On Friday, May 5th, David Hahn, Manager of Nanaimo Costco gave an informative and frank presentation to possibly the largest audience ever to attend a Northwest Bay PROBUS meeting.  Seventy-nine people waited anxiously as David’s opening comments answered the question on everyone’s mind:
“Does the Nanaimo Costco have plans to relocate?”  His answer…
“None right now” after which a collective sigh of relief went around the room.  They are, however, actively looking for land, projecting that they’ll need 17 acres to build a future Costco which would include a gas station; at their current location they have about half that.

Mr. Hahn continued to share a number of interesting facts and statistics both about Nanaimo Costco and Costco worldwide:

• Employees are well-paid. The average worker makes $26.50/hr. plus Bonuses, plus benefits with a full pension.  An average salary would be $60 thousand/year.
  
• Costco hires many students for their summer program, actively pursuing business graduate students to make their careers with them.
  
• Costco gets no kickbacks or gratuities from vendors.
  
• There are 729 stores worldwide, 95 of which are in Canada.
  
• Costco is growing worldwide, its newest stores being in Spain and Iceland (They hope this one will be their gateway to other Nordic countries.)
  
• They have successfully allied themselves in China with business behemoth Alibaba.  Best sellers in China: (1) Kirkland Baby Wipes and (2) Kirkland Glucosamine tablets.
  
• Costco is the second largest retailer in the US and Canada. The largest?:  Walmart
  
• Membership: 11,310,000 cardholders in 6,100,000 households worldwide.
• Nanaimo Costco: 55,000 members
  
• In Nanaimo, ground beef is the #1 best seller; toilet paper is #3.
  
• 21,000 rotisserie chickens go out of Nanaimo Costco each week.
  
• Thanksgiving week over 6,000 made-from-scratch pumpkin pies are sold.
  
• Costco  is committed in its support of charitable activities in the communities where it operates.
  
• When asked by one PROBUS member why Costco doesn’t have an express lane, David’s frank answer was basically: “That’s not the business we are in. We want you to come into our store and fill up that shopping cart!”

Report by Steph Smith