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Sam's Club has lower profit margins than Costco [1] and roughly 50% more SKUs [2]. Both of which would push labor productivity lower. [1] "Walmart figures incl

Sam's Club has lower profit margins than Costco [1] and roughly 50% more SKUs [2]. Both of which would push labor productivity lower. [1] "Walmart figures include Sam's Club, which despite having more stores, is much less profitable than Costco." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2013-08-27/why-walmart-will-never-pay-like-costco https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2013-08-27/why-walma... [2] See the graph https://www.kriq.com/ContentIndex/ArticleDetails.aspx?key=BlgDyrQrbCLgY2XCgaCpwg==&id=842808 https://www.kriq.com/ContentIndex/ArticleDetails.aspx?key=Bl...

tw04 10y ago
The number of SKUs is irrelevant. The number of employees are what matter if we're talking about salaries. Having more SKUs doesn't push labor productivity lower, having more SKUs WITH more employees would push labor productivity lower. If they're doing it with the same or fewer employees it would be the exact opposite. As for the stores being less profitable, I would imagine it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They pay the vast majority of their employees welfare-inducing wages which is an instant turnoff to anyone in the middle class who actually cares about companies taking care of their employees.