®
PUBLISHER Ginnie Roeglin
EDITOR David W. Fuller 425-313-8510 dfuller@costco.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Anita Thompson 425-313-6442
athompson@costco.com
MANAGING EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
MAGAZINES BOOKS
T. Foster Jones 425-313-6748 Tim Talevich 425-313-6759
Tod.Jones@costco.com ttalevich@costco.com
ONLINE EDITOR
David Wight David. Wight@costco.com
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
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
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Stephanie E. Ponder, Seattle sponder@costco.com
Jessica Jihye Han, Seoul jhhan@costcokr.com
REPORTERS
Will Fifield wfifield@costco.com
Steve Fisher Steve. Fisher@costco.com
COPY EDITOR Miriam Bulmer
CONTRIBUTORS
Rhonda Abrams, Jorge Cruise, Ralph Grizzle, Susan Hirshorn,
David Horowitz, Lisa Alcalay Klug, Laura Langston, Peter Malcom,
Suze Orman, James Podolny, J. Rentilly, Valerie Ryan,
Scott Steinberg, Pat Volchok
ART DIRECTOR Doris Winters dwinters@costco.com
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Lory Williams lwilliams@costco.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Ken Broman, Bill Carlson, Susan Detlor, Chris Rusnak,
David Schneider, Dawna Tessier, Brenda Tradii
PRODUCTION MANAGER Pam Sather psather@costco.com
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER
Antolin Matsuda amatsuda@costco.com
PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
Elaine Emond, Ottawa elaine.emond@costco.com
COLOR TECHNICIAN MaryAnne Robbers mrobbers@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
Melanie Woods, Seattle 425-313-2558 mwoods@costco.com
Deborah Lipman, London 011-44-1923-830481 dlipman@costco.co.uk
Leah Clement, Ottawa 613-221-2383 Leah.Clement@costco.com
SENIOR ADVERTISING PROJECT MANAGER
Steve Trump strump@costco.com
ADVERTISING / PROMOTION COPYWRITER
Bill Urlevich
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John McCarthy, 818-706-8066,
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Janet Burgess
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Rossie Cruz 425-313-6715 rcruz@costco.com
CIRCULATION / EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Dorothy Strakele 425-313-6899 connection@costco.com
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
D. Ted Harris 425-313-2937 dtharris@costco.com
COSTCO WHOLESALE
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999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, Washington 98027
Fax: 425-313-6718
E-mail: connection@costco.com
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The Costco Connection is published by Costco Wholesale. All
editorial material, including editorial comments, opinion and statements of fact appearing in this publication, represents the views of
the respective authors and does not necessarily carry the endorsement of Costco Wholesale or its officers. Information in The Costco
Connection is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but
the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed. The publication of any advertisements is not to be construed as an endorsement of the product or service offered unless it is specifically stated
in the ad that there is such approval or endorsement. Products
advertised may not be available at all locations at the time of publication. Publishing offices are located at 999 Lake Drive, Issaquah,
WA 98027. Copyright © 2009 Costco Wholesale.
FRONTend
from the publisher’s desk
Ginnie Roeglin
THE RENEWAL OF SPRING seems to bring out the gardener in most everyone. To help you get started, we’ve
included a special Outdoor Living section in this issue.
Beginning on page 40, you’ll find suggestions on which
flowers and shrubs to plant to attract birds and butterflies,
tips for growing beautiful roses and ideas for planting a vertical garden. You’ll also find a variety of patio furniture,
greenhouses, sheds, awnings and lawn-care items available
in our warehouses and on Costco.com.
Preparations may already be under way by our members who will celebrate the annual eight-day festival of
Passover next month. Our warehouses and Costco.com carry a wide selection of foods that
are kosher for Passover, as several members attest in our story on page 44. New to our Web
site this spring is our International Grocery, where you will find an assortment of case
quantities of your favorite kosher, Asian, Hispanic, Indian and organic foods.
Speaking of food, how are you doing with that New Year’s resolution? Fitness expert
Jorge Cruise is back for an update on his fitness challenge to Costco members. Nearly
200,000 Costco members have downloaded Jorge’s free Belly Fat Cure report (see page 49
for more details and how to download the report). Many members have already reported
success in just the first few weeks of the program.
At Costco, we try to surprise our members with great values on unexpected items in
what we often refer to as the “treasure hunt.” Cynthia Glaser, vice president of Special
Events, and her team of buyers are constantly looking for new and exciting items that they
can bring to our warehouses for a limited time. On page 58, Pat Volchok tells the inside
story about our Special Events program.
Finally, watch your mailbox for our latest coupon book filled with savings on a variety
of food and non-food items available at our warehouses and Costco.com. C
Ginnie Roeglin is Senior Vice
President, E-Commerce and
Publishing, and Publisher of
The Costco Connection.
from the editor’s desk
David W. Fuller
THERE ARE MANY GOOD ways to characterize
Costco, but I believe the best of them all may be as a
company based on fairness. One of the best illustrations
of that is our Food Court, where we have, in a quiet yet
somehow audacious way, been offering a hot dog and a
soft drink for the same price—$1.50—since 1985. Our
David W. Fuller is Assistant article on page 21 goes into some of the details of how
Vice President, Publishing, and we have been able to do that. I want to comment on why
Editor of The Costco Connection. we want to do that.
Holding a price that steady for that long sends a
clear message about what is possible when you decide to operate your business model on
a “cost plus” basis, instead of a “what the market will bear” basis. The “cost plus”
approach is based on the idea that a business can operate on a fair markup and still pay
all of its bills; pricing is determined by carefully examining true costs, and profits are
maintained by stringently controlling costs.
“Cost plus” is a world away from the “what the market will bear” approach, which is
based on upping prices until they reach the customer’s pushback point; that has little to
do with the concept of fairness.
What is interesting about a company that strives to operate by being fair to all is
what can be accomplished when people (customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders,
the community at large) believe they are getting a fair deal. For starters, the work, the
products and the prices stand on their own. No need to lavish time and money on tooting your own horn, no need to find elaborate ways to disguise price hikes, no need to be
anything but transparent, to use a voguish word.
Maybe it’s a lot to ask of a simple hot dog, to have it carry such an important message. Fortunately, the dog gets quite a bit of help from throughout Costco’s operations all
over the world, where dedication to fairness is a daily practice.
But, let’s face it: A huge dog and a soda for a buck-fifty? Man! C
