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’s like heroin: You do a little and you want a little bit more. Raising prices is the easy way.

If you’ve got to work for the rest of your life, you’d better do something you’ll enjoy.

There was a proposal in California that would keep out Wal-Mart but allow Costco. You opposed it. Are you nuts? That’s true: I always oppose these kinds of things. Competition makes us better. Some of our best stores have a Sam’s Club next door.

I say at our management conferences that the amount Wal-Mart grows in just one year is the equivalent of Costco’s size.

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.

You just can’t get too focused on worrying about what’s going to happen in the next quarter. You have to worry about where the business is headed long-term.

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.

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.