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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3-page paper discusses Costco and competitive pressures in the discount retail industry. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AS43_MTcostcoco.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
approximately 555 membership warehouse stores in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom, to name a few (Biesada, 2009).
Costco offers a variety of items to its members at bulk pricing, including appliances, fresh foods, tires and medicines (Biesada, 2009). Also on the Costco offering list are car
and home insurance, real estate services and travel packages (Biesada, 2009). Because Costco is a "membership" organization, customers must purchase membership cards of different levels (Biesada, 2009).
Though Costco does have loyal customers, the discount retailer industry faces a great deal of competitive pressures. The companys top competitors include BJs Wholesale
Club, Sams Club and Target; other competition includes Barnes & Noble (for books), Best Buy (for electronics) and Whole Foods and Safeway (for food) (Biesada, 2009).
Costco is a discount retailer, and in the United States, between 2003 and 2007, the industry sales increased by 6.3%, while compound annual growth rate for
the period was just under 6% (U.S. Discount Retailing, 2008). In 2007, Target had 12.3% of the market, followed by Wal-Mart, at 7.8% of the market (U.S. Discount Retailing, 2008).
Costco followed at 3.5% of the market (U.S. Discount Retailing, 2008). In the current downturn, Costco should be in decent shape,
because discount retailers, overall, seem to be fairing well versus their full-time counterparts (Clauson and Kaufman, 2009; see also Jones, 2009). However, there are some things that analysts are pointing
out when it comes to Costco that will likely have a huge impact on the company in the near term. For one
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