A great segment from the Costco article in Fortune referenced below (”The One Company Wal-Mart Fears”, Fortune Magazine, 11/24/2003, available online to subscribers only):

Analysts have pounded on (Costo CEO) Sinegal to trim the company’s generous health benefits and to otherwise reduce labor costs. But he’s taken only limited steps in that direction, like modestly increasing employees’ share of health-insurance premiums. That doesn’t satisfy critics like Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Dreher, who recently wrote, “Costco continues to be a company that is better at serving the club member and employee than the shareholder.”

Sinegal just shrugs. “You have to take the shit with the sugar, I guess. We think when you take care of your customer and your employees, your shareholders are going to be rewarded in the long run. And I’m one of them [the shareholders]; I care about the stock price. But we’re not going to do something for the sake of one quarter that’s going to destroy the fabric of our company and what we stand for.”

Taking care of the customer and the employee and being more concerned about the long-term health of the company rather than the short-sighted next few months used to be called “good business.” Now it’s reason for concern? Thanks to Sinegal for bucking conventional wisdom. Costco stock was trading at $29 a year ago when this article was written, and at the end of today’s trading they’re now at $47.75.