{"id":7943,"date":"2005-07-15T09:05:33","date_gmt":"2005-07-15T16:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/07\/15\/shop-smart-shop-s-mart.html"},"modified":"2005-07-15T09:05:33","modified_gmt":"2005-07-15T16:05:33","slug":"shop_smart_shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/07\/15\/shop_smart_shop.html","title":{"rendered":"Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interesting article comparing the wage and benefit policies of Wal-Mart vs. Costco<\/a>, showing that you can run a large, big-box retail market and still not treat your employees like coolies.<\/p>\n

But there’s another company that is breaking the Wal-Mart mold: Costco Wholesale Corp., now the fifth-largest retailer in the U.S. While Wal-Mart pays an average of $9.68 an hour, the average hourly wage of employees of the Issaquah, Wash.-based warehouse club operator is $16. After three years a typical full-time Costco worker makes about $42,000, and the company foots 92% of its workers? health insurance tab.<\/p>\n

How does Costco pull it off? How can a discount retail chain pay middle-class wages and still bring in over $880 million in net revenues? And, a cynic may ask, with Wal-Mart wages becoming the norm, why does it bother?<\/p>\n

A number of factors explain Costco?s success at building a retail chain both profitable and fair to its workers. But the basic formula is one the labor movement has been advocating for decades: a loyal, well-compensated workforce means a more efficient and productive one.<\/p>\n

Granted, the source (the Labor Research Assocation<\/a>) is not exactly neutral on the subject, but the numbers behind the rhetoric seem solid, and it does make me feel even better about choosing Costco vs Sam’s Club to drop some hundreds of dollars on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n

(via Kottke)<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interesting article comparing the wage and benefit policies of Wal-Mart vs. Costco, showing that you can run a large, big-box retail market and still not treat your employees like coolies….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31522,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/27\/the-costco-difference.html","url_meta":{"origin":7943,"position":0},"title":"The Costco Difference","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Nov-12 9:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Paying higher wages and better benefits to employees?\u00a0Even with the stock analysts telling them they're being too generous? \u00a0Inconceivable!'But not everyone is happy with Costco's business strategy. Some Wall Street analysts assert that Mr. Sinegal is overly generous not only to Costco's customers but to its workers as well. Costco's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11279,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/04\/there_is_hope_for_america.html","url_meta":{"origin":7943,"position":1},"title":"There is hope for America …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-07 9:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... because the Wal-Mart juggernaut seems to be stalling.\u00a0 Despite this Andromeda Strain-like expansion, the chain may be at a high water mark. Using a combination of low prices and...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7396,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/15\/if_you_cant_bea.html","url_meta":{"origin":7943,"position":2},"title":"If you can’t beat ’em, cheat ’em","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Mar-05 3:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's say you're Wal-Mart, and some community has the audacity to restrict your right to unfettered metasticizing by putting a cap on retail store size -- say, 75,000 square feet,...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9386,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/18\/wal_mart_tries.html","url_meta":{"origin":7943,"position":3},"title":"Wal-Mart tries to be hip, but barely manages hep","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Jul-06 6:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Wal-Mart, seeing more teen shopping dollars going to Target, is trying to woo the cool kids back by building its own MySpace-type of site. Except, of course, it's patently filled...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27512,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/22\/the-revenue-must-flow.html","url_meta":{"origin":7943,"position":4},"title":"The Revenue Must Flow!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 22-Apr-12 7:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Fairly damning evidence regarding Wal-Mart using bribery to leverage their way into the lucrative market in Mexico. Classy! Also, illegal! #ddtb Embedded Link Wal-Mart executives in U.S. brushed aside evidence of rampant bribery in Wal-Mart de Mexico expansion - The Denver Post MEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014In September 2005, a senior Wal-Mart lawyer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13494,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/29\/hope_you_like_the_widescr.html","url_meta":{"origin":7943,"position":5},"title":"“Hope you like the widescreen TV for Christmas, Ma …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Nov-08 2:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"... it was purchased in blood.\" A Wal-Mart worker died early Friday after an \"out-of-control\" mob of frenzied shoppers smashed through the Long Island store's front doors and trampled him,...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}