All Hail Costco

Reasons you already knew about Costco, but reiterated by one of my favorite personal finance sites, Motley Fool. Some highlights from the article...

• CEO Jim Sinegal earns a mere $350,000 per year, with a bonus of as much as $200,000 (and possibly some stock). He aims to earn no more than three or four times what his highest-paid store managers earn. "Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong," Sinegal has said.
• Costco pays its employees relatively lavishly. Workers reportedly start at $10 or more per hour, considerably more than elsewhere, where minimum wage is the usual starting point. According to a 2008 SmartMoney article, average pay topped $18 an hour, fully 68% more than employees earned at Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Sam's Club, and more than BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) employees earn, too. Roughly 85% of Costco's employees had health insurance last year (at fairly cheap rates), versus only about half at Wal-Mart and Target (NYSE: TGT). All this leads to low turnover, saving the company money on recruiting and training new employees, and helping Sinegal argue that it's simply a rational business practice.
• It's a rule at the company that no item can be marked up more than 15%. You'll find markups much higher elsewhere (though you'll usually be unaware of it) -- supermarkets mark up items by about 25%, on average, and department stores like Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), Dillard’s (NYSE: DDS), or Macy's (NYSE: M) can tack on 50% or more.