One of my cousins mentioned that sooner or later everyone has a Costco post.  So I decided it was my turn.  Sure, I love to buy diapers at Costco.  I’m glad Kathryn went to preschool near Costco, because I didn’t feel bad going there almost every week.  I really love to buy gas at Costco – it is always the cheapest.  I don’t know if I should admit this, but I also love the hotdog and drink for $1.50.  We do that for lunch or dinner every once in awhile.

But this post is not about the shopping.  Darryl’s firm does the audit for Costco.  When we got back from Seattle, Darryl was put on the audit team for Costco.   We have learned what an awesome company it is:

They always look within the company before looking without.  Most of the people he worked with in their accounting department had been at Costco their whole careers.  

Largest company in pacific northwest – that means its bigger than Boeing, Microsoft, or Amazon. 

Costco’s goal is only to make money on the membership fees.  Anything more than that, they put back into lowering product cost.

The audit team worked at the corporate office, which is a large complex across the street from the first Costco store to open.  At the office is a huge cafeteria where the employees (and auditors) really ate lunch everyday.  The kids and I met Darryl there once for lunch.  The camaraderie among the employees was evident.  And the cafeteria had great food for very low prices.

My favorite thing to hear about from Darryl was the annual shareholders meeting, which Darryl attended.  He has been to these before for other clients.  In Darryl’s experience, one of these meetings lasts about 6 minutes, with zero or one shareholder present.  Not so at Costco.   For Costco, it was a huge  event held in a big hotel ballroom, with literally thousands of people attending.  People came from out of town to attend, some obviously come yearly.  It lasted about 90 minutes.  All Costco food was there for free, as well as booths showcasing new products. 

At one point they opened for questions and many did ask questions, to which the president and CEO answered.  One guy asked if they could put signs up to show what was in each aisle.  The answer was that Costco’s model is a treasure hunt.  They want you to look down every aisle.  That would explain why sometimes the diapers have moved after being on a certain aisle for six months!  But I do like the treasure hunt idea.  Sometimes we find a treasure!  And sometimes I can’t find something but the kids are ready to go, so we go.

Posted by Amanda on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 7:49 pm.