Alex Accola and Bradan Allen
Principles Of Business
Block 3
Costco Wholesale
-Headquarters: Issaquah, WA
-Business Name: Costco Wholesale
-Address Telephone: 1 (800) 774-2678
-Costco's corporate offices are located at:
999 Lake Drive
Issaquah, WA 98027
-Costco's corporate mailing address is:
PO Box 34331
Seattle, WA 98124
-Website: http://www.costco.com/
Business Bio Description-
Costco was Founded September 15th 1983 by Jeffrey H. Brotman Costco Wholesale Corporation is an international chain of membership warehouses mainly under
Costco. Costco carries quality brand merchandise for a lower price that you would see at any other wholesale store. The Costco warehouses are made to help small to medium sized
businesses . The stuff that
…show more content…
they will sell you is for everyday use as well as personal needs. Costcos first location opened in 1976 Under the Price Club name, was in a converted airplane hangar on Morena Boulevard in San Diego. It originally only served small business, the company that founded it could achieve far greater thing buying clout by also serving a certain audience of non business members. Later with some changes to the business the growth of the warehouse industry was off and running. In 1983 the first Costco Warehouse location was opened outside Seattle. Soon Costco became the first company ever to grow from zero to 3 billion dollars in sale in less than 6 years. Price Club was still around but in 1993 the merged with Costco. The now combine company operation named under Costco had 206 generating 16 billion dollars in annual sales making it a very well known wholesale business. Costco has about 189,000 employees working for them throughout all the stores but at the rate Costco is growing the amount of employees needed is only going to get more and more. Some people high up in Costco include Pat Callans the Senior Vice President, Human resources and risk managements. Roger A. Campbell Senior Vice President Operations. Also Richard C. Chavez is the Senior Vice President- Costco Wholesale Industries and Business Developments. Costco has many strengths as a wholesale business. For starters, everything sold at Costco is bought in large amounts and then sold in large proportions. By doing this, Costco is able to sell their products very cheap compared to buying from the grocery store. Although Costco has a many non-name brand objects, they do carry a lot of name brand products. Because of this many people shop at Costco. Costco has many locations which makes it easy and convenient for people to access. Not everybody wants to buy bulk or can afford to buy bulk which make that a downfall to buying from Costco.
Many people might not want to buy bulk because they don't have the money for it all at one time or they can't eat or use that product in time before it expires. Costco also does not carry all name brand products so you might have to compromise on brand when buying from them.
An opportunity for Costco to expand its business would be bringing more name brand items to its stores. By doing this they would attract more customers which in turn results in more money. As well as this Costco should also divide up some of their bulk items so more people can buy smaller amounts.
Costcos threats might include competitors such as Sam’s Club and Walmart. People might pick Walmart over Costco because Walmart does not require a membership in enter and it carries more name brand products. Sam’s Club is nearly the same thing as Costco. The only advantage someone may see to buying from Sam’s Club is that they might be more convenient or they might have more name brand
…show more content…
products. Sales Figures- Over the last ten years Costco has been growing in growing selling more and more each and every year. As shown on the graph at the right Costcos Revenue growth has grown on an average of 50000 million dollars over the past ten years. Costco is making itself less of a competition to others because its competition can't compete with how well Costco is doing. Shown on the graph over the last year it shows that Costco is doing almost 40 percent better than Walmart and almost 100 percent better than Target is doing. This just shows how rapidly Costco is growing and how big of a company they are becoming. 5 products- Costco sells a lot of televisions.
