...Instructor ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Environmental Factors on Marketing Decisions of Costco Wholesale Corporation Environmental factors are made up of all the factors and activities that have a significant effect on managing a business. These factors have a strong influence on operating any business, particularly in marketing options (Pagell & Halperin, 2000). Environmental factors cause risks to the achievements of any business and to deal with these factors, a firm must improve its main skills and create good methods (Staff, 2009). There are different components that would have a great impact on these latest services provided by the firm. After acknowledging these components, the firm must create a strategy. In his book, David jobber explains that with the support of this observation, the business becomes more successful in applying the different methods (Jobber, 2001). One of the major organizations in the trade business is Costco Wholesale Corporation; this company was established by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman (Costco Wholesale Corporation, 2009). On the start of the sales volume, the business is regarded to be among the world's major membership warehouses (Costco: About Company, 2009). This corporation has the rank of one of the 5 biggest businesses in the U.S. in retail industry. Issaquah (Washington) is where the H.Q. of the corporation is located in the U.S. (Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports January Sales Results and Comments on Earnings Outlook...
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...amount produced and increase revenues in the same manner a monopoly does. An example of Oligopoly is AT&T and T-Mobile. Monopolistic competition is an industry that covers numerous competing firms, which has a similar but somewhat different product. An example of monopolistic competition is wholesale retailers. Perfect Competition: Perfect competition: Perfect competition occurs the minute several small firms compete against each other. An example of a perfect competition is agricultural farms. History of Costco The entire history of Costco began with Sol Price and his son, Robert, opening the first Price Club warehouse on July 12, 1976 on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California, thus giving birth to a very new concept: a retail warehouse club. The Price family placed Price Club Warehouse #1 inside a series of old airplane hangars previously owned by Howard Hughes; that warehouse, now known as Costco Warehouse #401, are still in operation today. The current Costco is headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, United States and was founded as Price Club on...
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...Factors on Marketing Decisions of Costco Wholesale Corporation Environmental factors consist of all the factors and activities which have a considerable impact on the running of the business. Environmental factors have a powerful impact on the normal functioning of the any business, especially in the marketing decisions (Pagell & Halperin, 2000). These factors pose challenges and threats to the success of any business. In order to deal with such environmental factors a firm should enhance its core competencies and make sound strategies (Staff, 2009). There are various factors which would have deep impact on these new services offered by the firm. The firm should make a strategy after considering these factors. David Jobber describes in his book that with the help of this analysis, the company becomes more competitive and effective to implement the various strategies (Jobber, 2001). Costco Wholesale Corporation is one of the biggest organizations in the retail industry, which operates at the global level. The company was founded by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman (Costco Wholesale Corporation, 2009). On the basis of the sales volume, the company is considered among the world's largest membership warehouses (Costco: About Company, 2009). The company has taken the position of the five largest companies in the United Sates in retail Industry. The Headquarter of the company is situated at Issaquah (Washington) in the United States (Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports...
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...COMPANY BACKGROUND Costco was founded by Jim Sinegal and Seattle entrepreneur Jeff Brotman. Operation of the first store of Costco began in 1983. There were nine Costco stores in five states by end of 1984. Costco became a public company for raising additional fund for business expansion in December 1985.Costco successful to reach one billion dollar in sales in less than six years which make the company the first ever United States (U.S) that reach that huge amount of sales. Costco merge with Price Club in year 1993 and came out with name of PriceCostco. Later, the name was changed to Costco Wholesale Corporation in August 1999.This warehouse club chain have 57 million members. It sales volumes only based on its members as it only open to their members and guests. Costco is the fourth largest retailer in the US and is the seventh largest in the world. Currently, Costco holding market share or in other words industry standing of US and Canada is about 55% . Whereas its close competitor Sam's Club market share is about 36% and 9% by BJ’s Wholesale Club. Costco offer tremendously lower price products with good quality and branded name. The price which are offer by Costco much lower compare to other conventional wholesale or retail that sell similar items and products. Profit generated by the company from its membership fees is about one billion with E- commerce sales contributing about five hundred and thirty four million. It was estimated that the renewal rate of the card...
