Nut inspector
Company: Costco Wholesale
Employee: Craig Wilson
Job: Vice president, Quality Assurance & Food Safety
Costco's inventory can seem intimidating -- three-box cereal packs, giant cans of artichokes, dishwasher liquid by the gallon. But the inventory on the shelves at the warehouse-style stores numbers only about 4,000 products at any given time.
Costco's limited in-store inventory allows Craig Wilson to keep a close eye on product quality. He says that every single food and non-food item that isn't in the electronics or jewelry department passes through one of Costco's labs across the country.
That can mean CSI-style investigations of Costco meat to test for E. coli, counting the number of nuts in super-sized containers, smashing toys to test for strength, checking the stitching on discount jeans and all sorts of other product-specific procedures.
"I'm big on tasting nuts -- it's a huge category for us," Wilson says. "I'm familiar with nut processing, so I taste some of them every now and then to make sure we're where we're supposed to be."
The upshot of Costco's quality standards, he says, is that the company carries certain items that are among the best on the market. "The best business shirt a man can buy," says Watson, "is the Costco signature dress shirt, which compare to the ones at Nordstrom. We're selling them for $17, and they are beautiful, stunning shirts."
Employee: Craig Wilson
Job: Vice president, Quality Assurance & Food Safety
Costco's inventory can seem intimidating -- three-box cereal packs, giant cans of artichokes, dishwasher liquid by the gallon. But the inventory on the shelves at the warehouse-style stores numbers only about 4,000 products at any given time.
Costco's limited in-store inventory allows Craig Wilson to keep a close eye on product quality. He says that every single food and non-food item that isn't in the electronics or jewelry department passes through one of Costco's labs across the country.
That can mean CSI-style investigations of Costco meat to test for E. coli, counting the number of nuts in super-sized containers, smashing toys to test for strength, checking the stitching on discount jeans and all sorts of other product-specific procedures.
"I'm big on tasting nuts -- it's a huge category for us," Wilson says. "I'm familiar with nut processing, so I taste some of them every now and then to make sure we're where we're supposed to be."
The upshot of Costco's quality standards, he says, is that the company carries certain items that are among the best on the market. "The best business shirt a man can buy," says Watson, "is the Costco signature dress shirt, which compare to the ones at Nordstrom. We're selling them for $17, and they are beautiful, stunning shirts."
NEXT: 'Fantastic Voyage' Operator
Last updated May 18 2011: 8:41 AM ET
