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Costco's Strategic Limitations

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The strategic limitations which are often faced by membership clubs such as Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s wholesale club include, aggressive marketing of other retail firms, a limit to the total number of customers by being membership-only clubs and warehouses, and the increasing growth of internet retailers. Although these membership clubs do face a few limitations, each club offers a plethora of benefits which significantly outweigh the limitations they face. For example, Costco’s competitor Walmart may implement a variety of marketing advertisements for name brand paper towels such as Brawny, Bounty, and Viva, but consumers say Costco’s house brand, Kirkland, is just as good if not better than name-brand competitors and is offered at great prices. With this, aggressive marketing may have the potential of limiting some customer decisions to choose non-membership retailers over membership clubs; however, …show more content…

Non-membership retailers such as Walmart and Target are two main competitors of Costco, as they both operate instore pharmacies and offer similar products such as consumer electronics, frozen foods, personal care items, and more. What differentiates Costco from its competitors is the company’s business model.
Costco’s business model differ from that of traditional discount retailers in the manner that they charge a yearly membership fee with the promise of offering lower prices and making up for the initial upfront cost. The way in which they hold their low price promise is because they have permanently capped their prices; meaning, they have established maximum price-mark ups on their items. Unlike Costco, traditional discount retailers, such as Walmart, make their money from the markup they charge, which refers to the difference between the wholesale price they pay for goods from their suppliers and the retail price they charge to

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In Costco’s macro-environment, a variety of factors could affect the company’s economic viability. External factors such as inflation, foreign currency exchange rates, levels of unemployment, reduced consumer confidence, and changes in tax policies could unfavorably affect the demand for Costco’s products and services. Prices of some goods and services including food products, are often variant and subject to fluctuations deriving from changes in domestic and foreign supply and demand, competition, taxes, labor costs, or delays in delivery which could significantly affect Costco’s sales. Therefore, the product’s costs and selling could also increase affecting financial results. Other important economic factors include the increasing international

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