The Costco Wholesale Corporation Marketing Essay

The Costco Wholesale Corporation Marketing Essay Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States with an aim to offer low prices on the selective and specialty brands in the wide range of products. Costco opened its first warehouse in 1983 and since has grown to become the fifth-largest retailer in the United States and seventh-largest retailer in the world. Currently headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, Costco has 614 warehouses with 67.4 million members and 160, 292 employees worldwide. Costco began its journey in Seattle, Washington with its business model similar to that of Price Club. Price Club was founded in 1975 by Robert Price and has been considered the pioneer of the warehouse stores. Its membership was only available to business customers and certain groups such as employees of local businesses, nonprofits, or government. Shoppers paid a membership fee to the company to buy bulk products at discounted prices in a no-frills warehouse setting. Costco was founded on the ba sis of the same concept; however, it started to expand customers to non-business members as well to raise their profit. In less than six years, Costco became the first company ever to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales. By the early 90s, it had outperformed its rival club, Price Club. However, Sams Club became successful in surpassing them both. Face with threats of a takeover by Sams Club, Costco and Price Club entered into a partial merger in 1993, creating the nations largest warehouse chain. The newly formed company, named PriceCostco, focused heavily on international expansion. However, the company soon faced a breakup due to disagreements between the two leaders, Jim Sinegal and Robert Price, regarding company direction. Sinegal continued to manage PriceCostco while Prices breakaway company was named as Price Enterprises. In 1997, the company changed its name to Costco Wholesale and all its Price Club locations were rebranded as Costco. SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses No-frills approach Low product and services Tenured management Satisfied employees Membership Loyalty High inventory turnover compared to its competitors Incredible return policy Great membership benefits Private label Not enough warehouses Weak advertising No self-checkout Store hours Contributing to higher carbon footprint and pollution due to bulk-packaged products Opportunities Threats Future expansion Private label growth Costco.com Economic downturn Strong competition Diversification in terms of geography Political, cultural and ethical issues with international expansion Strengths Costcos no-frills approach has helped the leader keep its overhead costs low and in turn offer great prices to its customers. Costco does not let fancy buildings, salespeople, and big advertising budgets get in the way of providing great values. It has been successful at keeping overhead costs low by eliminating costs historically associated with wholesalers and retailers, such as delivery, billing, and account receivable. Costco buys its merchandise directly from the manufacturers and route it either to a cross-docking consolidation point or directly to their individual warehouses. Their depots receive container-based shipments from manufacturers and reallocate these goods for shipment to their individual warehouses in less than twenty-four hours. This allows Costco to eliminate many of the costs associated with traditional multi-step distribution channels by maximizing freight volume and handling efficiencies. Traditional steps generally include purchasing from distributors as oppo sed to manufacturers, use of central receiving, storing, and distributing warehouses, and storage of goods off the sales floor. Costco passes the savings generated from elimination of these traditional costs to the consumers by not marking up its merchandise more than 15%. In comparison, a supermarket may mark up its merchandise by 25% while a markup by department store may be up to 50%. Costcos strategy to offer limited selection of nationally branded products in a wide range of merchandise categories has helped the business generate high sales volume and quick inventory turnover. It carries fewer than 4000 items as compared to 40,000 items at a supermarket and 100,000 items at Walmart. For example, Costco may only carry one size of Aspirin bottle containing 350 pills, whereas a Walmart may carry two or more different sizes of Aspirin bottle. Narrowing the number of options increases the sales volume of each, allowing Costco to squeeze deeper and deeper bulk discounts from suppliers. Because of high sales volume and quick inventory turnover, Costco sells it inventory before it is required to pay many of its merchandise vendors. It can use cash received from selling its inventory to pay it vendors and thus avoiding financing and payment plans. Costcos additional strength lies in its strong managerial ground. Costco believes in a homegrown approach to management by promoting from within the company. The majority of its current home and regional office team members are home grown, which means that they started in their warehouses, depots, and business centers, learned the business and moved up within the company. One great example is its current CEO, Craig Jelinek. He started his career with Costco almost 28 years ago by managing a single warehouse; however, he is now responsible for managing almost over 600 warehouses. In addition, Costco ensures its employees satisfaction by providing them with generous wages