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Costco vs. Dinesh D’Souza
I have not seen Dinesh D’Souza’s new movie, “America: Imagine A World Without Her,” but have certainly heard a lot about it from conservative news sources. I didn’t realize that there was a companion book, until I read this piece by Newsbusters’ P.J. Gladnick describing how Costco is taking it off the shelves. As a Costco member myself, I was surprised (but probably shouldn’t be) that the company turns out to be a big Obama supporter. Apparently they have manifested that support by banning D’Souza’s book adaptation of his movie.
I just read about this, so I haven’t made a decision yet on whether I will allow this to affect my decision to remain a Costco member (and my wife certainly will have a say in this as well). I’m not a big Costco shopper, but use it enough to make our membership valuable. I do find this bit of blatant political action troubling enough to consider dropping them. Supporting a politician is fine, but when you ban certain speech in response to that support, then you’ve gone too far. So, should I “drop” or just “complain (to Costco)?”
What do other Ricochetti think about this? A vigorous debate is welcome.
Published in General
Funny thing…a friend had talked me into splitting a membership at Costco and we were headed there this week. It’s not even close to my home but thought I could save some money by sharing the membership. I won’t be going there now. I don’t believe Costco’s reason for pulling the book. It’s only been there for one month. Rush is spending a lot of time on this on his show today. Costco should pay more attention to the decisions they make. They should have left the book on their shelves, low sales of the book would have been far less of a problem than the PR nightmare and membership cancellations they will have now.
I’m thinking we should all submit a “Request for Product.” Seriously. If they see how much business they’re losing by not stocking the book, maybe they’ll desist from mind-numbingly stupid political-based business decisions.
BTW, the first time I quit COSTCO was after they promoted Al Gore’s flotsam on the cover of their magazine. He’s such a putz, I couldn’t stand the idea of supporting a business that supports his efforts to enrich himself by lying and scaring people.
It may be time to quit permanently, but submit the Request for Product first!
The way I figure it, if a company goes out of its way to tell me they don’t want me as a customer, then I ought to oblige them.
That’s why I stopped using Firefox. Now I use Chrome. Because, you know, it’s produced by that conservative company.
Adam Carolla noted today that the documentary is getting a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes among the “top critics” and a 91% among the audience. Just an interesting juxtaposition.
I heard a good discussion of it on talk radio this morning. I thought the host was right – along the lines of Western Chauvinist. The order from Costco’s management said ‘pull all the books by July 15.’ What we should do is call and say something like – I really want to buy this book from you and I know others whom I’ll tell about it, but I want you to keep it on the shelves – give them a chance to save face. The biggest win would not be punishing Costco, it would be getting management to change their mind and keep it in the stores.
Btw, one caller into the station said, there were about 10 copies of ‘America’ left in the Costco he visited, but scads and scads of Hillary’s Hard Choices!
I do think the audience is self-selecting though. I’m taking the kids today — mostly to support Dinesh’s cause. Maybe they’ll learn something too.
If Costco management wishes to deny themselves the profit that the book brings, that’s their decision. I am a Costco member and shareholder (their annual meeting is really fun every year), so I won’t be cancelling my membership. I just throw up my hands about their very liberal bent-if they choose to waste their own money, they may do so.
Costco claims that their choices are driven by the NYT bestseller list, which as of this writing is listing Hard Choices at #1 and America at #17.
Soooo. Costco uses the NYT list, but they started selling America before it hit the NYT list because….
And they pulled it the week before it hit the NYT list because….
And on Amazon, Dinesh is heavily outselling Hillary overall…..
And Amazon lists Hillary’s book as #1 … in Women’s Studies.
Isn’t that special?
At this point, I’m leaning towards dropping Costco and telling them why.
Yes, self-selecting but I’ve taken to trusting the audience tomato-meter more than the critics.
No doubt the audience is self selecting and the way Rotten Tomatoes work it only means that 7 out of 7 top critics didn’t like the movie, so it isn’t a huge sample, but how many of those 7 gave it a fair watching?
Yeah, I think the disparate reviews reveal the disparate left/right worldviews.
Costco sucks – I’m a Sam’s Club guy
But as a shareholder, it’s not just their money, potentially it’s yours too (I am assuming that you aren’t holding stock in Costco for fun). As a stockholder, I would use my voice to share my disappointment with their product management and customer service.
Costco is my favorite retailer, yet I complain about it constantly.
#1-moving items from their original spots to end caps-(I shop on my lunch hour and hate the scavenger hunt.)
#2-constantly rotating the beer selection-(Sam’s Club doesn’t!)
#3-considering Triscuits a seasonal item????-(bulk up when and if they come in)
#4-allowing the clothing section to become the scene of a street fight aftermath-(can’t find this in a 16 x 34!)
#5-closing too early on weekends
#6-buying the worst bottle return machine they can find-(It’s 10 cents a bottle in Michigan and I can only return the beer here-see #2)
#7–letting their politics get in the way of doing business-(between the previously stated issue and the deal with the Bible in the Fiction pile, I think the Book Buyer needs to bleed it out a little on the Daily Kos comment section.)
BTW…”Hard Choices” and Edward Klein’s “Blood Feud” sat next to each other stacked to equal height…not moving much as I can tell…
#8-Why did they stop carrying Organic Frozen Peas? (I don’t want the vegetable medley.)
