OCTOBER 2013 The Costco Connection 7
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 © 2013 Costco Wholesale.
®
PUBLISHER Ginnie Roeglin
groeglin@costco.com
EDITOR David W. Fuller 425-313-8510 dfuller@costco.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Tim Talevich 425-313-6759 ttalevich@costco.com
DEPUTY EDITOR, U.S.
T. Foster Jones 425-313-6748 Tod. Jones@costco.com
DEPUTY EDITOR, INTERNATIONAL
Stephanie E. Ponder 425-427-7134
sponder@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
Sylvia Youngsun Yoo, Seoul 82-2-2630-2606 sylviayoo@costcokr.com
Nora Wang, Taipei, 886-2-8791-9988-216
norawang@costco.com.tw
ONLINE EDITOR
David Wight David. Wight@costco.com
REPORTERS
Will Fifield wfifield@costco.com
Steve Fisher Steve. Fisher@costco.com
Hana Medina hanamedina@costco.com
COPY EDITOR
Miriam Bulmer
CONTRIBUTORS
Rhonda Abrams, Sheila Bair, Barb Freda, Mia Geiger,
Susan Hirshorn, Amanda Horowitz, David Horowitz, Scott Jones,
Deano Kinsey, Erik J. Martin, Nancy Mills, Penny Musco,
Sherrie Newman, Angela Pirisi, Bryan Reesman, J. Rentilly, Mark J. Roe,
Marc Saltzman, Susan Schreter, Fran R. Schumer
ART DIRECTOR Doris Winters dwinters@costco.com
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Lory Williams lwilliams@costco.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Ken Broman, Bill Carlson, Susan Detlor, Steven Lait,
Chris Rusnak, David Schneider, Brenda Shecter
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Pam Sather
psather@costco.com
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER
Antolin Matsuda amatsuda@costco.com
COLOR SPECIALIST
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 COORDINATORS
Melanie Woods 425-313-2558 mwoods@costco.com
Jordan Maughan 425-313-6969 jmaughan@costco.com
ADVERTISING COPYWRITER
Bill Urlevich
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
West: John Iavarone 415-264-6757
iavarone.john@gmail.com
Texas: Frank Colonno 201-962-2759
fcmediapartners@optonline.net
Northeast: Frank Colonno 201-962-2759
fcmediapartners@optonline.net
Midwest: Harold Leddy 847-446-8764
harold@leddyandassociates.com
Marshall Leddy 763-416-1980
marshall@leddyandassociates.com
BUSINESS MANAGER
Janet Burgess
CIRCULATION MANAGER
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
P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088
999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, Washington 98027
Fax: 425-313-6718
Email:
connection@costco.com
from the publisher’s desk
Ginnie Roeglin
THE ENTIRE COUNTRY watched with horror the
bloody images of injured runners and spectators at the
Boston Marathon following the senseless bombing. One
image played over and over in the news: a man wearing a
cowboy hat pushing a severely injured young man away
from the scene in a wheelchair to get medical attention.
The injured young man is Nashua, New Hampshire,
Costco employee Jeff Bauman, who lost both of his legs in
the attack. Costco employees immediately rallied behind
Jeff and his family. Costco sent two other employees who
lost legs in other accidents, Costco Connection reporter
Will Fifield and Issaquah warehouse employee Byron
Speer, across the country to meet with Jeff and share their experiences and advice on living
a full life after limb loss. Jeff is an amazingly courageous, determined and positive young
man who is moving forward every day. Will shares the inspirational story of their meeting
with him on page 76.
This issue features several excellent gift ideas for the holidays. The FoodSaver is a great
appliance to help you preserve fresh fruits and vegetables and store make-ahead meals in
the freezer (page 34). You can learn about what to look for when selecting knives on page
41. For the people on your list who already have it all, Costco offers many gift cards and
tickets to events that anyone would appreciate. You can read more about them on page 81.
On page 88, you’ll find a great story about Costco’s chocolate program. To create and
sustain a consistent level of quality for Costco’s Kirkland Signature™ chocolate products,
Costco and the Blommer Chocolate Company have developed a comprehensive sustainability program. More than 5,000 farmers in the West African nation of Ivory Coast participate
in Costco’s program, which provides training to improve crop quality and yields and benefit
the environment. Farmers are paid fair prices, and Costco has helped to fund many community projects, including schools and medical facilities.
Happy October from all of us at Costco. C
Ginnie Roeglin is Senior Vice
President, E-Commerce and
Publishing, and Publisher of
The Costco Connection.
; FRONTend
from the editor’s desk
David W. Fuller
THIS IS VERY tough, so I will get right down to it.
After 24 years at the helm of The Costco Connection,
17 of them penning this column, I have announced my
retirement, effective at the end of November.
It is no easy decision to leave a company that is as
successful, generous, ethical and fun as Costco, but I am
doing this so that I can have greater control over my own
time and the opportunity to explore the wide and won-
derful world more on my own terms. I feel that now is the
time to do that in good health with my wife, my two
daughters and their husbands, my 6-month-old grandson,
To those of you who have been ardent and/or long-term readers of this publication,
I want to extend my deepest appreciation. I especially thank the many readers who have
written over the years to say how much they enjoy the magazine. Not everyone “gets”
what The Costco Connection is really about, even though I have attempted at times in this
column to make it clear. Neither a magazine nor a catalog in the conventional sense, it is
not even what some might call a “magalog.” This publication’s uniqueness is what makes
it hard for some to understand and what makes it surprisingly resonant for others.
In my more trenchant moments I like to think that what Costco does for the world
of business (demonstrate that there is a way to treat every stakeholder category fairly
and still succeed financially) is what The Connection does for the world of journalism
(demonstrate that there is a way to promote a company and its products while maintaining editorial integrity).
In both cases, that is what some have come to call The Costco Way. I will have more
to say about that in my final column next month.
(If you care to follow my transition from editor’s desk to editor’s deck, you will be
able to do so through a blog I am beginning at Fromtheeditorsdeck.com.) C
David W. Fuller is Assistant
Vice President, Publishing, and
Editor of The Costco Connection.