Costco Wholesale, the nation's fifth-largest retailer, is beginning to look at lot like the 'anti-Wal-Mart' with its good wages and benefits. The discount food chain's fiercest rival, Sam's Club, pays its workers 42 percent less on average than Costco. While Wall Street analysts have warned Costco's owner Jim Sinegal that he is being too generous to employees, Mr. Sinegal has largely shunned their advice.
See "How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, July 17, 2005