Go Costco! F Walmart.
 

It says I must log into my acct to access the article, can u copy paste the article to this posting ?

Wes; I agree, Walmart seems like a Petrie dish for Roaches. Cost Co has great quality products at a fair price. Walmart has Cheep crap at cheep prices. But it seems like a life style choice. Some people would rather have Quantity over Quality. I don't have to feed a family of 8 kids so its hard to to knock people on a small budget for shopping in bulk to save. I can afford to shop where I like but many people Can't and IMO the others either don't care about where Walmart products come from or are on another planet and could care less. If you really want to sicken your self watch a movie called
"Walmart. The high price of low cost"

It is deplorable that a company in America contracts with factory's not just in china But all over the world that Completley take advantage of workers. It is simply unbelievable what Walmart Factory's Or Company's that Walmart buys from put their employes threw. IMO Walmart takes advantage and turns a blind eye to poor working conditions and low pay long hr's in exchange for low cost products that are pure $hit so that Americans that must consume in Mass quantity can have low prices.

I must admit I have bought 22.3 Ammo at Walmart. This was before I saw the Documentary now I buy at other places like Big 5.

Costco has been selling their $1.50 hot dog and soda for the same price since 1984. They sell 90 million of them a year worldwide. Years ago a young execurtive came to Jim and showed him how much money they could make if they raised them just 25 cents, surely 25 cents wouldn't slow sales and they could in crease profit by $22,000,000. He refused and said come to me when you can lower the cost to produce them.

He's a smart business man and does it in a very different way than the norm. It obviously works.

Here is a link to the Movie Im talking about
http://www.walmartmovie.com/

I have one beef with Costco.
My wife and I went to Maui last year. we stopped at Costco to stock up on some food for the week. we went to grab a big container of sliced mangos. they were from Mexico! are you kidding me! Mexico! we were in Maui! Mangos were everywhere on that island. needless to say, we stopped at a fruit stand for our mango fix. I thought that seemed a bit silly.
other than that, Costco is great imo.

Costco has been my favorite store where I spend more many than any other for years. I go there every week. This is a great story that makes me feel even better about that. I even ran my last couple of re-financings through them (which can't be beat as far as costs from what I've found). Several years ago, I got a membership at Sam's Club to compare and get a little more variety. Paying their employees a lot less definitely showed. The employees there were definitely not up to par with Costco's. Its too bad more companies don't trim their executive pay (who are basically no more than upper managers) and take better care of their employees.

See, here's where I wrestle with myself... on the one hand I'm like, "Hellz yeah! you go!" but then I'm like, "wait, why did they go public"? was it because they needed some capital to plow into the company to expand, go into new markets, or whatever? Whatever the reason, they did it. So don't those investors also have a right to pressure Costco to maximize their returns on their investment? Then I'm like, "yeah, i know... most investors don't give a crap about the actual company... in fact "COST" is just another ticker in a portfolio they're managing... so YEAH! Take care of the workers!

It looks like what is Costco today is the result of a few mergers and divestitures... so they may have been a publicly traded company for a long time. It's the old double edged sword of being a publicly traded company. Once you IPO, it's like signing a deal with the devil! If you want to run a company NOT as profitable as possible (not that I condone ONLY focusing on maximizing profit) you really should stay private. It's probably the number one thing an owner has to consider when thinking of going public.. i'd bet you a dollar ol' facebook boy wishes he'd never gone public.

I don't understand the issues here. You are comparing apples and oranges. Costco and Walmart serve two entirely different markets (with some overlap) with two entirely different business models. Walmart isnt MAKING people work for them people are CHOOSING to work for Walmart - they can leave whenever they want. This is like comparing Nordstroms with K-Mart. These are different models with different priorities. This isn't about margins this is about business models. Costco wants a better customer experience - Walmart wants lower prices.

Walmart - $440B
Costco - $100B

Secondly, the thing that drives me crazy is that people are always looking for a "deal". People will scour the internet looking for the best price on a particular item electronics, cars, etc. and then criticize a company like Walmart for going offshore to reduce the cost of goods. You can't have it both ways. Either you pay the premium for American made goods or you accept that our goods are sourced in Asia.

Do you find it hard to believe that the U.S. work force's compensation is so bloated that it is literally cheaper to ship products around the world then to make them locally? Thank your local Union.

Not so much sure I blame the unions as much as the govt for mandating regulations and rules for businesses and then allowing imports from countries that don't have the same rules without imposing a tariff to level the field.

