Costco Wholesale Reviews in Seattle, WA Area

Pros

The CEO and CFO and there support of the workers, there beleive in compensating and growing the people from within.

Cons

Some of upper management can loose track of the importance of supporting the worker bees.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more with the people doing the work when considering a change ask for their advise and really consider it.

Pros

Good pay copaired to similar jobs. Good health, dental, and eye care benifots. Management is good most of the time.

Cons

You will reach a point when your career can not go any further and you have no way to move up.

Pros

you'll never get fired (comfortable), boss will not breathe down your neck for delivering because culturally expectations are not high with regard to productivity and IT's eagerness to deliver solution faster and better. people are friendly. Fortune 50 company. Good brand name. great work vs life balance. most people work only 40 hrs a week.

Cons

Not challenging environment, management is poor with developing their employees, not many career opportunities, probably 15-25% underpaid by position compared to market, many lifers simply happy to collect a check (meaning people worked there forever and are not go getters), lacks mentorship programs,

Advice to Senior Management

Develop your employees better, actually invest in them and their desired career paths, mentor them, don't be so complacent, create challenging environments.

Pros

Costco promotes from within, so career growth opportunities are available for those that work hard and apply themselves.

Cons

No time off in your first year of employment makes it tough for many.

Pros

Relaxed atmosphere
Casual dress code
Fairly low cost medical benefits (see caveats below)
Job security, at least until the CEO retires
Management will listen to you
Some newer technology if you get assigned to the right projects
Technical Training
Decent desktop
Work life balance is mainly respected
Low amount of administrative "junk" to take care of
Free parking (but it is in the swamp, or back 40 acres depending on assigned building)
Still run like a small company, but that is also a problem because they are huge
Opportunity to fill gaps with utilities as long as it costs 0 to nothing

Cons

Low pay compared to competitors for skilled IT talent
Good people are not accepting offers because of Low pay and benefits
Lousy 401k match $500 max per year...seriously!
No bonuses or stock options
Medical benefits are OK, but you are pushed to use Costco for everything and one hearing aid every four years!
New hires have trouble being listened to
Noisy cramped cube farms, 4 to a cube, and you are surrounded, not efficient or pleasant
Many old-timers that are just dialing it in, but won't leave because they have gotten to the point where benefits are decent/good (10-15 years)
Way behind the times in technology and pushing to upgrade with minimal employees and slow to recognize the need for additional people
Freeze period on vacations and days off (and IT changes) during 11/01-12/15, which makes sense for warehouse, but not for IT.
Vacation days below average, even worse than Wal-mart
No laptops
No cell phone reimbursement
Remote Access from home is primitive
Parking is assigned based on seniority, don't plan on a parking spot for 20 years (literally) and wear comfortable shoes because it is a hike
Decisions and intiative are hard to find here
Pay increases are poor, to the point of not covering inflation (yes it is something, but they are very profitable!)
All employees are treated as replaceable as cart pushers, which isn't bad if you are a cart pusher or cashier, but it is bad if you have 20 years of experience in IT

Advice to Senior Management

Pay good people market rates (IT, not Wal-Mart or Warehouse position rates)
Update your offices and read up on efficiency of cube farms, especially your 4 person per, version
Counsel and/or move people out if they don't perform
Technology Vendor's do not know everything, many times less than your in-house experts, listen to your employees
Ask employees opinions anonymously and work on the lowest scoring areas

Pros

good pay and bonus twice a yr. the hours were good until now working 11yrs they have me closing they dont care about there employees.

Cons

the hours i have been there 11yrs i have good hrs now they are making me close. p/t the benefits are awful.

Advice to Senior Management

care about the employees they dont care about the employees I now have to close and i dont have a car i will have to walk home at nite.

Pros

Costco has some of the best benefits and competitive wages in retail to keep their most intelligent and hard working employees.

Cons

Costco is going in a direction where there are less employees, but more responsibilities for those employees. You'll see a lot of people wearing different hats working in different departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Management will always be the first to hear about negative feedback, but the it takes effort to award those with positive feedback. Also, watching a manager do the little things like push carts or clean food court tables goes a long way and sends a big message.

Pros

Benefits by far, good for the family.

Cons

Hard on the body, not for the the older worker!

Advice to Senior Management

Keep us healthy and safe.

Pros

- Really Care About Their Employees
- Adequate Feedback from Superiors
- Training is Very Hands On

Cons

- Must Learn Quick
- Training is Very Hands On

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more feedback and motivation to employees.

Pros

Great Benefits. Casual work enviorment. Free parking. Located in Issaquah so traffic isnt an issue.

Cons

Horrible starting pay. Even with a college degree and working in the corporate office they think its ok to pay starting wage of $11. Takes 5 years to gain livable wage.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees a livable wage if they have the accredation.