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To your point, Dan Price recently posted some related stats and perspective: > Minimum wage > Costco: $16 > Walmart: $11 > > Average pay > Costco: $24 >
by frankish 5y ago
To your point, Dan Price recently posted some related stats and perspective:
> Minimum wage
> Costco: $16
> Walmart: $11
>
> Average pay
> Costco: $24
> Walmart: $15
>
> Employees on food stamps (subsidized by you)
> Costco: Virtually none
> Walmart: More than any other company
>
> Founder net worth
> Costco: not a billionaire
> Walmart: $220+ billion; up $30 billion in the pandemic
>
> Both companies have similar business models and charge the same low prices. One decided to treat its employees like humans and forgo enormous profits, and the other one took the opposite track.
>
> Business is about choices.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoCostco’s customers are the top 3 socioeconomic quintiles, Walmart’s customers are the bottom 3 (or middle 3). Either way, Costco’s customers are richer, and they have a different business model. They are objectively a good employer, but a lot of that has to do with their customer not being extremely price sensitive and being able to afford to buy large quantities, which also results in less loss due to theft. You can find the richer parts of any town by searching for Costco. As for founder net worth, it’s not very meaningful if a founder owns it or others own it in 401k. Divide the Walmart founder net worth by employees and it still would not give them a meaningful improvement in wages for long. They’re simply a low margin business selling to customers who cannot afford to spend extra.
- anonu 5y agoThose numbers are pretty stark. But the missing part of the equation here is the customer. How much value has been created for them by driving prices down? I'm not suggesting it's a good thing to underpay employees. I'm only saying let's get a full view of the landscape to be informed...