Reuters reports that Costco CEO Jim Sinegal has said that he plans to take advantage of the depressed real estate market of the moment to make deals for locations that he previously might not have been able to get.
"We're getting better deals on real estate," he reportedly said at a media event in Portland, Oregon. "People who didn't want to talk with us about shopping center sites now want to talk with us."
Sinegal also said that despite some softening of Costco’s business, the company plans to continue opening 25-30 stores per year. And, he said, the membership warehouse club chain is tweaking its selection to put an even greater emphasis on value.
"We're getting better deals on real estate," he reportedly said at a media event in Portland, Oregon. "People who didn't want to talk with us about shopping center sites now want to talk with us."
Sinegal also said that despite some softening of Costco’s business, the company plans to continue opening 25-30 stores per year. And, he said, the membership warehouse club chain is tweaking its selection to put an even greater emphasis on value.
- KC's View:
- Some companies respond to tough times by hunkering down…but the smart ones know that this is a good time to get aggressive…to open new stores, to find better people, to use every marketing tool at their disposal to build market share and put some distance between them and the competition (which would be the guys who are hunkering down hoping to simply survive the bad times).