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...HBS Case Study 2: Costco Wholesale Corporation Financial Statement Analysis (A) Lee Hathaway MMS 185: Managerial Finance Professor Veraldi September 27, 2007 It is important for stockholders to continuously re-evaluate their investments. Although some investors do this more frequently and thoroughly than others, the majority of shareholders do so at least once each year. Therefore, Torres’ desire to update her analysis in order to determine whether Costco was still operating efficiently makes perfect sense. After thorough examination, my analysis proves that Costco remains one of the industry’s leading competitors and there seems to be no reason for Torres to sell her shares as long as she wishes to retain holdings of a retail wholesale club in her portfolio. The common-size financial statements evaluating the period 1997-2001 (exhibit 9) reveal valuable information regarding Costco. Torres noticed that there were two revenue lines: net sale of goods and membership fees. She decided to use net sales of goods as the point of comparison and express other line items, including membership fees, as a percentage of net sales in order to allow for a clearer reflection of gross and operating margins. This format enabled her to analyze the profit and asset structures of Costco over time. To begin, Margarita Torres’ common-size financial statements for Costco demonstrate a rise in membership fees and other sources of revenue from 1.82% in 1997 to 1.93% in 2001...
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...Costco's sales remain strong and increasing with the company continuing to grow Promotion Costco Wholesale delivers a wide variety of quality brand name products. These products are delivered to the customer in bulk and with a minimal mark-up in pricing - Product life Cycle Product Product Costco sells limited items They rely on their customers purchasing high volumes of items Customers pay for memberships Costco does not promote through advertisments Offers minimal mark-ups Promotion Strategy Kirkland Signature has been established for 20 years and account for a whopping 20% of the firm's revenue. This brand offers a wide range of goods and competes fiercely with well-established national brands since it offers comparable quality, but it...
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...The CEO of Costco Corporation, Jim Sinegal is unfazed by any of his critics, he manages his stores from the road, jumping on the corporate jet, and visiting up to a dozen Costco stores a day. Mr. Jim has drawn criticism and praises for its generous employees compensation including the highest wages among retailers and its health insurance Mr. Jim Sinegal divulged saying that "paying high wages [to his employees] is contrary to conventional wisdom." The Wall Street analysts are the only critics of Costco and Sinegal. Stock watchers believe that Costco could be making a lot more money for its shareholders, if the employees are paid less In 1992, Kotter and Heskett analyzed top 200 companies in the U.S. and revealed that there is a concrete association among organizational culture and business outcome. Profits, share prices and the results of the operation were found to be a long way off for those companies with “adaptive” cultures vs. those with “unadaptive” cultures. In unadaptive corporate cultures, managers are often distinguished as egotism, narrow-minded, and bureaucratic, and reinforced by a value system that cares more about self-centered and selfish and less about customers, stockholders, employees, or good leaderships In contrast, adaptive cultures, is portrayed as having managers who care deeply about customers, stockholders, and employees and who value individuals and processes that can generate useful change (e.g. “Treat others as you would have them treat you”) ...
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...Costco Case Questions 09/26/2013 Question 1: Competition in the North American wholesale club industry is high, with Costco being its leader at 56% of the market share. Main ways to compete are lower prices, more efficient operations, and reduced labor and overhead costs as well. Some of the clubs do the bare minimum in advertising while others, like BJ’s, spend more money on it (special Christmas radio advertisement and such). Out of the five competitive forces, the strongest is the rivalry between the competitors, because all of the players in this market attempt to offer high-quality products at lower prices. According to Figure 3.3, one of the reasons for rivalry amongst competitors to be strong is a relatively low cost to buyers to switch brands, and also if buyer demand is growing slowly, both of which are true in this case. All competitors in this industry are focusing on low margins on the products and high volumes of sales. Suppliers do have some power and influence on the wholesale club members, especially in the case with Costco, which buys some of its goods on the gray market and is known to sell some big-ticket items, but with globalization happening and more and more of suppliers being available around the world, they do not present a reason for concern as high as the rivalry between market players. Customers are always looking for lower prices and higher quality of merchandise, which Costco has been excellent at providing. BJ’s strategy is to give a better...
