He was using an article to note that the sort of high-level strategy discussion was boring or not useful, and that he wanted to see more low-level details into

He was using an article to note that the sort of high-level strategy discussion was boring or not useful, and that he wanted to see more low-level details into how to run such a business. However, thinking to those details, I believe that Walmart and Costco actually do a lot of similar things on that front, managing the supply chain and transportation extremely effectively. I think they've no doubt come to the same conclusions on those points. If you want to know them, you could go to any successful large-scale distributor and look at best practices, and I'm sure Walmart and Costco would also be great sources. However, where costco differs, and where they are special and highly un-boring, is exactly what the original article is about. This is why I felt that asking for the level of detail McArdle requested was not a valid criticism of the article. I felt I was founded in responding to that point.