标题: Fortune, Dec 15, 2016 (III) [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 12-22-2016 17:03 标题: Fortune, Dec 15, 2016 (III) (3) Neal Gabler, The Magic in the Warehouse. Cosco became a phenomenon by doing things on its own way. But with Amazon ever more powerful, millennial shoppers burgeoning, and a new generation of leaders awaiting its turn, can the company preserve its edge? http://fortune.com/costco-wholesale-shopping/
Note:
(a) "the eerily quiet, nondescript beige-and-red brick office complex in the bucolic Seattle suburb of Issaquah, at the foot of a small mountain range called the Issaquah Alps, would be the nerve center [headquarters] of one of America’s corporate behemoths.
(i) Issaquah, Washington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issaquah,_Washington
(a city; section 1 History: name; 15 miles (24 km) east-southeast of Seattle)
(b) "Costco Wholesale, the world's third-largest retailer, with $116 billion in sales in fiscal 2016 * * * Its worldwide sales trail only those of Walmart, which has 11,528 stores to Costco’s 715, and Amazon, which just climbed into second place. Costco is the world’s largest seller of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine (!), and it moves more nuts than Planters. Its private label, Kirkland Signature, which sells everything from packaged goods and beverages to apparel, generates more revenues than the Coca-Cola Co. * * * The company’s retention rate for employees who have been there a year is 94%. * * * And if nobody leaves, almost nobody gets fired either. When the recession hit and most companies were laying off employees, Costco's brain trust didn’t let anyone go. 'It wasn’t even something that we thought about,' [CEO Craig] Jelinek says. Instead, the company actually raised wages."
(c) "CLAUDINE ADAMO is one of those employees. And she is Costco's future. When Adamo, now 46, graduated from Western Washington University, where she majored in finance marketing * * * Her initial dream was dashed when, hoping to land at headquarters, she was told that everyone at Costco starts in the warehouse, which is what the company calls its capacious stores. Adamo swallowed her pride and went to Kirkland, where she greeted members [customers; Costco is membership only] and checked receipts. * * * Just about every executive has grown up that way, including CEO Jelinek. 'I know what it;s like to shag carts,' he says."
(i) Western Washington University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Washington_University
(1893- ; public; located in Bellingham)
(ii) Kirkland, Washington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkland,_Washington
("Warehouse chain Costco previously had its headquarters in Kirkland (now in Issaquah); the city is the namesake of its 'Kirkland Signature' store brand; section 1 History: Peter Kirk)
(iii) shag (vt): "to chase after; especially : to chase after and return (a ball) hit usually out of play" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shag
(d) "Then there is the way it treats its employees. Costco pays them well—an average wage of $22 per hour, vs. $13.38 at Walmart—and provides generous benefits like full health and dental insurance even to its part-time employees; a 401(k) with stock options after a year; and liberal vacation time and family leave. * * * [Co-founder Jim] Sinegal in turn attributes his business philosophy to Sol Price, a gruff attorney who founded FedMart in 1954 in San Diego—the original warehouse store that sold in bulk, primarily to small businesses, at good value. * * * 'Do the right thing' was and still is the company [Costco] mantra. * * * Though the moral imperative was stern, Sinegal's management style was anything but. He created an informal, unintimidating environment in which no one was afraid of making mistakes and no one was jockeying for position. Egalitarianism permeated everything"
(i) Sol Price https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Price
(ii) Margalit Fox, Sol Price, Who Founded Price Club, Is Dead at 93. New York Times, Dec 16, 2009 www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/business/16price.html
("Sol Price was born in the Bronx on Jan 23, 1916. His parents worked in New York City's garment industry. (The original family surname has been lost to time. It was changed, prophetically, to Price at Ellis Island) ")
(e) "Among Costco's efficiencies are the fact that it doesn't advertise; it has a limited selection—only 3,700 products compared with 140,000 at a Walmart superstore and half a billion at Amazon. That allows Costco to drive hard bargains with suppliers. * * * Costco profit margins are a whisper-thin 2%"