The targeted customer for these T.V.s would most likely be a new homeowner and/or a 20 to 40 year old male. The benefit to buying a television at Costco would be that it is cheaper. On average, Cost televisions are 1% cheaper than Bestbuy. Other than that, there is no advantages or disadvantages. You can buy tires through Costco. The targeted consumer for tires would be any car owner or anyone that has a vehicle in need of tires. Costco tires are the same brands as other dealers, so the benefit would only be price. Costco has a large fruit section. The targeted customer for buying their fruit is anyone who has a family who eats fruit and/or anyone who can consume a lot of fruit quickly so it doesn't spoil because you have to buy it in bulk. The benefit to buying Costco fruit is that it is organic and cheap as well. Costco stores have a pharmacy within them which sells medicine. The targeted customer would anybody with medical insurance who doesn't like running around to different stores to get medicine and related products. The benefit is that you can make one stop for medicine and food products. At Costco, there is an eyeglasses center. The targeted consumer would be male or female of any age with bad vision. The benefit to buying glasses from Costco is that they are
cheap. Competition- One way Costco keeps the cost low and keeping customers satisfied with their visits to costco is that it avoids the idea of it being a “place for everyone.” When somebody goes into a Costco you might not find the company product that you like but Costco has limited but high quality choices. An average Costco Wholesale store has only 4,000 different items in stock which is a lot less than Walmart with a total of 40,000 different items but Costcos 4,000 will be the top of the line items for the best price. Also Costco’s “members only” setup charges customers annual fees ranging from $55 to $110. Its the membership that allows Costco to deliver roasted chickens to their customers for under $5 and offer deals you won’t find anywhere else. Currently Costco has 69 million members and the renewal rate for memberships is at a 90 percent in the United States. The competition that Costco beats out time and time again are Sams Club who has the same idea but doesn’t have the same kind of deals as Costco and Walmart because even though Wal-Mart might have great deals they can't compete with the same type of quality Costco offers. By providing the highest quality options and having such great deals for the consumers Costco is able to keep on out beating the competitors for customers. Sources- http://www.costco.com/ http://moneymorning.com/2013/11/20/why-costco-nasdaq-cost-will-keep-beating-the-competition http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-robert-craves-20141112-story.html googleimages.com
Trader Joe’s also followed the statement into the cost leadership strategy that they do not set up a large shopping center area, instead of a place less than 10000 square feet which carry less items than normal market. It shows that, people would rather like to shopping in the area with less items because it can save their time of finding the products and consideration of buying products.
There are ten elements needed to survive a zombie apocalypse: a steady food supply, clean water, medicine, transportation, gas, a defense system, a sturdy shelter, a safe place to sleep within the shelter, weapons, and simple tools. Costco supplies all of these items. According an article in The Concordian, “If you asked 100 people where they would hide during a zombie apocalypse, 98 would say Costco. Costco is a vast market that sells basically anything you would need to live there permanently” (Menexis). Unfortunately that still leaves those two out of one hundred people that disagree. Those people say that Costco would be an unwise place to be during the apocalypse because of its sheer size. They state that the massive size of a Costco store is too big for a person or even small group of people to defend. While this argument has a logical line of thinking behind it, there are several factors that render this viewpoint invalid. Costco does not need a huge defense system because it is literally a huge warehouse. This means that Costco is essentially a huge concrete box with two ope...
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.
In other words, it wants to offer lower prices than a competitor like Target in order to drive foot traffic and sales. Wal-Mart has been effective in its quest, but Target has an edge in one area, and it 's an area that has the potential to grow. Target 's secret weapon is its REDcard. For Target customers using the REDcard, Target is actually cheaper than Wal-Mart. This is because Target REDcard members save 5% on most purchases. Plus, Target REDcard members visit the store more often and buy more items. Target is also offering free online shipping for REDcard members, which has led to significant online penetration. Wal-Mart has the edge, but not when you include Target 's
Compare your shopping experiences at retailers like Costco, Nordstrom, or Whole Foods with experiences you may have had at Walmart, Sears, or Kroger.
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
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.
Nguyen, A. (2013, April 12). Costco: From Concept to $1 Billion in Three Years. Costco Wholesales Corp. . Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://lindaperry.us/aec3033/AdNguyen2.pdf
Mart if you are looking for random items, but if you are truly shopping for groceries Publix has
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.
...ts and merchandise have similar quality counterparts at lower prices at Wal-mart could definitely be considered a threat.
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 ...
They also provide job security, employees are guaranteed that they won’t get fired in the spur of the moment just because their boss is having bad day. Employees that have been with Costco for more than two years cannot be terminated without the approval of a senior manager.
Therefore, the customers could still just go to Wal-Mart or Target to get the items they would send along with their groceries. The company would have to think of a way to get the customers to stop by our store instead of Wal-Mart. Another threat of the company would be trying to develop relationships with supplier and partners. It can be difficult trying to get many common name brand things into a small store and the business will have to try hard in creating a strong relationship with the
stores such as Sam’s Club or Costco is huge. It is economical to buy frequently used