Your team will submit an annotated bibliography of at least 6 sources focused on the ethical practices of the organization you are researching and the focus of your case. please research resources rel

Group Project Part 1

Junfeng (Lawrence) Liao – 2020090385

Simarjeet Kaur - 2021011220

Yorkville University

BUSI 2053 – Business Ethics

Professor: Froozeh Kolahi

October 23, 2021

Introduction of Costco 3

Ethical Practices of Costco 3

Take Care of Employees 3

Responsibility for Customers 4

Bibliography 5

Costco Wholesale Corporation is a well-known wholesales store founded in 1982 in Issaquah, Washington. It sells all kinds of products in bulk quantities of merchandise are sold at deeply discounted prices to club members who pay an annual membership fee (Lewis, 2017). The history of Costco began under the Price Club name in 1976, when Sol Price, a pioneer in warehouse club retailing opened its first store in San Diego. In 1983, the first Costco Warehouse opened in Seattle by Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brotman. Today, Costco is one of the largest retailers in the world that operates 672 warehouses with more than 79 million of loyal members around the global (Sinegal, 2015).

Business ethics is the application of ethical principles in the daily conduct of business to examine that can help to solve complex moral dilemmas. Justice and equality are two of the main ethical challenges in any business activities. Costco is an interesting case study since it is a popular company in the world, and it also has been considered as a great ethical corporation by the public.

Costco is known for its great employee branding by treating their employees well with fair treatments, a healthy amount of holiday time and better wages. Today, it is still common in some companies that workers have to work in filthy conditions and paid at a low wages level. This is because the management of those companies careless about their employees and focuses more on the profit margins. The decision to improve the under-payment issue and invest more on employees is a big step for all the companies.

Costco is one of the first company shows great concern to its employees and they have one of the lowest employee turnover rates in the retail industry. Moreover, Costco is often cited as a role model of how higher employee salaries can create greater success for the company. On average, the staff wages in Costco are around 56% more than Walmart. And they also provide health insurance programs for any interested member of its staff (Thomas, 2021).

Customers are significant for all the business since it related to the revenue of the company. The two main sources of revenue of Costco comes from store sales and membership fees (Quek, 2021). Hence, customer focus is the priority in Costco’s business operation other than its employees. As the second largest wholesales retail in the world, Costco has over 79 million of customers globally. This is because the reputation of Costco is generally regarded as a socially responsible company due to its high attention to the customers.

Comparing with its competitors who has massive number of products in each category, Costco has a simple and unique merchandise category. The limited selection of products is pre-selected to ensure all the category of products from Costco maintain the best value. Therefore, all the members of Costco can enjoy the low prices with great quality of products.

Lewis, r. (2017, August 24). Costco. Retrieved from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Costco

Quek, K. (2021, April 06). Costco’s business model: How Costco makes money. Retrieved from FifthPerson: https://fifthperson.com/costco-business-model/

Sinegal, J. (2015, March 26). Bentley University. Retrieved from Costco: How Our Ethics Evolved Over the First 30 Years: https://web.archive.org/web/20180427075442id_/https://www.bentley.edu/files/2015/10/09/28798-15_CBE-430-15%20Raytheon_Sinegal_R3.pdf

Thomas, M. (2021). Is Costco Ethical (Socially Responsible, Ethics Code, Kirkland, Clothing, Wages + More). Retrieved from QUERYSPROUT: https://querysprout.com/is-costco-ethical/