Costco Wholesale Corporation

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Costco Wholesale Corporation consists of over 500 warehouses worldwide which feature discount shopping for customers without the embellishments of sales personnel and lavishly decorated building sites. As it currently stands, Costco is the largest membership warehouse chain in the United States and as of 2009, it is considered the third largest retailer in the US and the ninth largest in the world. The first Costco Wholesale store opened its doors on September 15, 1938 by James Sinegal and Jeffery Brotman in Seattle, Washington. Costco has since expanded to locations all across the globe including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Costco currently obtains over $70 billion in revenues which are generated by a workforce of 142,000 full and part-time employees and has approximately 55 million members. In 1993, Costco merged with Price Club and began a renamed venture called PriceCostco and was led by executives of both companies. However, the executives of Price Club left the company in December of 1994. In 1997, the company changed its named to Costco Wholesale and promptly rebranded all existing Price Club locations. The main competitors of Costco are the other major warehouse retail centers Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale club. Although Sam’s Club has many more warehouses Costco decisively retains higher overall sales volume. Costco has been the first company to grow $3 billion in sales in less than six years and has unsurprisingly been ranked number 25th on the 2010 Fortune 500.

Costco’s mission is simple; to continually provide members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices. In order to do this Costco conducts their business with the followin...

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... itself on its employees, treating them far better than any of its competitors and it shows because Costco’s largest operation costs are its employees cost. Costco encourages moving up in the company by always hiring from within and supporting positions with training. They provide their employees with a wide range of health benefits to both full-time and part-time employees. Include 401k investment options, which Costco match 50% of the first $1000 and also put additional money into 401k’s for years of service provided.Lastly, Costco offers competitive wages averaging to $17 an hour including bonuses twice a year, which is also weighted by years of service. Since Costco makes employee satisfaction a major priority the majority of their employees stay with the company. This benefits Costco by allowing them to retain highly trained, happy and productive workers.

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