How Costco Went From Concept to $1 Billion in 3 Years


Excuse me if the title to this post sounds kinda cheesy but, man, how else can you describe Costco's success? CNN Money takes us behind-the-scenes of our favorite retailer. Read the story, here, or watch the video, here.

My favorite question:

How did you get manufacturers to distribute through Costco?

BROTMAN: Many wouldn't sell to us, period. But fairly early on we demonstrated our ability to be the best merchant out there — better than the Wal-Marts (WMT, Fortune 500) and Sam's Clubs of the world. We convinced manufacturers one by one. When Jim met with Sony (SNE) about five years ago, the Sony executives said they would never sell to us. Today we're one of the largest retailers of Sony products.

As they say..it's all about execution and that's exactly what the people behind Costco are masters at. What an awesome, inspirational story.

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