps employees have better understanding of what is required of each and every one of them. “Corporate Social Responsibility is a business philosophy which stresses the need for