I hate shopping. Especially if there’s alot of car traffic at the stores. And the long lines at the checkout! If I have to shop, I would rather shop at Costco even if it’s very busy. I love shopping at Costco, buying anything from junk food, electronics, and clothing. I’ve been shopping there for years. I knew people who worked there and loved it. Costco treats their employees and customers very well.

However, there’s times I would shop at Walmart, if I need something fast and something that doesn’t come in bulk or it’s not sold at Costco.

Enough with my shopping habits. Here’s an interesting NYTime’s article about Costco versus Walmart.

[Costco’s CEO] begs to differ. He rejects Wall Street’s assumption that to succeed in discount retailing, companies must pay poorly and skimp on benefits, or must ratchet up prices to meet Wall Street’s profit demands.

Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco’s customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers’ expense. “This is not altruistic,” he said. “This is good business.”

Costco is one company I would like to study more in depth if I were to go back for an MBA or economics degree. Costco’s model has more of an economic impact than accounting whereas Walmart has the opposite. In short, Walmart worries more so with accounting gains to please the stockholders while economic pains is observed. Costco does the opposite in such that accounting costs/profits are not measurable — treat your employees and customers well and they will follow with loyalty.

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