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🟢 NOT PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Costco
warehouse club · Issaquah, WA
“$1.50 hot dog forever. That's a promise PE would never make.”
Why It's Different
- •Pays an average of $31/hour in the US with a $20/hour minimum — plus biannual bonuses up to $10,000 based on tenure and time-and-a-half on Sundays
- •Employee turnover rate of ~8% vs. the retail industry average of 60%; part-timers get 80% insurance premium coverage, full-timers get 90%
- •$249.6 billion in net sales in fiscal 2024 across 891 warehouses worldwide — with a 92.2% membership renewal rate in the US
- •Publicly traded (COST) but famously refuses to sacrifice worker pay for margins; CEO pushed through raises over investor objections in 2025