It isn't logical to allow a trade deficit to deplete the economy unless the means to counteract the depletion is a good one. So far it seems that govt deficit spending and monetary expansion is the only means, and everyone seems to hate those.

Fair enough. It is ignorant of me to consider a single point of failure here but you get my point. I agree that the government does have a huge impact on these issues as well.

has anyone realized this was published in 2005

The problem is that walmarts business model is to run mom and pop shops out of business with low prices. Then the mom and pop owners and employees don't have jobs anymore. Since walmart is now the only store in the area, then they don't get much of a choice in the matter. It's a vicious cycle and it is what they purposely do. It's evil.

Please tell me you are kidding. Capitalism is evil? Come on....This is a performanced based economy and it is driven by the people. The people want inexpensive, high quality products. Here is the painful reality - Small Businesses don't have buying power. It is that simple. Go provide a serivce, do something with some captive IP but if you are selling Soap against Walmart - you are gonna lose. Darwinism at its finest.

That is funny Hate. My old land lord for the lake sammamish house I lived in was an exec at Costco. I think it was his boss, whoever the CFO is, is the one who mentioned that. While we were living in that house he told us Costco was going to start making their own hot dogs and they were going to get bigger and cost costco less.

The Costco hot dog meal might be the best lunch deal you can find in the USA.

That's fine and well. I'm not suggesting that we outlaw walmart. However, I choose not to shop there for these reasons. Vote with my wallet.

That is the beauty of this system - you can vote with your wallet. The downside to that is that everyone else can too which is why these SMB's can't survive. Although people say they want to support America's SMB's - the majority don't. Price is more important than nearly any other aspect which is why the Walmart's of the world continue to thrive.

The saying " The Market is always right" might seem to fit but but at times I see the market kind of like a 5 year old child. If you gave it everything it ever asked for would it be a better person or would it be a better Market. If you went into the Ghetto and asked people what stores they wanted I would hate to imagine what the hood would be like!

Sure we all want low prices but at what cost? I do agree with Jason, Vote with your wallet. You don't like Walmart! Dont shop their. Urge your friends and Family not not shop their. I feel the same way about Target and all the other. Mass quanity discount places.

I don't understand why people do not like these big discount stores. Yes, they support a lot of jobs offshore (which isn't really their problem it is a systemic problem) but this company employs 2.2M people. I don't know the exact number but I suspect that at least 80% of those people live in America. They made $15B in profilt in 2011 - I would suspect the majority of that profit is distributed in North America. The amount of jobs they support, the amount of American based businesses they support is extreme. It is short sided IMO to think that Walmart is doing bad things for America.

And since those employees are paid so poorly, they can only afford to shop at walmart. So the money is put right back into walmarts greedy ass hands. Vicious cycle. Walmart has mastered the manipulation of local economy.

This is probably what frustrates me the most. I understand that when Walmart comes into a local market that they do remove higher paying jobs. I also understand that they pay below the poverty level in most instances at the Associate level. But amazingly 2.2M people work at Walmart. QUIT WORKING AT WALMART! Guess what......people move near opportunity, they take risks, they go to different places, they get educated, they move out of rural locales and move to the city. Working at Walmart is a CHOICE. Don't go to work there and then complain and expect to get paid more for doing the same job. They are perfectly clear about their intentions - low cost - so either you buy in and accept it or move on.

I highly doubt that Walmart has their eye on keeping the pay low so their employees have to shop there. All associates get a 10% discount and I bet less than 10% of their products have a 10% margin - so Walmart is losing money with their employees.

" I bet less than 10% of their products have a 10% margin - so Walmart is losing money with their employees"

I highly doubt this. as cheap as their products are, they are made for basically nothing. businesses dont lose money on purchases made, even those made by employees.

2012 net profit margin 3.68%

That doesn't really matter. Even at a loss, it benefits them because it keeps the money out of the pockets of other businesses in the area. You're being really naive if you think that walmart execs aren't seeing that.

In the end, it's almost like endentured slavery ( ok ok that is extreme, but hear me out). Walmart is the poor employees source of A LOT of goods. Food, house necessities, clothes, oil changes, tires, tools, shoes, luggage, toys, sporting equipment, lawn care, seasonal items... hell they even have banks, hair salons, eye centers, pharmacies. So since the employee needs all these things for cheap, they get all of that at walmart. So in a sense, walmart is just paying their employees in mostly product, plus SOME cash. In the end, the employee only spends a portion of their pay outside of walmart, and on things that walmart cannot supply.