E-Pledge-O-Meter (8:55 PM - 4/7/04) ------------------------------------------- |XXXXXXXXXX|XXXXXXXXX-|----------|----------| ------------------------------------------- There is a body of opinion that thinks that the Wal-Mart way of doing business is dictated by the free market. Well, it turns out that Costco competes with Wal-Mart but has a different philosopy and does quite well (both by its employees and its shareholders). The following is an excerpt from an article in 'Business Week' magazine:
"Costco's high-wage approach actually beats Wal-Mart at its own game on many measures. BusinessWeek ran through the numbers from each company to compare Costco and Sam's Club, the Wal-Mart warehouse unit that competes directly with Costco. We found that by compensating employees generously to motivate and retain good workers, one-fifth of whom are unionized, Costco gets lower turnover and higher productivity. Combined with a smart business strategy that sells a mix of higher-margin products to more affluent customers, Costco actually keeps its labor costs lower than Wal-Mart's as a percentage of sales, and its 68,000 hourly workers in the U.S. sell more per square foot. Put another way, the 102,000 Sam's employees in the U.S. generated some $35 billion in sales last year, while Costco did $34 billion with one-third fewer employees." It appears that there is no reason to cowtow to the Wal-Mart strategy of providing the lowest paid jobs imaginable. Charlie Swope Ward 1 _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
