The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.
Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company. The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.
I say at our management conferences that the amount Wal-Mart grows in just one year is the equivalent of Costco's size.
It doesn't do Costco any good if nobody can afford to buy anything.
We've always been in favor of improved wages for workers. When you have a strong middle class, they want to buy more stuff at Costco.
You don't have a very motivated working class, it starts to affect the dynamics of the economy. If workers are disenchanted and disenfranchised, productivity losses will go along with that.
It doesn't do much good to have a quality image, whether it's with the facility or whether it's with the merchandise, if you don't have real quality people taking care of your customers.
When you hire good people, and you provide good jobs and good wages and a career, good things are going to happen.
If you hire good people, give them good jobs, and pay them good wages, generally something good is going to happen.
If you're going to say to all the people that you're working with, 'We want you to treat the customers honestly; don't lie and don't cheat,' it is somewhat hypocritical if you're not following the same rules.
We want to turn our inventory faster than our people.
Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company.
Everybody is watching you every minute anyways. If they think the message you're sending out is phony, they're going to say, 'Who does he think he is?' It's again good business. But it is also an obligation.
If somehow a proclamation were made that C.E.O.'s could only make a maximum of $300,000 a year, you would not have any shortage of very qualified men and women seeking the jobs.
You destroy the initiative of the working people if they don't feel they have a fighting chance to be a part of the American Dream.
