In many people's impression, the most romantic metropolis in the United States is Seattle. New York is the most international, but the pace is too fast, and the taste of money is stronger. Los Angeles is the brightest, but it feels always bustling, bustling, and a stronger business flavor. San Francisco is the most open, but the high housing prices and many technological upstarts give people a high and cold feeling.

Only, winter is mild and rainy, summer is cool and pleasant, with heavy rainfall throughout the year, and there are many days when it rains in Seattle is the most romantic... In the light rain, a couple walks by the sea with umbrellas and talks about love, which may be the most classic romantic scene in love movies.

However, although Xiaoyu gives people a romantic feeling, it may not be a good thing for Andy Smith. Who would like to go out and hold an umbrella? Not to mention that the gray sky and the dark streets are all covered?

However, whether Andy liked it or not, the drizzle in Seattle fell from him off the plane and drizzled until the next morning. It was in this weather that Andy came to Costco's headquarters in Seattle and met him personally who had been the founder of the company's board of directors since December 1994, and James Sineger, who had served as the president of Costco since December 1994, and he had served as the president of Costco since 1983.

That's right, Andy temporarily chose the Costco board of directors to incorporate him, which was also the result of Andy's careful thinking. After all, the stall he sells is really a bit big, and there are many profitable transactions. He can't blindly occupy a place in every industry. What's more, he is still in the digestion period of his own industries. Andy, who is already a mature entrepreneur, has the most important task at present to complete the stable digestion of his industries.

Therefore, even though he was very envious of Costco's development potential, he had to make choices and was invited to join the Costco's board of directors. He slowly planned it from the inside, which was his new strategic policy for Costco.

"For a long time, "user experience" has been the strategic focus of Costco puts it above everything..."

Andy, accompanied by two founders of Costco and several executives, walked in Costco's flagship store in Seattle while visiting and listening to the explanation of executive Clegg Jellynick.

The experience of this Clegg Jellinick is also very legendary. He was once a low-level employee who collected and sorted his shopping carts. Over the years, he has been working hard step by step to the management position of Costco executives.

Moreover, this example of climbing from the grassroots level to corporate executives is not an isolated case, so it is very rare to be valuable!

In Costco's internal management, most of the managers are step by step from the grassroots level. They used to be unknown small employees in the store, but they did not choose to be discouraged or give up on themselves. Instead, they chose to complete their work diligently and earn a chance to get promotion and salary increase with diligent and lasting professionalism. Including the hundreds of existing store managers of Costco, 90% of them have worked on the front line.

It is not difficult to see from this that this Costco company has extremely terrible cohesion. As the saying goes: an iron-clad enterprise is a flowing soldier. When the turnover rate of many companies is high, Costco is able to win the support and trust of so many employees, which is definitely not something that can be accomplished in one day.

What does this mean? This shows that the management of Costco's mainstay has real talents and is earned by down-to-earth. Without paper talk or boastful talk, they are a group of people who truly understand corporate operations!

“…For a retailer, this means customer service, it means happy, active employees, employees who think the company is closely related to themselves. Four out of five of Costco employees can get health care and benefits, even if half of them are just part-time. Their average salary is $19 per hour, and we have not laid off even during the current recession.

Although we are also affected by the financial crisis and economic downturn, our development is slightly slow. However, overall, Costco has maintained a steady growth momentum."

"Always do the right thing!" Andy looked at the display of goods in the Costco flagship store, and looked at the staff who smiled and greeted them from time to time, and couldn't help but sigh.

"hehe……"

When he heard Andy say that since the founding of the brand, Costco has adhered to a common concept and slogan, everyone, including the two founders, smiled happily with pride.

Always do the right thing”. The concept is James Sinneg, and always doing the right thing and persevering, it means never deceive suppliers, customers, and even employees. They must learn to face everything sincerely, and be brave to face mistakes and make positive corrections, rather than choosing to use all skills to make sophistry or escape.

""Low price" is everyone's unified evaluation of Costco, but this does not mean that we blindly pursue low prices and ignore quality. In fact, quality is the foundation for Costco to survive, because once there is a mistake in the quality, consumers will definitely lose it, and Costco's reputation will inevitably fall to the ground. This is a situation that everyone does not want to see.

Therefore, Costco's quality control can be almost called strict, with the gross profit margin of all commodities not exceeding 14%. Once it exceeds this number, it needs to be reported to eO and approved by the board of directors;

Facing external suppliers, once the price is lower than Costco elsewhere, its products will never appear on Costco's shelves again.

Only by strictly implementing these two points has created the low price of our high-quality products. Our average gross profit margin is only 7%, while the gross profit margin of ordinary supermarkets will be between 15% and 25%..."

Terrible business! Terrible corporate culture!

This is Andy's most intuitive feeling, and he also discovered a more scheming problem. Costco piled up the entire hypermarket with goods into a big maze, with no labels and no street signs inside, so the things you are looking for cannot be found in one go.

The goods placed on Costco are definitely carefully designed, that is, they don’t want members to come in and find what they want to buy and leave immediately. There are free snacks and small samples in every corner.

Put all the most popular items in the bottom so that people can see more items along the way when they are looking for the goods they need, and there may be shopping again along the way. The trolleys in the store are big and can hold a lot of things...

"The placement of goods is very knowledgeable!" Andy picked up a product and looked at it, then put it back to its original place, and smiled and said to everyone.

Whether it was Freebrotman or James Sinneger's eyes lit up when he heard Andy's words. James Sin's cabinet smiled and sighed: "It turns out that he is a business genius, and he can see it all at once."

Andy just shook his head and laughed at the other party's compliment. After a round, he said with great emotion: "This is a great company and it is very honored to join this great big family."

"Welcome to join!"

"Your joining will add a youthful vitality to our board of directors, and you are welcome!"

"Thanks."

Andy and Freebrotman, James Sinneg smiled and shook hands again, smiling at each other under the gaze of many Costco executives.
Chapter completed!