[Outliers] Sol Price: The Godfather of Costco, Walmart, and ...

[Outliers] Sol Price: The Godfather of Costco, Walmart, and Modern Retail

Robert E. Price (source book author)fs.blog

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Sol had a saying: “You train an animal, you teach a person.” He wanted people who could assess situations and make the right call, not robots following scripts. Jim Sinegal took this to heart – he spent 90% of his time teaching, not managing. Manuals create followers. Teaching creates thinkers.

Robert E. Price (source book author) • [Outliers] Sol Price: The Godfather of Costco, Walmart, and Modern Retail

Paying the minimum gets you minimum effort.

Robert E. Price (source book author) • [Outliers] Sol Price: The Godfather of Costco, Walmart, and Modern Retail

BBriggs Uhler

Pay your employees more and you’ll get more effort

Think Like a Fiduciary, Not a Merchant : When Safeway sold sugar below cost, Sol did something insane. He put up signs in FedMart: “ Sugar is cheaper at Safeway this week. Go buy it there.” His managers thought he’d lost it. Sol’s view? “I have a fiduciary duty to my members, like a lawyer to clients.” That radical honesty created something

Robert E. Price (source book author) • [Outliers] Sol Price: The Godfather of Costco, Walmart, and Modern Retail

BBriggs Uhler

Trust is key in any relationship, including a supplier/merchant to customer one

Most businesses fear any lost sale. The best businesses choose which sales to lose.

Robert E. Price (source book author) • [Outliers] Sol Price: The Godfather of Costco, Walmart, and Modern Retail

BBriggs Uhler

Feel free to fire customers, but also to deliberately not get particular customers in the first place