and benefits. While this practice may be more expensive for Costco, they have an off-setting cost containment effect. Its turnover rate is unusually low at 17% overall and just 6% after one years employment. In contrast, Walmarts turnover rate is 44% per year, which is close to the industry average. Due to its low tur nover rate Costco saves money spent on recruiting, hiring, and training. It takes cares of its employee, which in turn take care of its members. Smiling employees help make Costco the best shopping experience. In addition to low prices and great service, Costco has a very generous and hassle-free return policy. It offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of its products including food, furniture, jewelry, and electronics. If a member is not 100% satisfied with the purchase, they may return it at any time for a full refund; there are no time limits with the exception of electronics. Electronics, such as televisions, projectors, camcorders, touchscreen tablets, MP3 players, and cell phones, must be returned within 90 days of purchase. However, Costco offers a two-year manufacturers warranty on its electronics free of charge. Perhaps, its the low prices and great shopping experience that Costco has been able to retain its members successfully. In the United States and Canada, it has been able to keep 90% of members, while it retains 86% of members worldwide. This number is even higher for business members at 93.7%. In addition, other great membership benefits offered by Costco contribute t o its success in retaining members. It has formed strategic relationships with outside parties to ensure that its members can be provided great warehouse prices for additional products and services that range from health and auto insurance to five star vacations. Costco has also been very successful with its private label offering, Kirkland Signature. It is now considered a strong private label offering as it competes with many national brands in an ever-expanding range of categories. After 19 years since its launch, the private label products now represent only 15% of the items carried by Costco but generate 20% of its sales dollars. The goal of the company with Kirkland Signature products is to provide equal or better quality at discounted products. It believes that it has the capacity to increase the sales penetration of its Kirkland Signature products to 30% over the next several years, while continuing to provide its members with quality brand name products that will always be part of its product selection. Weaknesses Although strengths exceed Costcos weaknesses, it still needs to address them for the betterment of the companys future. Its warehouse locations are mainly concentrated in urban areas with higher population densities versus their competition Sams club who chooses to place their clubs in the suburbs. It may be very time consuming for someone to shop at Costco who does not live nearby its coverage areas. In addition, long lines at the checkout are the subject of many complaints made by Costco customers. In comparison with BJs, Costco does not have self-checkout lanes while BJs has well managed self-checkout lanes. Their store hours are also a big setback for busy members. Many of the other membership clubs open early for the convenience of business members and stay open late to accommodate busy families. Another weakness of Costcos strategy is that they spend very less on advertising. They generally rely on reputation and word of mouth advertising. However, one of Costcos biggest competitor, Sams Club, spends about 50 million dollars on advertising and direct mail promotions. If Costcos competitors are able to take away its market share due to lack of promotional activities, it may adversely affect Costcos future performance. Since many of Costcos members may purchase too much stuff unnecessarily due to its bulk packaging, the practice may lead to higher carbon footprint and pollution. Costco offers bulk-packaged products to target large families and business owners. However, many of its members are not large families or business owners; they choose to stop at Costco because they like the products and prices. As a result, they end up purchasing more than their needs and create unnecessary waste. It may be seen as a negative because it is against current mainstream green marketing. Opportunities Of the 614 Costco warehouses worldwide, nearly three quarters are located in the United States. Costco can find opportunities to increase international expansion that will help fuel decades of future growth. Recently, India and China have become the choice of retail expansion for big businesses like Walmart. Similarly, Costco can find ways to increase its presence in these markets as well. As more stores open, more opportunities will be created for Costcos private label, Kirkland Signature, products to compete against big brands. Growth of its private label can also be fueled by looking into introducing more margin enhancing products. Growing trend of internet shopping can also open up many opportunities for Costco. Costcos current website, Costco.com, is currently members only. To target members that may not have the privilege to shop at Costco warehouses, it can offer online only membership. This approach can help Costco rapidly expand its market saturation. Additionally, it can lead to improved margins while simultaneously improving revenue growth. Costco can also take advantage of the current economic downturn by finding more high quality products at affordable prices from various vendors that may not have been available before.

