Cross-posted at the Writing on the Wal.
You may have read about recent same store sales figures that show Costco did much better than Wal-Mart last month. It turns out those figures are unfair...to Costco.
This is from Anthony Bianco's new book, The Bully of Bentonville:
Costco surpassed Sam's Club in sales a few years ago and now controls about 49 percent of the $104 billion warehouse club market in the United States to Sam's 40 percent. Its performance is all the more impressive considering that it operates only 457 stores, about 100 fewer than its archrival.
[emphasis added]
For that last part to be true, each Costco probably has to be starting from a higher starting figure than each Sam's Club. That makes it harder to grow at an 8 percent rate than it would be otherwise. It's kind of like Costco is beating Wal-Mart with one hand tied behind its back.
Bianco also mentions that Wal-Mart folded Sam's into the Wal-Mart division of the company a few years back. Perhaps they did it to prevent this kind of humiliating comparison.
JR