My Costco stock is up 87.5% since I bought it, and it was up $1.14 a share today. The worst part of their annual meeting is the “corporate social responsibility” lobby who always speak and are applauded by the attendees. No boycott movement or small “divest” movement would affect them in the slightest, so I don’t even bother. I spoke with Dr. Ben Carson at the Hillsdale function in February, and asked him how he can stand to be on their board, knowing their persuasion. He said that he tries to educate them (but education never works with liberals, since they don’t think, they feel). Not really a fight worth the effort for a teensy shareholder like me.
I love the Request for Product path. And then complain in a letter, too. Most companies recognize that if five people bother to write a letter, then probably 25 other people didn’t bother. Yeah, it’s like OnTheLeftCoast said, “Well…maybe, I mean…it was…sure, that’s it!”
Compare it to Wal-Mart’s stock ;)
I used to represent Costco in some of their employment matters. I found them to be highly ethical in their dealings and an amazing company to work with. Great people. I am so disappointed in this decision.
Where is the evidence that the book has been “banned” by Costco? The Newsbusters and Washington Times stories were pretty lightly reported and sourced. Even if they are removing the book from their shelves, is that so shocking? Costco isn’t a bookstore and I wouldn’t go there expecting to find every book I wanted. If Amazon didn’t carry the book, that would be another matter.
I like the idea of requesting the book (and then actually buying copies) better than a boycott. I thought the gay rights boycott of Chick fil A was inane, so I can’t get too excited about a Costco boycott.
The Costco thing has me determined to look for an Amazon gift card I got for Mother’s day and buy the book with it. If the card doesn’t turn up soon, I’ll still get the book in the next day or two.
I loved the movie and so did my husband. As soon as it’s available, we’re buying it for the parents of our grandchildren. If I locate that gift card, I’ll get them copies of the book as well.
I listened to Rush’s comments on the issue. Costco basically made a tactical mistake in doing this. They probably didn’t expect the controversy that developed, and now that it has, they have basically increased D’Souza’s book sales. Rush expects that there will be some arguments in their executive suite and their boardroom about angering loyal customers, but in the end, they won’t back down. If this issue causes a little acrimony in their ranks, I’m on board with that.
I’ve seen a few comments on Costco itself, and their service, which apparently is good. There’s no Costco in my area, but I have been a member of Sam’s Club. I really don’t like to buy in bulk, so I let the membership expire. Another thing I notice about Sam’s is the long lines at the checkout line. It seems like a regular retail store gets you through the checkout faster, and that’s a part of the premium you pay versus going to a bulk retailer like Sam’s or Costco.
Just doesn’t float my boat. If I were a Costco customer (or “member”), I might let the issue affect my decision, but it wouldn’t let it dominate my decision to remain or not.
I have let politics affect my buying decisions in the past. A year ago, I bought my first new vehicle (pickup actually). I had bought used in the past. My decision to go with Ford was affected by the Detroit car company bailouts at the beginning of the Obama Administration, and the fact that Ford was the only one of the big three to not to accept a bailout. But it was still a small consideration. I went to the local Ford dealer first, picked out a vehicle, and then did some comparisons, but mostly on the web. In other words, I went to them first.
The prime consideration was that the Ford F150 is a great vehicle at a reasonable price, and a year later, I’m still very happy with my purchase.
I emailed Costco and, among other things, said that Costco did something decidedly un-American.
We quit Costco long ago, and we used to be regular shoppers. There are several reasons we quit.
First, it’s frustrating to go one week to the next and find that the thing you really liked they’ve simply decided to quit selling, for no apparent reason.
Second, the people are rude. I’ve never been to Costco and had people not treat me as if they were the reason for my existence, rather than the reverse.
Third, the Costco in my home town is the site of the big “Go Home Canadians” fiasco. And though I don’t have an issue with Canadians coming down and spending their money here, I don’t shop where they shop. It’s too much of a mad house.
Finally, they treat everyone like a criminal when they leave the warehouse. I mean, really? Somehow you can tell by glancing at my 2 foot receipt if there’s something inside the two shopping carts piled high that I didn’t pay for?
Quit your membership.
I’m sure Costco’s decision had nothing to do with politics. These retailers have massive statistical programs to decide what products to keep, what to get rid of, what to promote etc. based on shopper’s information. The model probably told them to get rid of this product, and they did it. They do it all the time.
Maybe they just sold ’em all.
Looks like Costco has decided to restock the book. Of course the CEO said it was never their intent to ban the book, the removal was simply due to lack of sales. Unfortunately for Costco, restocking the shelves might be too little too late. Not only have they lost memberships (and potential membership as in my case), they’ve lost book sales because people have gone to Amazon (as I did) and purchased the book.
Life is so complicated anymore that you have to determine if every little move or comment will instigate a culture or political war.
JD – That’s why I said “apparently” before using the word “banned.” To me, and I suppose a lot of conservatives (obviously, not all) the coincidence seems suspicious. The “book wasn’t selling” strikes me as an odd defense given that the movie was just released and going through the start of promotion, so you would think that Costco would be willing to give it a longer chance. Lord knows, they seem to be doing that with “Hard Choices.” Anyway, I know that coincidence doesn’t mean causation, but, again, it smells fishy.
Costco carries a VERY limited selection of books. They did carry both of Rush’s new children’s books, and they got a good review in the “Costco Connection” magazine they send to members. As to rude employees, I have never encountered even one, and I’ve been a member sibnce 1987. They never argue when you want to return something, and their checkout lines are speedy, due to double-staffing on each line. They do carry limited-term items, which they may have bought one time, and when they sell out, they sell out for good. At one shareholder meeting, they showed speeded-up video of one new item in a warehouse, and multiple pallets were decimated in short order. If you see something you like, don’t assume it’ll be there tomorrow, buy today!