Deaf Like Me Book Report Essay

This book was really interesting and touching. The parents of Lynn, the deaf little girl, were very strong parents and their struggle to be able to make their daughters life as normal as possible was hard for them since everywhere they went the answer the always got was, for Lynn to try to talk and be treated as a normal child. As parents, Louise and Tom did everything they were told and only hoped for the best and that one day their deaf child would be able to talk. Since the beginning when they found out their daughter was deaf they did all the research they could to try and be able to make life better for Lynn. Every doctor and specialist they saw always told me to treat her as a normal child, to talk to her, and to not use gestures or sign language. When Louise and Tom took Lynn to get tested at several different places they finally found that she was profoundly deaf. They got her a hearing aid to see if this would help her hear better but sadly it didn’t make a difference, Lynn still wasn’t able to hear anything. The things the doctors and specialist told them stuck in their heads; if she did gestures or used signs to communicate she would not have a normal life and be labeled as a deaf person. The way they described this made Louise and Tom think that if their daughter didn’t learn how to speak or read lips she would have a miserable life. They didn’t want Lynn to suffer when she got older they wanted her to grow up like any other child and be able to communicate with others and talk. Lynn wasn’t retarded or handicapped, she was just deaf but because of the information they got it seemed like she was and that was what they didn’t want her to be labeled as. When they heard about Star King Exceptional School, which was a school for deaf children, they wanted to see if this was a good place for Lynn to attend. This school was an oral school only and kids there were thought how to read lips and learn how to talk. Since they had heard a lot of good things about this school and the way it was described to them they thought this would be the perfect place for Lynn to learn how to talk. Lynn attended here but throughout the whole time she was there she only made a little progress. With practicing at home and at school Louise and Tom knew that she  would eventually learn how to talk because she made small progress and was slowly learning. Like I mentioned the information they were told repeatedly was only half the truth. When they met Barbara Simmons at the meeting they had at the school their lives would finally become less stressful. She thought sign language was a good way to communicate with deaf children and by them learning sign language it would make their lives easier. She introduced them to Jim and Alice Hudson, a deaf couple, and they talked to them about how sign language would help Lynn to do better in life and how in reality she would probably not be able to talk and read lips perfectly. After talking to them and reading the articles they had gave them Louise and Tom were willing to try it and take the chance. Using sign language was a success and they were able to communicate with Lynn very fast and within a week they were able to understand each other. This was a way faster progress than before. They finally decided to use sign language and Lynn’s progress got better and better and sign language because their new second language. While reading the book I learned a lot and it made me think and wonder why they would put young children through so much struggle just because they don’t want them to use sign language. Every time I came across the comments they made about her not being a â€Å"normal child† if she didn’t learn how to speak really upset me because just because she was deaf it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be able to do things like everyone else. It’s sad how they were never able to communicate with her and the way the struggle could have been avoided. Lynn was a bright child she learned how to read lips very quickly so I’m pretty sure if she had started to learn sign language when she was two-years old she would have picked it up quickly too. Several incidents that happened in the story were very interesting like when Lynn was able to say â€Å"Blue† after touching her father’s chest and then hers. This I didn’t even know it was going to work but it did. When Mr. Hughes went up to talk at the meeting and was saying nothing but negative stuff about sign language it bothered me because he should want to try something that was better for his son and for him. Also when Tom was in the room with Sandra, Mike, Jim and Alice and they were signing he felt like he was the odd ball because he couldn’t understand sign language. When they realized how hard it was for them to try and understand what they were signing to each other, and thought about how hard it must have been for Lynn to try and understand them. In the end I’m glad that Louise and Tom decided to use sign language with Lynn because it made their lives so much easier and they were finally able to understand her and communicate with her without any problems.

