®
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 INTERNATIONAL
T. Foster Jones 425-313-6748 Tim Talevich 425-313-6759
Tod.Jones@costco.com ttalevich@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
Sungwon Pae, Seoul 82-2-2630-2700 swpae@costcokr.com
SENIOR EDITOR
Stephanie E. Ponder, Seattle sponder@costco.com
ONLINE EDITOR
David Wight David. Wight@costco.com
REPORTERS
Will Fifield wfifield@costco.com
Steve Fisher Steve.Fisher@costco.com
COPY EDITOR Miriam Bulmer
CONTRIBUTORS
Mark Anstead, Cynthia Dial, Robert L. DuPont,
David Horowitz, Susan Hirshorn, Heidi Smith Luedtke,
Nancy Mills, Ethan Nadelmann, Suze Orman, Kate Parham,
Karen Roush, Alice Shapin, 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, Brenda Shecter
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Pam Sather, Seattle psather@costco.com
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER
Antolin Matsuda amatsuda@costco.com
COLOR TECHNICIAN MaryAnne Robbers mrobbers@costco.com
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Jane Klein Shucklin 425-313-8277 jshucklin@costco.com
ASSISTAN T ADVERTISING MANAGER
Kathi Tipper-Holgersen 425-313-6581 ktipper@costco.com
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
Melanie Woods 425-313-2558 mwoods@costco.com
SENIOR ADVERTISING PROJECT COORDINATOR
Steve Trump strump@costco.com
ADVERTISING / PROMOTION COPYWRITER
Bill Urlevich
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
West: John McCarthy 818-706-8066 johnmccarthy1@sbcglobal.net
Texas: Nuala Berrells 214-660-9713 nuala@sbcglobal.net
Northeast: Frank Colonno 201-962-2759
fcmediapartners@optonline.net
Midwest: Stu Opfer 630-832-3600 stu@opfermedia.com
Southeast: Carl Mischka 252-626-8199 CarlMischka@aol.com
BUSINESS MANAGER
Janet Burgess
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Rossie Cruz 425-313-6715 rcruz@costco.com
CIRCULATION / EDITORIAL ASSISTAN T
Dorothy Strakele 425-313-6899 connection@costco.com
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
D. Ted Harris 425-313-2937 dtharris@costco.com
COSTCO WHOLESALE
P. O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088
999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, Washington 98027
Fax: 425-313-6718
Email: connection@costco.com
For information on warehouse hours and more:
1-800-774-2678 or visit Costco.com
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 © 2012 Costco Wholesale.
FRONTend
from the publisher’s desk
SPRING HAS SPRUNG in Costco warehouses and on
Costco.com. March is a great time to get a jump on preparing your patio and garden before summer arrives. This
issue features many great products to help you spruce up
your outdoor and indoor living spaces.
Is your yard in need of a makeover? It can be transformed from ordinary to amazing with new plants and
patio furniture. Gain inspiration from the winners of our
recent backyard makeover contest, featured on page 28.
Our warehouses are stocked with a selection of beautiful patio furniture. Our website offers an additional
selection of top-quality patio items, including seating and
dining collections, heaters, fireplaces, umbrellas, spas, sheds, play sets and more, most
with white-glove delivery directly to your patio! You’ll find a sample of our collections in
the online section starting after page 69.
Costco warehouses also carry a full supply of gardening products and pots. A few
large, attractive containers filled with flowers or herbs can instantly transform your deck
or patio. You’ll find helpful tips on container gardening on page 31. You may even want
to enter your creation in our best garden container contest!
While many of us long for sunshine at this time of year, we also need to protect ourselves and our children from its damaging UV rays. Now there is an easier alternative to
sunscreen: UV protective clothing. Rhonda Sparks created UV Skinz after losing her
32-year-old husband to skin cancer. She developed a line of clothing made from special
fabrics that block 98 percent of the sun’s damaging rays. You can learn more in our story
on page 35, and find swim sets to protect your kids in our warehouses.
If you’re interested in home-interior makeovers, you’ll definitely want to read about
our Special Order Kiosk programs on page 74. You can save hundreds or even thousands
of dollars on top-quality hardwood flooring, carpeting, heating and air conditioning,
garage doors, custom kitchen and bath countertops and cabinets, window coverings and
more. All of our programs include free, in-home consultation and installation by Costco-approved suppliers and are backed by our 100-percent-satisfaction guarantee.
Happy spring from all of us at Costco! 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
REINVENTION. Now that’s a subject into which I
can sink my metaphorical column-writing teeth, such
as they are.
I will not bore you with a rehash of the two times I
have reinvented my career. Suffice it to say that the life of
a daily newspaper reporter is significantly different from
the life of an assistant vice president of publishing at
Costco Wholesale. Both are a world away from being the
owner/operator of a small typesetting shop. Were these
three individuals to encounter one another at a party,
they might be interested in chatting, but their outlooks on
life, their daily concerns and their aspirations would be significantly different.
Nevertheless, the seeds of change that cause us to seek new paths often are planted
deeply in our hearts. As Jane Pauley notes in our cover story, one of her revelations about
reinvention was “how often what seems like a brand-new idea goes way back.” Or, as
German playwright Max Frisch said, “Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.”
It is the process of unfolding that can be so fulfilling. This is because when we seek to
reinvent ourselves we consciously embrace new challenges, new vistas, new people, even
as we engage more deeply with the unifying threads that have run through what may have
seemed like the disparate paths of our life.
One of my favorite sayings comes from an old Girl Scouts song: “Make new friends,
but keep the old.” Those “friends” can be more than our loved ones; they can be inanimate—our beliefs, our perspectives, our moral compass.
The reporter, the small-businessman and the corporate executive may have more to
chat about than they might have thought. C
David W. Fuller is Assistant
Vice President, Publishing, and
Editor of The Costco Connection.
