Costco Wholesale Corporation

Costco Wholesale Corporation has changed the way shopping has been done and centralized merchandise into one location. The founders of Costco Wholesale Corporation, James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman, are the envy of retailers everywhere. Costco was started over 20 years ago and continues to grow every year. They have over 488 locations serving 84 million customers in eight different countries. Costco's annual sales are over $50 billion and employ a work force of nearly 125,000 highly motivated and well paid employees. With these numbers it makes the number one warehouse club and the fourth largest retailer in the nation. The idea behind Costco is to offer a limited selection of merchandise at very low prices, setting razor thin profit margins, establishing lofty ethical standards, and rewarding employees with good pay and healthcare benefits. The reason Costco is able to offer low prices and better value is because they eliminate all the added extras and costs historically associated with conventional wholesalers and retailers such as sales people, fancy buildings, delivery, billing, and accounts receivable. Concrete floors, fluorescent lights and pallets of merchandise piled on to the rafters, the massive 150,000 square foot theater or retail is worthy of the "big box" title. At first this idea started with Sol Price, founder of the California retail Price Club where James Sinegal worked and looked to for a mentor. He learned Price's high volume and low cost trade secrets and also studied the art of getting the right product in the right place for the right price. Sinegal left Price's company to start a competing company, Costco. Later the two businesses merged in 1993.