Costco Gets It

It doesn’t seem to be that complicated: people, whether they are customers, employees, stockholders, or random strangers, appreciate fair treatment and resist poor treatment. From time to time an individual or corporation will receive some recognition for understanding this and consistently treating people well.

Costco, for example, regularly receives recognition for treating its employees well; the resultant lower turnover sits well with customers and the whole thing just seems to work.

From http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/CostcoTheAntiWalMar...

Costco is among a handful of retailers that has flourished despite Wal-Mart Stores' (WMT, news, msgs) onslaught; Wal-Mart's more downscale Sam's Club chain runs second to Costco. With its strong labor relations, low employee turnover and liberal benefits, Costco has been called the "anti-Wal-Mart." Its approach has paid dividends because Costco, based in Issaquah, Wash., hasn't encountered the same community resistance as Wal-Mart when it has sought to open stores.

So why don’t more employers, supervisors, people in general for that matter, simply stop the old kind of behavior that doesn’t work so well? It almost sounds like the old gag about the doctor telling the patient, whose arm hurts when he lifts it a certain way, to stop doing it. “Our employees and customers don’t like it when we treat them like crap.” So why don’t they just stop treating them like crap?

(Maybe for the same reason these guys didn't change their ways either. You'll have to read the whole thing to understand the reference -- it's in the last couple paragraphs.)