Working for Costco?

Does anyone have an opinion on what it's like working at a Costco store? They are hiring in my area and I applied today. I will probably take the job no matter what but I wondered if anyone has had an experience with them and what it was like.

Hi Lendme,

I have no experience working at Costco, but I did work at Walmart's as a fill in job for 3 months. Walmart's is everything you've read and worse, so I don't need to bring that stuff up.

However, seeing your question I did some digging and found an encouraging bit about Costco. There is a woman who has written a book (can't break the rules by naming it, else Liz will break ma fingers! ). She writes about the experience of retail workers, bad and good.

Here is a bit what Caitlin K. had to say about Costco's...

"There are people with full-time jobs in retail who actually need food stamps in order to feed their families," she says. "It is unconscionable that any CEO can take home his $10-, $12-, $15-million a year, and say that's OK, I'm cool with that."

She hopes her book will help to bring about more respect for people working retail — from both customers and employers.

Kelly lauds Costco as a "sort of God" for its pay scale, citing in the book a Costco official who says the average wage is $19.65 an hour. When she asked the CEO about it in an interview, he responded that it was the right thing to do.

When retailers train their workers, give them decent hours and enough hours that it's actually a job, then they have associates who are terrific with customers, she says.

"Funny thing — you sell more!"

"Companies routinely say you can't afford to pay more. Well you know, I'm sorry, you can. Yes, the price of cotton is rising... (and they are) having to raise prices because their commodity prices are rising. But there are other costs you can manage. Costco doesn't advertise, so that's why they have millions and millions of extra dollars, as it were, that they pay their associates. I don't think this is rocket science."

Yeah I have heard they are basically the polar opposite of Walmart. I know cashiers that work at costco that make $25 and hour which is a lot of money here. I applied for anything and I have similar experience so I hope they call me. I have also heard that they have some union locations and even if you don't work in a union location you still get the same deal that union members do.

However, seeing your question I did some digging and found an encouraging bit about Costco. There is a woman who has written a book (can't break the rules by naming it, else Liz will break ma fingers! ). She writes about the experience of retail workers, bad and good.

X, you can name the book! Just don't cut and paste the whole novel!

Actually, giving the name of the book will help people locate it in order to help them when job opportunities like this come up.

Contrary to what you may have heard, I don't break fingers!

Thanks for the info, I'll have to see if there is a store anywhere near me. At that wage I could afford to drive a little distance to work.

They sound like they really care about home/work balance which matters a lot to me. I wouldn't expect the wage that my cashier friend gets though. He has been there a long time.
I have heard that they actually close for 6 holidays a year and you get time and a half on Sunday's.