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...Strategic Plan for Costco Wholesale Corporation Executive Summary The retail industry is an extremely competitive environment that poses many challenges for Costco Wholesale Corporation and its competitors. Since many of the stores offer the same products, it may sometimes be very hard for customers to differentiate between retail stores. Even though the economy is recovering from a recession, the retail business is still a mature industry and is improving very steadily. Costco and its competitors are affected by the same political, economic, social, and technological factors, such as taxes, presidential elections, SEC regulations, the economic state of the country, exchange rates, various social characteristics, such as customer age, income and family size, and the growth of e-commerce. All of these external factors have a great influence on how Costco conducts their operations. Costco is a premier leader in the retail industry thanks to their strategic pricing strategy, low cost operating system, and financial stability. Costco is still vulnerable to numerous threats, such as competition, exchange rates fluctuations, increasing labor and healthcare costs, and high exposure to low growth markets. If Costco is to maintain the market share in the retail industry, they should consider the options of offering more customer service in their warehouses, increase online retail sales, and acquire other retail stores for expansion and growth. Finally, if Costco wants to become...
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...Eddie Alvarez, Dana Huigen Chen, Jason Nguyen, Morgan Thomas, Charleen Binsol, Amit Shukla, Daniel Cho, Miko Xinyuan Shan Professor Macaulay MGMT 425 2/16/16 Costco Executive Summary This paper conducted an external analysis of Costco which is in the retail industry, more specifically, variety stores. The five forces of this industry include Threat of New Entrants, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Threat of Substitutes, and Intensity of Rivalry. After having conducted research, the intensity of each of the forces are as follows: Threat of New Entrants – moderate; Bargaining Power of Buyers – weak; Bargaining Power of Suppliers – weak; Threat of Substitutes – strong; and Intensity of Rivalry – weak. Furthermore, the greatest concern involves threats from online purchases, due to the convenience and ease of the transaction. Although, suppliers that have large economies of scale are working with Costco in securing preferential prices. Threat of New Entrants The first of Porter’s Five Forces is the threat of new entrants, which refers to the likelihood of new competitors entering the industry. The strength of this force depends on the levels of barriers to entry. When barriers to entry are high, the threat of new entrants are low, and vice versa. We determined the threat of new entrants to be moderate for the Variety Stores industry. The first two barriers to entry are large economies of scale and high capital requirements. When consumers...
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...“Costco is a warehouse that offers members a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private-label products in a wide range of merchandise categories. We concentrate on our mission to continually bring quality goods and services to our members at the lowest possible prices, while being responsible corporate citizens, taking care of our members and our employees, and respect in our vendors.” (Annual Report 2010)” Costco is the way to go when it comes to online and in-store shopping. The retail chain store ranked No. 1 in a recent Consumer Reports survey of 10 stores — besting JCPenney, Kmart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Meijer, Sam’s Club, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart for its overall shopping experience, according to ConsumerReports.org. This is not an easy feat, considering they opened their doors in 1983, only selling to small businesses. There are numerous reasons why Costco has become a huge phenomenon amongst shoppers; these eight warehouse trends have been the reason for their success. While Costco has seen more profit through these trends, the warehouse industry is growing. Firstly, warehouses are striving to become more environmentally friendly and customers have gained notice of this. Since this is a national trend, it boasts their appearance as a customer friendly store. Secondly, Warehouses have expanded their stores to be more competitive in the marketplace. This is due to the growing number of these types of stores, and their desire to have a competitive edge...
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...STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS CASE: A-186A DATE: 06/19/03 CosTco WHOLESALE CORPORATION FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS (A) INTRODUCTION Margarita Torres first purchased shares in Costco Wholesale Corporation in 1997 as part of her personal investment portfolio. Between 1997 and 2002, she added slightly to her holdings from time to time when the company sold stock for what she felt was a reasonable valuation, and up to that time she did not sell any of her shares. Having watched Costco grow from 265 warehouses to 365 worldwide, and from sales revenue of $21.8 billion to $34.1 billion, she wondered what factors led to such successful growth. She also wanted to determine whether those factors would hold consistent going forward. At this point, Costco was one of a special breed of retailers called wholesale clubs. Unlike other retailers, wholesale clubs required that customers purchase annual memberships in order to shop at their stores. Costco operated a chain of warehouses that sold food and general merchandise at large discounts to member customers. The company was able to maintain low margins by selling items in bulk, keeping operating expenses to a minimum, and turning inventory over rapidly. Costco’s closest competitors were SAM’S Club (a division of Wal-Mart) and BJ’s Wholesale, which both operated as wholesale clubs. Other competitors included general discounters (such as Wal-Mart), general retailers (such as Sears), grocery...
