CostCo IS Better than Walmart and Sam's Club

Pretty easy to see why I'll never willingly set foot in a Walmart or Sam's Club and am a regular customer at CostCo.

The full article is available on Atlasleft.

Sam's Club vs Costco Ruled No Contest, Sam's Club Fails for Profit Mongering

Sam's Club vs Costco: Do Lower Prices Trump Employee Happiness?

Hint: No.

I will never shop at a Sam's Club while I can go to a CostCo instead. I strongly prefer spending my money at a store that treats their employees like people and pays them livable wages.

"Sam's Club could treat its workers better, find ways to rev up sales and not lay people off just because they can. That, however seems unlikely as Wal-Mart will likely maintain its profit margin at Sam's Club by continuing to use its leverage to purchase at the best prices possible while squeezing and eliminating labor costs wherever possible."

Sam's Club and Wal-Mart have a long and disgusting history of treating employees like cattle to be used up and discarded. Which may work nicely for your bottom line for a period of time but the worm is turning and Wal-Mart's misdeeds are more and more known. And that leads more people to shopping elsewhere and marginalizing Wallyworld.

And that is a very good thing. People over Profits! Vote with your wallet and don't give your money to the evil empire that is Wal-Mart.

All Hail Costco

The Motley Fool has an interesting article, All Hail CostCo that details some of the sharp differences between Wal-Mart and CostCo.

# CEO Jim Sinegal earns a mere $350,000 per year, with a bonus of as much as $200,000 (and possibly some stock). He aims to earn no more than three or four times what his highest-paid store managers earn. "Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong," Sinegal has said.
# Costco pays its employees relatively lavishly. Workers reportedly start at $10 or more per hour, considerably more than elsewhere, where minimum wage is the usual starting point. According to a 2008 SmartMoney article, average pay topped $18 an hour, fully 68% more than employees earned at Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Sam's Club, and more than BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) employees earn, too. Roughly 85% of Costco's employees had health insurance last year (at fairly cheap rates), versus only about half at Wal-Mart and Target (NYSE: TGT). All this leads to low turnover, saving the company money on recruiting and training new employees, and helping Sinegal argue that it's simply a rational business practice.

How much did the Wal-Mart CEO take home last year? How many hundreds of times was that above the floor level grunt?

I shop at CostCo because the prices are good, the stores are well cared for, the employees are well cared for and it is a company I can feel good about supporting. How many of you shopping at Wallyworld can say the same thing?