Moreover, controlling laws are in constant flux, making this area a particularly challenging one for the company. Despite these challenges, people always need groceries and Costco is ready to deliver the goods -- literally -- and these issues are discussed further below.

Economic

Although Costco enjoys a healthy share of its market, the company has not been immune from the Great Recession of 2008 as reflected in its historic stock performance shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Costco Stock Performance: July 2003 to Date

Source: http://charting.nasdaq.com/ext/charts.dll?2-1-14-0-0-5120-03NA000000COST-&SF:1|5-WD=539-HT=395-

Despite this temporary downturn, the company has regained its momentum and has exceeded its pre-Great Recession performance levels. As noted above, though, while Costco is continuing to grow, the 800-pound corporate gorilla in the department/specialty retail store sector is still Walmart, with the company trailing at a distant second followed closely by Target Corporation as shown in Table 1 and illustrated graphically in...
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