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Walmart has 2.2 millions employees, and can't afford to pay everyone $16.00 per hour. Costco is much smaller, than Walmart, and has a completely different customer base than Wal-Mart. Also,Costco has great marketing to make customers believe they are saving money.
Surely you jest. According to Fortune, Walmart ranks #1 in amount of revenue they accumulated in 2015. The idea that the smaller and less wealthy Costco can afford to pay its employees more, while the larger far wealthier Walmart can't is laughable. Therefore I laugh. LOL.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy
Sorry but I guess I missed something, when did I claim that they build Sam's or Costco in areas with 20-40k people?
Actually, our nearest Costco is in Issaquah, WA Population 33,566. There is also one in Burlington, WA, population 8,499, and another in Covington, WA population 18,830.
Sorry but I guess I missed something, when did I claim that they build Sam's or Costco in areas with 20-40k people?
The part where you said Costco's are in all sorts of areas when I responded to the original post saying many Walmart's are located in rural areas, whereas Costco's are located in more suburban/urban areas where COL is typically higher and subsequently hourly wages/salaries will be higher.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
Actually, our nearest Costco is in Issaquah, WA Population 33,566. There is also one in Burlington, WA, population 8,499, and another in Covington, WA population 18,830.
I don't think suburbs of Seattle count as rural. The metro area population of Seattle (where Costco was founded so we can expect more than in most areas) is 3.7 million.
Where is the Costco in Joplin, MO? Dodge City, KS? Fort Smith, AR?
Walmart has 2.2 millions employees, and can't afford to pay everyone $16.00 per hour. Costco is much smaller, than Walmart, and has a completely different customer base than Wal-Mart. Also,Costco has great marketing to make customers believe they are saving money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks
Surely you jest. According to Fortune, Walmart ranks #1 in amount of revenue they accumulated in 2015. The idea that the smaller and less wealthy Costco can afford to pay its employees more, while the larger far wealthier Walmart can't is laughable. Therefore I laugh. LOL.
It stands to reason Walmart would be #1 in revenue, as they have 5000 stores across the U.S., and 1.4 million employees in the U.S., vs. Costco, with 474 U.S. stores, and 135,000 employees in the U.S. More stores and more employees should be generating more revenue, although Costco has been gaining on Walmart in the revenue department, more recently.
What really counts is profit margin, and Walmart is the winner here, too. Costco's sales per employee are twice what Walmart does, so if Walmart were to pay $16/hr. minimum, and leave everything else as is, what happens? As far as revenue, nothing. As far as sales volume, nothing. As far as profit margin, lower. To maintain their profit margin with a higher base wage rate, they could raise prices, or they would probably have to close less profitable stores, and focus on those stores with higher sales volume, and reduce the workforce at stores that remain open. They would probably end up with less revenue, but might be able to maintain profit margin by cutting employment and store locations.
The part where you said Costco's are in all sorts of areas when I responded to the original post saying many Walmart's are located in rural areas, whereas Costco's are located in more suburban/urban areas where COL is typically higher and subsequently hourly wages/salaries will be higher.
That's silly it sounds like you just want to argue. My comment was directly related to comments in the thread that implied that Costco only builds stores in high income areas. As far as 'where' Costco doesn't have stores, I don't know and I don't care..geezus
That's silly it sounds like you just want to argue. My comment was directly related to comments in the thread that implied that Costco only builds stores in high income areas. As far as 'where' Costco doesn't have stores, I don't know and I don't care..geezus
It's not silly, because that entire discussion started by me talking about comparisons in hourly wages. How are rural vs. suburban/urban areas not different in cost of living? I said many of Walmart's stores are in very rural areas, whereas almost all of Costco's stores are in suburban/urban areas, which will in and of itself lead to differing wages. I even said despite all that Costco likely still pays more, but I think all of the people working at Walmarts in Joplin, MO size towns starting at $9-10/hr bring down the reported average wage. Meanwhile those same people living in Seattle, working at Costco are starting out at $12-13/hr. What has more purchasing power? $9 in Joplin, or $13 in Bellevue, Washington? According to a COL calculator they are roughly equivalent.
I agree with your statement. Walmart wants them to work like dogs for $9 an hour but they want to know why half of their employees steal merchandise from them and they have such a high turnover rate. Pay your employees a decent wage and you have more loyalty. All of the Walton kids were born with a silver spoon in their mouth when daddy Sam Walton left the company to them. The Walton's fourtune is about a 145 billion dollars with each child being worth 35 billion dollars on average. You can't tell me that can't afford to pay their employees an effective wage even Kroger, Publix, and Aldi start their cashiers and associates of at $10-11 an hour. My aunt worked for Walmart for 20 years and what she got from them was a whopping wage of $13 an hour as a department manager. I don't blame you from not wanting to shop at Walmart/ SAMs because who wants to support a company that treats their employees like dirt because the Walton kids are greedy and selfish and want all the profits for themselves.
Hourly rate doesn't make people dishonest. Many people making a low wage would never steal and some making a high wage would...
Quote:
Originally Posted by henriInCary
Personally, I believe that customers should take a philosophical stand, when it comes to these things. Walmart business practices is one of the main reasons income inequality is so bad in this country. I have a walmart 2 minutes from my house and Costco about 15 miles away. But I prefer to drive the extra miles to support Costco with my $$$, because I truly believe in what they doing. But, it is a personal decision.
If you don't like Walmart your answer should be to pay more and shop at small stores in the neighborhood. Trouble is all those griping about their wages like their $4 t shirts which is totally hypocritical.
Costco does charge you $55.00 a year to shop there.
The customer base tends to be more affluent. So you need workers of better quality than what Walmart hires. And of course for better quality employees you need to shell out some money.
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