Costco is a warehouse membership club dedicated to providing its members with the best possible prices on quality brand-name merchandise by keeping costs low and passing the savings on to their customers. They also boast hundreds of locations around the world where they offer a diverse selection of merchandise, as well as the convenience of specialty departments, all designed to make the shopping experience enjoyable.This company has been known in the western part of the world as the go-to supermarket for high quality and affordable products such as their wholesale products. Costco is said to be planning a move to Ireland and the opening of a few stores there. If they do, it will come as no surprise because Costco is already present in parts of the United Kingdom with countries, such as England. “Ireland is an appealing market for our business,” says Costco global site hunter Jim Murphy. However, there are a few things that Costco, as a corporation and brand, should think about before coming to Ireland, and we’ll go over some of them below.
Scalability
Costco had previously expressed interest in coming to Ireland, having received planning permission to establish a warehouse in Fonthill, west Dublin, in 1998. On appeal, An Bord Pleanála overturned the ruling, claiming that the planned 11,500 square meter store was unsuitable for a residential setting and would suffocate local retailers. This put a stop to their expansion plans, but a Costco executive claimed at a recent Bord Bia conference that the company was looking at Ireland again because it “does a very substantial percentage of its business” with small merchants. The Irish merchants would greatly benefit. It will be a 50/50 gain.
The company’s mission statement
Outside of its native market in the USA, Costco is infamous for refusing to take credit card payments. In the United Kingdom, the company accepts cash, debit cards, and cheques, but not credit cards. This is crucial to Costco as a corporation since its customers bear the high cost of credit cards, which goes against the company’s goal of providing the best value to its members since they always want to provide discounted prices. In Ireland, Costco would only accept credit cards if it was a fair bargain for its members.
Costco membership terms and limitations differ per nation. It is fairly open in its US market, and anyone, including small business owners, can apply. In the United Kingdom, however, only documented small company owners, teachers, hospital staff, and government employees are eligible to join.
If the same limits were imposed in Ireland, hundreds of thousands of people would be unable to buy at Costco, and the store’s functioning would be more like that of the cash-and-carry stores in the UK.
According to Dermott Jewell, in the current environment, where prices are generally high and there is competition, prices don’t differ greatly between the major players, So Costco’s entrance into the market would be very appealing to customers and small retailers, as they account for a very large percentage of Costco’s business in the United States, and there’s no doubt that the same low price and strong service ethos would be appealing in Ireland as well.
The pros and cons
Costco’s presence would be warmly anticipated by potential employees, who know how well the company treats its employees, pays them generously, and even provides significant health benefits. The second group would be Costco’s suppliers, who would benefit from the company’s approach of treating them as partners in its operations.
Local wholesalers and cash-and-carry operators would be Costco’s stumbling obstacles since they simply couldn’t match Costco’s buying power and thus low prices. Costco’s entry into the market would also be unwelcome to the big retailers, especially if it did so on an open-membership basis.
When the Costco International SVP Jim Murphy confirmed in a telephone interview with Shelflife that the corporation was looking at Ireland again, there was light at the end of the tunnel for the customers in Ireland.
He said that Costco intended to open a warehouse in Ireland, preferably in Dublin. He also suggested that the corporation didn’t want to waste a lot of energy and time since it didn’t want history to repeat itself. He continued to say, “We’re waiting until we discover the perfect property and make the right offer.”
Costco, according to Murphy, would do well in Ireland because their distribution style would work well for small business owners as well as individual members due to their membership philosophy. Murphy elaborated on what he meant by this, saying, “It’s getting through the planning process.” It was the primary issue back then.” They just didn’t want to repeat what happened back in 1995.
The SVP of Costco International – Murphy would not say whether Costco was close to opening a store in Ireland, however he did reveal that the company did not have a “permanent person” in the country, implying that a deal is still a long way off but still gives hope to customers.
