Costco: A Shopping Service, not just a store

Kevin Kelly offers an astute assessment:

Costco has become my personal shopper.

(Mine, too.)

I do some research, then I buy what they sell. Like all discount chains they have professionals working full time looking for deals/quality. But what I like about Costco is their niche -- which is my niche. They consistently find a bargain in the "highest common denominator" bracket. What they seem to aim for, and what I am happy with, is the highest quality common quality. Not the very best, not the cheapest, and not mediocre either, but a good brand-name bargain in the high middle. They consistently deliver a great price on a very popular and competent item. It's neither optimization (the top model with the most features), nor is it minimization (cheapest per feature) nor plain thriftiness. Rather Costco aims for some sort of consumer satisficing, to use Herb Simon's term: a high quality that is just good enough, but at a low-end price.

Those of you not from Costco Country ought to visit one; they are not at all similar to, say, a Wal-Mart (except from, sadly, an "architectural" perspective.)

If I was to take foreign visitors on a tour of Seattle, I would show them the first Microsoft HQ, the first Starbucks and the first Costco, all of which are in Seattle. Each in its own way explains a great deal about America.

UPDATE: Company for the People

Comments

[JRoth]

Halfway through the piece, I thought, "satisficing." Right on the ball.

Of course, satisficing behavior explains why the market doesn't really work the way Market Fundamentalists say it does, but that doesn't make it a bad thing....

[clew]

I'm told by people who work there that it isn't a bad place to work, either, even if you're 'merely' diligent and hardworking instead of skilled.

[Sarah]

Seattle, huh? Who'd a thunk it?

From Seattle, turn right and go down the rabbit hole.

[Luke Francl]

CostCo allows unions, too.

[Eric Brown]

Um, the first Microsoft HQ was in Alberquerque, New Mexico. The second HQ was in Bellevue, and the current one is, of course, in Redmond.

[David Sucher]

OK, Eric. Quite right, though didn't MS reorganize its Corp structure when it moved to the Seattle area?

So first MS HQ when it was grossing over $100 million a year and in the Seattle METRO area? Better?

[Di Roberts]

OK we know about Costco and believed that the store had plans to open in Australia but as yet no news. Do you have any info regarding this please