on the pro-employee bandwagon again

[quietann]

I don't belong to Costco, but apparently there is good reason to support them:

Costco's Love of Labor

Costco pays its workers better and gives them better benefits. Wall Street bashes on them for this, because it "decreases shareholder profits." Well, boo-hoo.

Comments

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

yeah, i heard that. made me want to go get a costco membership. i wonder how bj's stacks up? certainly the bj's help doesn't appear either happy or invested in the company...

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I like shopping at Costco. Good place. Trader Joe's too.

S'funny, the stores I most like to buy household items from all seem to be nicer to their employees.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

I was listening to that on the radio last night. I hope Wall Street doesn't succeed in buggering the employees.

It's made me think seriously about getting a membership there.

[ceo]

I went to Costco for the first time last weekend, and was impressed. (I hadn't before because they only take Amex, not Visa.) The quality of their offerings was an order of magnitude higher then BJs.

Now I have even more reason to go there. :-)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

yeah, the amex-vs.-visa thing is pretty much what keeps me from shopping there. I'm not going to go get a whole other credit card just so I can shop at one store--and the annual fee for an Amex is about $75 and that plus the annual membership fee would likely eat any savings. I *could* just use cash but it's becoming more and more difficult to wander about with more than about $100 on one's person.

I don't shop at places that make it hard for me to spend money there. That includes putting stuff in hard to find places, having unhelpful sales staff, and...not taking commonly accepted forms of payment.

[clauclauclaudia]

You can use ATM/debit cards at Costco, too. That's what I do.

[scliff.livejournal.com]

They take checks, and will even print all the info on them so all you have to do is sign them.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

The CostCo American Express card is handy just for this purpose. It also gets cash rebates based on how much you purchase.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Besides other peoples' suggestions (ATM/debit cards, checks etc.) you should also know that Visa and MC charge a hefty fee to merchants (varies from 1% to 4% of sales total). So one of Costco's strategies for saving money is to not do business with them.

Even if your bank charges $1 for each use of a debit card (as many do), you'll still save money....

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

From a business point of view, it's fascinating -- you split the take between the employees and Wall Street. Which is it harder to get, workers who are good enough for the job, or investment capital? Right now, workers are somewhat cheap, but interest rates are very low, so bashing workers is somewhat in. But as the economy recovers, workers will get a lot more expensive, while money will only get a bit more expensive.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

It's also a good move from a PR perspective, especially since Costco aims for a slightly "higher" part of the market than its major competitor, WalMart. To people with more disposable income, clean, well-organized stores and non-surly staff matter more...