Lorelle Gilpin, Ottawa 613-221-2009 Lorelle. Gilpin@costco.com
Sue Knowles, London 011-44-1923-213113 sknowles@costco. co.uk
Raymond Kyunghwan Kim, Seoul 82-2-2630-2703 khkim@costcokr.com
SENIOR EDITOR T. Foster Jones Tod. Jones@costco.com
ONLINE EDITOR David Wight David. Wight@costco.com
ASSISTANT EDITOR Jacquelyn Jin, Seoul jjin@costcokr.com
REPORTERS
Will Fifieldwfifield@costco.com
Stephanie E. Ponder sponder@costco.com
Mark E. Stroder mstroder@costco.com
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Dorothy Strakele 425-313-6899 connection@costco.com
COPY EDITOR Miriam Bulmer
CONTRIBUTORS
Rhonda Abrams, Brian Basset,
David Horowitz, Peter J. Malcolm,
Valerie Ryan, Marc Saltzman, Pat Volchok
ART DIRECTOR Doris Wintersdwinters@costco.com
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR
Lory Williamslwilliams@costco.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Ken Broman, Bill Carlson, Susan Detlor, Chris Rusnak,
David Schneider, Dawna Tessier
PRODUCTION MANAGER Pam Sather psather@costco.com
ASSISTAN T PRODUCTION MANAGER
Antolin Matsuda amatsuda@costco.com
PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR, OTTAWA
Elaine Emond Elaine. Emond@costco.com
COLOR TECHNICIAN MaryAnne Robbersmrobbers@costco.com
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Jane Klein Shucklin 425-313-8277 jshucklin@costco.com
ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGER
Kathi Tipper-Holgersen 425-313-6581 ktipper@costco.com
ADVERTISING COORDINATORS
Deborah Lipman, London 011-44-1923-830481
dlipman@costco.co.uk
Isabel Levasseur, Ottawa 613-221-2394
Isabel. Levasseur@costco.com
Steve Trump, Seattle 425-313-6969 strump@costco.com
ADVERTISING / PROMOTION COPYWRITER
Bill Urlevich
BUSINESS MANAGER Janet Burgess
CIRCULATION MANAGER Rossie Cruz 425-313-6715
rcruz@costco.com
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTAN T
D. Ted Harris 425-313-2937 dtharris@costco.com
COSTCO WHOLESALE
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Costco Connection is gathered from sources considered to be
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may not be available at all locations at time of publication.
16. Costco can help you enjoy your holiday celebration,
starting with eggs to boil, sweets to fill your Easter baskets,
fresh berries, pastries and ready-made quiches for brunch—
and our own Kirkland Signature™ spiral-sliced ham or a
stunning leg of lamb and fresh asparagus for your dinner.
If you’ve never cooked lamb, we’ve included several simple Ginnie Roeglin is Senior Vice
recipes for this delicious type of meat, starting on page 27. President, E-Commerce and
Spring also marks the beginning of the wedding season. Publishing, and Publisher of
If you are planning a wedding, you’ll want to read “Wedding The Costco Connection.
by Costco” on page 58 to learn how to save a bundle on a
stylish wedding. If you’re thinking about popping the question, you’ll want to first visit
our jewelry counter or costco.com for great savings on a top-quality diamond ring. As
recently featured on national news shows, Costco diamonds are comparable in quality
to the diamonds sold by a renowned jewelry retailer, but at roughly half of the price.
from the publisher’s desk
Ginnie Roeglin
THIS MONTH, many of you will celebrate Easter on April
Is a little blue box really worth thousands of dollars?
You’ll also find invitations, flowers and honeymoon trips at Costco and on costco.com.
I personally recommend costco.com’s wedding floral collection. Coming straight from the
growers, these gorgeous bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages stay
fresh long after the wedding and are available at a tremendous savings.
Speaking of flowers, it’s not too early to be thinking about Mother’s Day on May 14.
If your mom lives in another area, you may want to check out our beautiful Mother’s Day
bouquet in a vase (page 55), which we will deliver directly to your mom’s door. Be sure to
order by May 8 for delivery by Mother’s Day.
Last but not least is a new product that we are especially proud of—Kirkland Signature
Fair Trade Coffee roasted by Starbucks. Fair Trade guarantees that growers receive a fair price
for their top-quality coffee beans, higher than the market dictates based simply upon supply
and demand. As Costco foods vice president Gary Kotzen explains in the article on page 31,
we believe that farmers as well as our members will benefit from our commitment to pay a
fair price for sound agricultural practices and high-quality coffee. We hope you agree.
Happy Easter from all of us at Costco! C
ANALOGIES USED IN business always fascinate me.
from the editor’s desk
David W. Fuller
There are the sports analogies: “We’re all on the same
team.” “Let’s take that ball and run it into the end zone!”
There are the military analogies: “We run a tight
ship here.” “As the frontline troops, you are the ones
who will win this war.”
David W. Fuller is Assistant And then, perhaps most popular of all, there are
Vice President, Publishing, and the “big happy family” analogies, which, thankfully,
Editor of The Costco Connection. usually stop at the basic statement: “We’re all one big
happy family here.”
Likening a business to a family always seems odd to me. Yes, there often is a paternal-istic hierarchy involved. Yes, everyone has to try to get along with their office “brothers
and sisters” on a day-in, day-out basis and, yes, we have meals together once in a while.
But the points of dissimilarity between a business and a family seem far more substantive. One of the biggest of these differences is the issue of choice: We are seldom
bound to a business by anything other than our own choice. Few of us are able to
choose our families. The complexities brought on by this combination of genetics and
the workplace are daunting.
Imagine how much more difficult it must be to juggle your responsibilities to your
brothers and sisters when they are also your fellow employees. How do you face up to
having to fire an underperforming employee if he’s your nephew? Where do you draw
the lines between financial and filial requirements?
Our cover story, “A family affair” (page 18), looks at Costco members who have
family businesses and who deal with issues such as these on a daily basis. These people,
and all of you who operate family businesses, are to be commended for the extra effort
it takes to blend these two worlds. No need for analogies in your case. C
