Costco Customer Base

Renee McDonald (“Plaintiff”) allegedly sustained personal injuries on October 8, 2015 while shopping at a store owned and operated by Costco (“Defendant”) in Brooklyn Park, Maryland. According to the plaintiff, while walking through the store, she tripped on mop water which caused her to fall to the ground and suffer “severe bodily injuries.” The Plaintiff claims that her fall was caused by the mop water. The mopped area had been secured with a yellow caution sign that warned customers of the wet floor. At the time of the Plaintiff’s fall, however, the sign had fallen down and was lying on the floor. Plaintiff alleges that the store did not have proper signage to warn of the hazardous condition.

This is due to the fact that customers are forced to buy in bulk. A strategy taken by Costco wholesales to increase store turnover and profitability. Additionally, to increase its market influence, Costco has added services such as automobile, gas, optometry, pharmacy, and printing at very low prices in the past decade. “What’s better than to rotate my car’s tires, fill my prescription, gas my car, all the while I am finishing my shopping”, a dad might say while shopping at Costco. Finally, unlike any other mega-retailer, Costco has included its own employees as primary target market. By respecting the employees and paying them high wages, Costco has created a positive feedback loop for itself. Highly paid employees will have high loyalty toward the company, and they will shop at Costco for their needs. At the same time, due to their high loyalty, staff will provide high quality customer service for common customers. This generates positive word-of-mouth advertisement leading to an increase in membership sig-ups translating into higher profits for the company (Ingram, 2013).

[NOTE: For all steps, refer to the accompanying Sustainable Growth Tables" of ratio calculations for Costco and its competitors for all years measured. The table are located at the close of this section.]

In order for Costco to stay competitive in the market and ahead of its competitors, it is essential to venture into different products and services. Costco’s main products vary, which include: groceries and frozen products, fresh meats and produce, bakery goods, beverages and liquors, health and beauty products, seasonal goods, office products, appliances and electronics. To increase Costco’s product differentiation over its competitors and increase sales, Costco began to introduce other products; such as pharmacy, gasoline, auto insurance, and a food court. In addition, extends more services to executive card members that include check printing, payroll services, identity protection, free roadside assistance with Costco’s auto insurance, and traveling benefits.

Costco has grown from a single location in Seattle, Washington and is now the largest membership based retailer and currently the 6th largest overall retailer in the United States. In 2011, Costco saw a 10% increase in sales and in 2012, Costco is planning on opening 14 new store locations, three of which will be outside of the US. Costco is no longer a small local retailer but now an international company with different threats and opportunities. As the company continues to grow, it is important for Costco to understand the external threats and opportunities that will impact the company in either a positive or negative way. In order understand these forces a SLEPT analysis is used to analyze the social, legal, economical,

Costco is a recognized and successful retail chain including several locations, glowing feedback, and a wonderful overall reputation. Known by several audiences to be considered a “big-box” store, Costco offers various products in its stores at low, discounted prices, accompanying a membership card. Before and after researching this company, the author of this paper has heard exceptional feedback regarding the company for its initiative to keep prices low, employee morale high, and customer satisfaction to be one of its top priorities. Within this body of work, the author will dissect and discuss some of Costco’s stakeholder perspectives and how some of the perceived initiatives may help aid the company within its

At the end of 2012, Costco was a successful business, but 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. As for the second issue, it seems that Costco’s efforts to become an international company are moving slowly. They have not reached a point where their US and Canadian warehouses provide a backbone for their finances. Costco’s third issue is that their finances are too reliant on acquiring new members and not on selling their products. If they cannot keep acquiring new members at a steady rate, their financial infrastructure could suffer.

There are over 1,178 warehouse club locations across the U.S. and Canada, including Costco’s US warehouses. Unfortunately for the industry, expansion through small-size stores by the industry’s major players is expected to

Imagine a store that never advertises, has no signs in its aisles, doesn’t bag what you purchase, and charges you a fee just to walk in the door; Costco Wholesale is that shop. The purpose of this report is to illustrate how Costco as a multinational corporation strategically manages its marketing operation across global markets. For research purpose, this report will be focused on Costco wholesale in Japan and USA.

turnover, which is made possible by low prices and limited product selection. This business model is appealing for them and has many benefits. Firstly, by setting up the business approach to rapidly

What is Costco’s business model? Is the company’s business model appealing? Why or why not?

In the world of large organizations, Costco is one of the leaders in sales and strive to be a leader in employee satisfaction. Although there are many functions within the company, human resources functioning appears to provide direct impact of these goals. Costco has made changes to their employee performance management processes such as performance management and training that have resulted in changes to the employee’s career paths. Costco changed their process in performance reviews and training with hopes of cutting costs, however the changes have changed employees expectations of the company.

Customers are assets, and their values grow and decline. Segmenting customers based on their lifetime value is a powerful way to target them because marketing mix activities can then aim at enhancing customer value. (Ho, 2006)

This business model has helped the company identify its target market and market segmentation. Operating as a low-cost carrier means the company is seeking to serve cost and value-conscious consumers, small business executives, and customers who are traveling short distances and prefer a low-cost fare. This is the first segment of its target market. The second segment includes families who are value-conscious, and senior citizens.

The bargaining power of customers is high. First of all, the customer size is tremendous globally, which also has an accelerating growth rate in recent years. Customers’ leverage is strengthening as a result of this. Another inevitable factor is that with countless retailors online, there is low switching cost for customers to find other alternative companies that suits their desire to conduct purchases. Moreover, consumers today are more sophisticated. Consumers are less commit to impulsive-buying, yet are more willing to study about product features and evaluate their options before purchasing online. Their purchase pattern can also be hard to learn too.