Costco

Acquired

Costco is not only Charlie Munger’s favorite company of all time (plus he’s on the board, natch), it’s an absolutely fascinating study in how seemingly opposite characteristics can combine to create incredible company value. For instance: Costco has the cheapest prices of any major retailer in America — and also the wealthiest customer base. They pay their hourly workers 30% above the industry norm (and give them excellent healthcare + 401k benefits) — and are almost 3x more profitable on labor than Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, Costco stocks 40x fewer SKUs than their Bentonville-based rivals — yet sells an average of 15x more volume of each. And oh yeah, practically all of Costco’s C-Suite started their careers as baggers and checkout clerks! Tune in for a mind-bending exploration of one of the world’s most iconic — and iconically unique — companies.

Sponsors:

Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get:

• Your product growth powered by Statsig
• Free access to our episode research on Blinkist plus our favorite books on Ben & David’s Bookshelf
• Scalable, clean and low-cost cloud AI compute from Crusoe (and listen to our recent ACQ2 interview with CEO Chase Lochmiller)

More Acquired!:

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Become an LP and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more

Links:

• The Science of Hitting
• Warren Buffett’s Costco joke
• Episode sources

Carve Outs:

• Tifosi sunglasses
• Dwells “take off everything”
• Jeremy Giffon on Invest Like the Best
• Dogpatch
• David Lidsky’s great piece on Acquired in Fast Company

‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.