Sol Price ranked customer value and employee wages above investor profit
David Rosenthal · Costco (Audio) · Acquired · Aug 21, 2023 · at 28:21
Acquired co-host David Rosenthal discusses the foundational operating philosophies created by Sol Price at FedMart, which later heavily influenced Costco's management principles.
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“As Saul is running the company during these first few years, he starts to codify some retail management philosophies, and he famously sort of canonizes these as FedMart's four priority order principles, and he teaches every new employee throughout the whole company about this. Number one, first priority, provide the best possible value to customers. Number two, second priority, pay good wages to employees and provide good benefits, including health insurance. This is in the fifties, like this is progressive stuff. Number three, maintain honest business practices. And then number four, the last one, make money for investors.”
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