Costco Connection - January 2007

Costco.com

means

business

New program

offers savings

for on-the-job

necessities

BuyingSmart

Consumer reporter

Pat Volchok gives
a behind-the-scenes
^look ^{at Costco}C^OSTCO ^HAS ^BEENa ^money-saving^products ^and ^services.^resource ^for ^small ^businesses ^from^Send ^your ^questions ^to:^the ^very ^{start. The} ^warehouses ^fea-^buyingsmart@^ture ^top-quality ^products ^for ^busi-_costco.comnesses at great prices, and the Costco _business _delivery _program _servescompanies in select urban areas.

But Costco is taking its commitment of providing value to people who buy office supplies to an entirely new level with the launch of costco.com’s National Business Supplies Program. The program offers thousands of popular products that are needed in the everyday running of a business at typically low Costco prices—and with the Costco guarantee of satisfaction.

“Costco already has a highly successful regional business delivery program, but it is limited to just five regions,” says Ginnie Roeglin, Costco’s senior vice president of e-commerce and publishing. “We took this proven formula and expanded it to meet the business needs of the rest of the country.”

I’m always curious how Costco does it, time and time again: offer savings of 10 or 20 percent or even more on leading brand products over what you can

Driving home a bargain: Pat Volchok finds costco.com’s National Business Supplies Program offers great products delivered to your place.

FRANCE FREEMAN

find elsewhere in the marketplace. The answer, Ginnie explains, is that the new business program is based on the successful Costco formula. First, buyers thoroughly researched the market to find the best products in terms of quality, assortment and value. Then, a reliable distribution network with 34 state-of-the-art order-processing centers was established to minimize operating costs and speed up delivery.

“The goal is to offer the best price with the highest quality of brand-name goods and member service—backed by fast delivery,” notes Ginnie.

For proof, I reviewed a recent national price comparison listing of the top 332 business items sold by major office e-tailers and costco.com. Costco.com has the lowest prices on 325 of the items and the same price on five others.

“Numbers speak volumes,” says Ginnie. “If a member purchases a market basket of all the business supply items common to a competitor and Costco in this listing, the costco.com savings are $6,300.47 over Office Depot, $5,604.93 over Staples, $3,818.42 over Office Max and $3,794.93 over Sam’s Club.”