JAMES SINEGAL

You take an educated gamble. If you don't occasionally make a mistake, you're not doing your job.

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.

You destroy the initiative of the working people if they don't feel they have a fighting chance to be a part of the American Dream.

One of the strengths of our nation has always been a strong middle class who could afford their own homes and send their children to school.

When you hire good people, and you provide good jobs and good wages and a career, good things are going to happen.

It doesn't do Costco any good if nobody can afford to buy anything.

Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company. The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.

We always strive to be the best in the wage package.

We would rather have our employees running our business.

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.

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.

Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do but it makes for good business.

We are a company that promotes 100% within the company.

When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors.

If we take care of the business and keep our eye on the goal line, the stock price will take care of itself.

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.

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

We want to turn our inventory faster than our people.

If you hire good people, give them good jobs, and pay them good wages, generally something good is going to happen.

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

Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company.

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.

Everybody is watching you every minute anyways. If they think the message you're sending out is phony, they're going to say, 'Who does he think he is?' It's again good business. But it is also an obligation.

In the final analysis, you get what you pay for.

I think that most of the people running companies today are motivated and pay is a small portion of the motivation.