Costco's Corporate Strategy

Findings
Strengths: Wal-Mart has great retail brand recognition. It values money saving ideas in all of their stores, and for the overall corporation. Wal-Mart is known for its convenience and a wide range of products all under one roof. In 2002 82% of all households in the US made a purchase at Wal-Mart. Half of all Americans visit a Wal-Mart at least once a month, and of those half one-third go once a week. Wal-Mart's core strategy is to be the low cost leader. Wal-Mart's competitive advantage is because they are the low cost leader. Wal-Mart commits to deliver quality products with the lowest possible price. Wal-Mart attains this in several ways; their strategy is to have multiple store formats for the different local environments,
Costco VS Sam's Club. Costco's US sales in 2003 were $34.4 billion with only 312 stores. Whereas Sam's Club's US sales were $32.9 billion with 532 stores. Which gives you an average store revenue for Costco of $112 million and Sam's Club of $63 million which is almost half of Costco's. Costco whole sale is different retailer whose is skilled at bringing deep discounts to high-quality goods has turned into good profit. Costco is has a large selection of luxury goods; wines, plasma-screen TVs - within reach of a new class of consumers in higher income areas. Costco's average visit per consumer is $94, and Sam's Club is $78. The combination of bulk sales and membership fees fosters customer loyalty; constant shipments of stylish clothing or fresh food items contribute to Costco's impulse purchases. (I am guilty of that myself!) Next would be your Target and Kmart's that compete directly with Wal-Mart. I don't think Wal-Mart has too much of a threat there going but they should definitely stay on their toes with those retailers. Indirectly Wal-Mart competes with a lot of smaller merchandisers that tailor to the individual
The main issue facing the management of Wal–Mart is how to sustain their extraordinary growth that they have sustained over the years in their growth in profit margins and growth in sales. As the domestic market reaches saturation, a strategy for at home and for global expansion will be necessary. Wal-Mart faces many direct and indirect competition in retail, but I feel that the use of their state of the art supply chain management built in with their partnerships with suppliers gives Wal-Mart an edge over the competition. Wal-Mart has been very successful in creating share holder value, and customer value. Wal-Mart strategic vision is to be the low cost-leader, this strategy has helped Wal-Mart to penetrate and fulfill the market with their services. Even in a bad economy Wal-Mart does well. This is a good business model to have and to