Another reason to shop at Costco?

[hoodedfalcon]

We don't have a Costco where I live (yet...there are rumors), but I am a big fan of large retailers paying employees a living wage. Looks like Costco is pretty decent to employees. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/worker-wages--wendy-s-vs--wal-mart-vs--costco-155815763.html

The no-frills warehouse chain pays its hourly workers an average of just over $20 an hour, compared to just under $13 at competitor Wal-Mart.

[AlmostIndependent]

I read this on the train this morning. Costco pulls a profit and can pay their employees a decent wage. Fucking amazing.

[Spork]

So... I really love Costco and love them for a whole lotta reasons.  I like that they pay well and provide good benefits... They provide excellent customer service.  Their CEO is frugal and still has his crappy corner office he had many years ago.  I know they pay more than Walmart. 

But this article is really kind of crap.  It is comparing a guy that worked at Costco for 19 years with a girl that works at Wendy's and a guy that works at Walmart.  Both the Wendy's/Walmart people look to be about 20ish.  (It's hard to tell from the little photo.  They might be older.)

Maybe... MAYBE a Walmart fork truck driver with 19 years experience can compare to a Costco fork truck driver with 19 years experience.  But I don't think the comparisons are there in this article.

"The workers hold similar positions at these companies. Levels of experience vary but the wages are representative of the average worker we interviewed." 

Yes... but how did the average workers you interviewed compare to each other?  If you interviewed 20 employees at each place and the Costco people had all been there 10+ years, while the others were all new-hires... your comparisons suck.

[hoodedfalcon]

I agree that the article is crap for the most part. There are a lot of variables we don't know about. I think the take away is that Costco generally pays their employees better. I am sure there is a better analysis out there somewhere, but everyone loves an article with pictures!

[MoneyLifeandMore]

Pictures are popular, but I've read and heard elsewhere that their employees are paid better than the average employee doing the same job in a different store. Of course, I bet they only hire the better employees and that probably pays off for them.

[olivia]

A friend of mine when I was in college worked at Costco it paid so well he planned to stay there long term.  He had been there for around 3 years and was making about $19/hour, plus benefits, IIRC.  He also actually liked working there.

[ender]

Pictures are popular, but I've read and heard elsewhere that their employees are paid better than the average employee doing the same job in a different store. Of course, I bet they only hire the better employees and that probably pays off for them.

I think this is a fundamental problem with all these comparisons. It assumes that wages are being paid irrespective of the ability of employees to do their jobs.

If you could effectively swap employees between Walmart/Costco and find them to be equal performers, equally reliable, work there for similar periods of time, then this comparison makes sense. If not, it's similarly dishonest to comparing Microsoft to Walmart and saying "isn't it great Microsoft pays a living wage!"

[Spork]

...  I at least understand the Wal-Mart/Costco comparison.  Wendy's is just a throw away.  You can hire a high school kid to flip burgers with an hour or two of training.  A fork truck driver is actually a bit of a skill and generally has licensing requirements, etc.

[jat9449]

Have you ever peeked into the employee break-room? Foosball table, nice furniture, etc. That's indicative to me of how employees are treated. I love ol' Costco.

[hybrid]

...  I at least understand the Wal-Mart/Costco comparison.  Wendy's is just a throw away.  You can hire a high school kid to flip burgers with an hour or two of training.  A fork truck driver is actually a bit of a skill and generally has licensing requirements, etc.

I've seem similar articles about Costco paying very well, and you don't have to be there anywhere near 19 years to get to that level.  It takes about 5 years to get to the 40ish range and they have good benefits.  At my Costco they have a couple of bulletin boards that show the 10 year, 20 year, 25 year employees.  There are lots of them.  I see many of the same employees from when I started going there 25 years ago (when they were Price Club, which i still slip and call them sometimes).  The reporter copuld have done a better job with her sample, but Costco rocks all the same compared to Walmart.  They don't fritter away money on TV ads and making the store look pretty and trying to carry literally tens of thousands of different items in a single store, so they can sell cheaper and pay their employees well.

I don't know of a better S&P 500 company, period.  Customer (especially the frugal type!) wins, employee wins.  I'd love to see more businesses take up their model.

[TrulyStashin]

I love that Costco's officers are well paid but not given the kind of ridiculous salaries typically seen among CEO's.  The founder and recently retired CEO made $350,000 and the new CEO makes $650,000 + bonus and stock options (still, he made under $5M).

Keeping officer salaries at reasonable levels allows the company to spend more money on the rest of its employees which is good for Costco and good for our society as a whole..  Bravo.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2016881535_costco29.html

[Spork]

I love that Costco's officers are well paid but not given the kind of ridiculous salaries typically seen among CEO's.  The founder and recently retired CEO made $350,000 and the new CEO makes $650,000 + bonus and stock options (still, he made under $5M).

Keeping officer salaries at reasonable levels allows the company to spend more money on the rest of its employees which is good for Costco and good for our society as a whole..  Bravo.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2016881535_costco29.html

My own take on this is: the CEOs that have "really big, but... let's face it, reasonable" salaries are very often the guys that started the company.  It's THEIR BABY and they're often more interested in making it succeed than anything.  They guys that have the "wacky, ridiculously high salaries" are just job hopping to find a bigger and better gig.

[prodarwin]

I could've sworn this thread would be about a $2 slice of awesome pizza, or a $3 (?) chicken-bake. 

Too unhealthy for this crowd I guess.

[aclarridge]

I could've sworn this thread would be about a $2 slice of awesome pizza, or a $3 (?) chicken-bake. 

Too unhealthy for this crowd I guess.

Oh man, I love the polish sausages there. I think $2+tax gets you a sausage and unlimited fountain drink here in Ontario. Fountain drinks are terrible for you but with the sausage they are just delicious.

[superhero]

We love Costco. We're new members as of just a few months ago, but we have spent hundreds there stocking up on food, spices, and other household needs. Our basement is like a mini-costco now. Soon we're going to need a freezer.

It was very much a conscious decision to visit & join "the club" after hearing how they treat their employees.

[Random]

Costco is about the only shopping experience I enjoy.  The company is great for all of the reasons people have mentioned.  I will add:  great quality produce, LOTS of organic food, inventory appropriate for the locality.  When. I go to Hawaii, my first stop is Costco.  You can buy snorkel and fins for less than a weekly rental, good quality.  Local mahi mahi, papayas, and aloha shirts etc.  At home in AK, Costco carries fish smoker, meat grinders, vacuum packers, etc, which we all need to process our food.  Anyway, the place rocks.

[savingtofreedom]

I love Costco.  I also love FREE SAMPLES!!!

[YK-Phil]

Given all the praise here, I'll have to give Costco another serious chance, because the first and only time I went there with my wife, we both couldn't find anything we needed except a couple of bags of Lavazza espresso beams which seemed to be a great deal but proved to be undrinkable, probably old and stale.

[Rangifer]

We've saved more than the cost of membership just on microwaves (seriously, can no one make one that lasts more than 2 years?).

I also used to work for them, and they were definitely legit on treating employees right.

[simonsez]

FYI....

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/19/business/la-fi-wal-mart-dc-20130720

This is a few weeks old but basically I heard the proposed $12.50 minimum wage for non-unionized retailers would deter Wal-Mart away from building a store.  Costco was also rumored to be shying away from developing in the district as a result of this as well.  I have no idea what the minimum wage Costco pays and realize you can make livable wages there but wasn't sure about the initial rungs of the ladder.  Maybe the Costco part was pure rumor? I don't know.