This weekend, I went to Costco, Target, and BJ’s.  It was interesting to compare the stores.

At Costco, most of the employees seemed intelligent and motivated to do a good job.  Even though the store was packed, the inventory was neatly organized on the shelves.

Even though Costco has good employees now, there’s no guarantee that will continue.  A few years ago, Best Buy had good employees.  Now, nobody working there seems to care.  If there’s a management change, Costco can go down the tubes like other retailers.

At Target, the employees didn’t seem to care much.  The inventory on the shelves was not organized well.

At BJ’s, I was not impressed.  It was as if someone thought “Let’s build a store that looks like Costco.”, but they didn’t do anything else.  Costco picks good products, BJ’s did not.  At BJ’s, most of the employees were not motivated.  The store layout was not well organized, even though it was an attempt to look like Costco.

It was interesting to compare the difference between a great business and mediocre ones.  It makes a big difference when the employees are motivated.  However, there will eventually be a management change and Costco won’t be good anymore.