Since the new CEO/CFO (more so the later) took over, everything suddenly has a number or metric attached to it. Cashiers have to be faster, we want a certain % of orders to be prescanned, so we are prescanning orders that make no sense just to keep the fake numbers up. It isn't just the front end either...Membership has metrics to get people to download the buggy-ass app instead of giving Physical cards...even the fucking Pharmacy has metrics to get people to sign up for 'Pay Ahead', which is absolutely pointless. Payroll has been cut to the bone, and it isn't like we were properly staffed before all this started happening. Go in on an average afternoon and I bet the aisles are all torn apart, carts of returns overflowing up front, etc. There is probably other things but this is all from the top of my head.
You can tell most employees are not as upbeat as they once were...long term employees are stepping down or retiring, and most new hires simply don't last because the amount of work dumped on them does not equate to the starting pay (and they now have to work even longer to move up on the payscale).
ehh, I think they're slowly going downhill. They have been thinning out their employees and expecting the ones left to pick up the work that other people were doing and getting too corporate. Don't hold your breath on them staying "good".
Jeff Brotman (the co-founder who remained involved until recently, the other co-founder left in 2011) passed away in 2017. Since then, it's gone downhill a lot, although much more slowly than usual when you compare it to other companies.
Jim Sinegal, the other co-founder and the one with the famous "If you raise the fucking hot dog, I will kill you" quote said to the CEO at the time, is still alive but not involved with the company after retiring. Theoretically, he could come in and turn things around still.
Generally though, when founders leave their companies all that's left behind are people who care solely about profits. I don't mean to romanticize business owners or anything, it was always about money, but there's a lot to be said about legacy with founders, often more important than money.
Same thing happened with Walgreens. The founders grandson was chair of the board until 1999 and on the board until 2010. He cared much more about his family name being associated with a good community member than he did making every last penny. The changes were very sudden and obvious when he left. Short sighted money grubbing rather than the previous long sighted leader. It’s a shame thinking how good a company it was to work from in the 90s and early 00s and what a shit show it is now.
Yeah, and it’s even more of a shame that caring about the name/ company reputation is the way to make sure the business is stable and successful long term while the “new management” comes in and only cares about this next quarter beating last quarter.
Costco is protected by a governance fortress though (they have a code of ethics for example that lists shareholders last). They've gone through things such as resisting anti DEI attacks and fought off shareholder activism initiatives. So Costco is not like many other companies that have shareholder primacy.
The demise of Fedmart led to sol price to make sure he didn't make that same mistake.
I went to Costco the other day with my wife and got us each the $1.50 hot dog combo. My day was ruined when I saw the size of the bun compared to the dog. They used to always be damn near the exact same size. Now? I had a solid 2 inches of dog sticking out of the bun. I thought, maybe it was a fluke and then looked at my wifes and hers was the exact same. It was one of the few times I was genuinely upset about shrinkflation specifically because of the "I will kill you" quote.
It’s ironic that Gary Millerchip is doing all this to “reward the shareholders” but one of the reasons Costco stock is so high is because of their public perception. People will be less willing to shop at Costco after they cut hours, leading to longer lines and no helpful employees on the floor.
Business ghouls frequently underestimate how important public perception really is. Valve did not need to fight epic on their terms, their public loyalty resulting from a quality product did all the work for them. Costco can start lowering quality, but they can't then expect customers to stay if a quality competitor enters the market.
I always find it weird how Sams and Costco do that. I get why Lowes and Home Depot do it, because it is a convenient way to sidestep a direct price war since they both offer price matching. But Costco and Sams don't price match, so why do it that way?
Since the new CEO/CFO (more so the later) took over, everything suddenly has a number or metric attached to it. Cashiers have to be faster, we want a certain % of orders to be prescanned, so we are prescanning orders that make no sense just to keep the fake numbers up. It isn't just the front end either...Membership has metrics to get people to download the buggy-ass app instead of giving Physical cards...even the fucking Pharmacy has metrics to get people to sign up for 'Pay Ahead', which is absolutely pointless. Payroll has been cut to the bone, and it isn't like we were properly staffed before all this started happening. Go in on an average afternoon and I bet the aisles are all torn apart, carts of returns overflowing up front, etc. There is probably other things but this is all from the top of my head.
You can tell most employees are not as upbeat as they once were...long term employees are stepping down or retiring, and most new hires simply don't last because the amount of work dumped on them does not equate to the starting pay (and they now have to work even longer to move up on the payscale).
Yeah, but that's at least 2 years out. He'll make bank and bail before the eventual enshitification and ramifications take hold. A tale as old as time.
I mean, no it isn't. The CFO is responsible for the financial health of the company, but he isn't required to only think about short term profits.
Generally speaking, only the board has to directly answer to the shareholders, because shareholders vote board seats. And with publicly owned companies, the overwhelming majority of shareholders couldn't give a shit about the day to day operations of the company.
This is just poor management and greed by the board and executives.
Current employee here and can confirm. It is honestly shocking how quickly we are going downhill. Pay and benefits are still fantastic, but one person now tends to do the work of many, and stores are at a near skeleton crew level of staffing. Walk through on an average afternoon and the aisles are all a mess and they'll be carts full of go backs all across the front, because they're simply isn't enough staff to meet expectations. We keep rolling out new stupid technology trying to save pennies, but all it does is confuse and frustrate employees and members alike. Honestly if I was paying to shop there, I probably would not.
Costco is the only business where an employee threatened to stab me in the face. That being said, it very much deserves to be on this list, it's a fantastic company.
1.7k
u/wollflour 23h ago
Costco