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...1. Introduction. Summarize the current situation facing the firm and other relevant issues. Wal-Mart is an organization which is subject to increasing levels of change and volatility in their business. While it is fact of business life, it also reflects that it drives a relentless increase in the proportion of an organization’s activity that is dedicated to change in meeting the new challenges. Wal-Mart has become one of America's most successful retail giants generating about ROI was 18.6% and 19.2% for fiscal 2012 and 2011, respectively. (Wal-Mart Annual Report, 2012). It is well know as the leader in thinking outside the box, anticipating market opportunities and executing effective strategies to capitalize on them. It has over 10,800 stores worldwide. Businesses have to face the challenge of too many competitors, partly originated by the globalisation, all competing for same objective of making highest profit. So, increasingly companies are not merely asking themselves the management question of ‘Are we doing the right?’ but are having to regularly ask ‘Are we still doing it right?’ They have been seeking a more holistic means of doing this than traditional means of delivering products and services to the customers. In a volatile world, decision makers need options on the future and the ability to change direction as strategic opportunities. Although, business as usual (BAU) performance change is providing a short term success but they are typically faced with a less...
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...stoAnnual Report 2010 2010 year ended august 29, 2010 THE COMPANY Costco Wholesale Corporation and its subsidiaries (“Costco” or the “Company”) began operations in 1983 in Seattle, Washington. In October 1993, Costco merged with The Price Company, which had pioneered the membership warehouse concept, to form Price/Costco, Inc., a Delaware corporation. In January 1997, after the spin-off of most of its non-warehouse assets to Price Enterprises, Inc., the Company changed its name to Costco Companies, Inc. On August 30, 1999, the Company reincorporated from Delaware to Washington and changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation, which trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol “COST.” As of December 2010, the Company operated a chain of 582 warehouses in 40 states and Puerto Rico (425 locations), nine Canadian provinces (80 locations), the United Kingdom (22 locations), Korea (seven locations), Taiwan (six locations, through a 55%-owned subsidiary), Japan (nine locations) and Australia (one location), as well as 32 warehouses in Mexico through a 50%-owned joint venture. CONTENTS Financial Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Letter to Shareholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Map of Warehouse Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
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...4/26/13 Industry: Variety Stores Sector: Retail Costco Wholesale Corp. Investment Thesis Key Statitisics 52 Week Price Range 50-Day Moving Average Estimated Beta Dividend Yield Market Capitalization (In Millions) 3-Year Revenue CAGR Trading Statistics Diluted Shares Outstanding (In Millions) Average Volume (3-Month) Institutional Ownership Insider Ownership EV/EBITDA (LTM) Margins and Ratios 60.00 81.98 109.75 104.26 0.68 $ 0.28 1.76% 47682 12% Costco is the second largest membership discount retailer in the U.S. Costco’s business segments comprised of Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary make its revenue more robust in a unstable economic environment Costco bolsters a significant portion of its income from membership dues, which it can increase a certain extent every year without significant loss in membership Five-Year Stock Chart 439.53 2.05 76.97% 120.00 45,000,000 40,000,000 100.00 1.01% 12.12 80.00 35,000,000 30,000,000 25,000,000 Gross Margin (LTM) EBITDA Margin (LTM) Net Margin (LTM) Debt to Enterprise Value 12.42% 3.82% 1.72% 20.00 40.00 20,000,000 15,000,000 10,000,000 3.11% 2008-05-02 2009-05-01 2010-04-30 2011-04-28 2012-04-26 0.00 2013-04-29 5,000,000 0 Adj Close 50-Day Ave 200-Day Avg Volume Forecast Summary UOIG Projections Net Sales ($M) EBITDA ($M) Basic EPS ($) Consensus Estimates Net Sales ($M) EBTIDA ($M) Basic EPS ($) 2012A $99,137.00 $3,667.00 $4.02 $99,137.00 $3,667...
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