Education and Society Essay

Education in the United States has become a crucial part of every American’s life. Completing high school opens doors for individual achievement and is directly linked to economic success. But equally important to the completion of high school is a rich and positive experience in the learning process. Educators are skilled in creating great learning experiences and to enhancing the curriculum, while parents are even more influential. Parents are the positive influence for many children who would otherwise be drastically falling behind, failing, or even dropping out of school. The child’s family background, combined with passed down values and experiences will determine the student’s high school education. The role of technology in early childhood education is an effective tool for students, so the lack of technology in a child’s upbringing can affect their educational career. For example, students who do not begin using various types of technology from kindergarten can fall behind. Studies found that students who are less likely to access technology at home can be at an academic disadvantage. This shows how vital technology is in a child’s education, however there is a challenge in making it available to everyone. Particularly low-income or minority college students could have trouble in succeeding in a technology-saturated environment. Some parents don’t parents don’t understand the importance of Internet access, since in their generation, the Internet was a luxury, not a necessity. However, the bigger issue seems to be the gap between Whites who have access to the Internet and minorities. Studies found that â€Å"56% of Latino adults and 60% of African American can use the Internet,compared to 71% of White adults. The same organization finds that while 42% of white families and 41% of Latino 2 families 666subscribe to broadband access,only 31% of African American households have such access. † Even if lower income schools computer labs students need to build their skills at home as well. Early childhood reading for children can bring a positive outcome to a child’s life. What a child learns in their early years are things that will continue to helps them along in their future in school and in the real world. When a child is introduced to early childhood education, they can get many benefits from it. Benefits include learning to interact in new situations, use critical thinking and basic speech skills before kindergarten. According to Maryanne Wolf, â€Å"In most underprivileged communities, no children’s books were found in homes; in the low come to middle income community there were, on average three books; and in the affluent community there were around 200. † Parents need to create an atmosphere where reading takes place in order to show the importance of reading, but low-income families are falling behind. Parents from affluent communities are able to gain access to understanding the importance of reading while parents from lower income don’t have the resources. Its unclear why low income families don’t have as many books in the home, but the issue might be attributed to a poor school library, lack of understanding for the importance of books, or the obvious issue with low financial resources to buy books. Parents from different language background and parents who aren’t literate in English, will likely raise children who have to play catch-up once they enter kindergarten. Reading can’t just happen over night– it needs to be developed over time. If books are limited, discussions and thoughts aren’t spoken out loud, and this can result in problems. Catherine snow of Harvard and her colleagues found that in addition to literacy materials,one of the major contributors to later reading was simply the amount of time for â€Å"talk around dinner† The 3 importance of simply being talked to, read to, and listened to is what much of early development is about†. In a low-income, busy and hard-working parents may not have time to have these simple talks, or even the financial resources to purchase books for there children. These are two important ingredients for a strong educational upbringing that many low-income family parents can not afford. Even though socioeconomic status and the access to technology are key a family’s behavioral and cultural backgrounds have an equal influence on a student. A child is instinctively drawn toward the background of their parents and social settings to learn what is deemed from right to wrong. According to David Brooks â€Å"Educated parents not only pass down resources to their children, they pass down expectations, habits, knowledge and cognitive abilities. Pretty soon you end up with a hereditary meritocratic class that reinforces itself generation after generation†. What David Brooks is saying is that even though the United States has universal access to higher education such as community college but some students may not be â€Å"physiologically prepared and culturally prepared for college†. Children are reaching their parents expectations and are just continuing a cycle. If parents aren’t showing their support in a educational and motivational sense, kids won’t feel the need to fulfill higher education. The time to instill values of education is not when a child becomes a senior in high school; rather the time to start discussing educational values to a child, is the onset of school, preschool. Education provides an individual their path to a successful future, but only through hard work, dedication and determination is this achievable. Education requires a parent to mold a child into an individual that is capable of contributing effectively to society. The drive to learn must be aroused in children and started at an early age.

Similarties and Differences of Islam and Christianity Essay

Many religions have impacted the thoughts and beliefs of millions around the world. Two of these religions are Islam and Christianity, both of which are similar, yet, incredibly different. Christianity, which had come long before Islam, is known to be the root of Islam which makes sense since the two religions share much in common. They are both Abrahamic and monotheistic religions which means they share the belief in only one true existing God and are rooted to have many similarities. Their differences, however, are what make them two distinctive religions, which is why they are recognized and classified for being so. Similarities and differences arise in many topics and situations, but differences take over and divide them into†¦show more content†¦That is because the church and the Ummah are both communities with the goal of bringing others to their faith and their believers together. The position of Jesus in Christianity, however, is different from that of the one he hol ds in Islam. An example is that of prophecy. As much as both religions believe in the messengers of God, some are given more importance than others. In Christianity, Jesus is believed to be the son of God, and therefore given more importance than Moses, but in Islam, Jesus is simply another prophet. An important prophet, yes, but not one that was loved more by Allah than Muhammad. In Christianity, it is also believed that Jesus is the light or the way which leads people to the right path. In Islam, it is the Quran which does so. Christianity also believes that Jesus was the one to transfer the direct word of God. In this case, the position which Jesus holds in Christianity is the same as the position which the Quran holds in Islam. The Quran is believed to be the direct word of God. It was brought down to Muhammad, the most important prophet of Islam, from the heavens through the messenger of the angel, Gabriel (Esposito). The Quran also teaches Muslims the way of the Islamic lifest yle as did Jesus with his lessons on bringing faith to God’s words. In order to reach the final destination of heaven in the