Costco's Cultural DNA: Working with Jim Sinegal

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How did he show you what really mattered to him, as an operator?

He would go to every single warehouse at least once a year. When I had the opportunity to be in his presence for warehouse walks, he would shake hands and talk to as many people as he could and he would remember their names, like I said, and he would have remembered something about them and ask them how this was going or how that was going. When there was trash on the floor – because in an environment where there's so many customers going through, and they do sampling and all the things, there's always some sort of trash on the floor – he would stoop and pick it up. People would rush to get it from him, out of his hands, or make sure they were first to pick things up. He just was the example. He walked and did everything he asked others to do.

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So you moved into buying pretty quickly. The code of ethics and the rights of merchandising. How well established was that when you arrived?

One thing that Jim did is, he defended his buying teams to Wall Street and to stakeholders and if anybody complained about a buyer being tough, he would say, yes, our buyers are firm, but fair. Their first job is to defend the members and to make sure that the goods get landed to Costco's floor at the least possible price without compromising quality. So they're going to continuously challenge the system and challenge themselves. It's like a Rubik's cube. He would say, if they're being rude, or offensive, that's one thing. But if they're just being tough, and not taking 'no' for an answer, then I applaud them. That's exactly what they've been hired and trained to do. He would defend us, which was awesome.

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