Costco Wins Yahoo Finance's 2022 "Company of the Year" Award: In a year of eye-popping inflation for everything from gas to eggs hammering households, Costco played the role of trusted friend. The retail warehouse giant opted not to raise the cost of a membership even as rival Sam’s Club did. Costco served up some of the cheapest gas prices in town when prices at the pump were sizzling in the summer months. The company was often the last grocer to raise prices on household essentials despite biting price hikes from vendors. To top it off, the Issaquah, Washington based retailer kept the price of its legendary $1.50 hot dog intact and continued to offer employees among the best compensation packages in all of retail. For its efforts, Costco was rewarded with impressive sales gains seemingly every month of the year, a stock price that relatively out-performed the S&P 500 and Yahoo Finance’s coveted “Company of the Year” award.
Earnings preview of key companies reporting next week and what to look out for.
The headlines for online-car buying platform Carvana (CVNA) haven’t been good recently. And whether the company will remain a public entity is now in doubt. In fact my colleague Rick Newman wrote a column dubbing it Yahoo Finance’s “Worst Company of the Year.” Despite a stock down XX% this year, concerns over its debt load, and weather management has the know-how to right the business, it seems one thing may actually stick around - the trend of buying used cars online.
The online car-buying site could be a great business, if not for overexpansion and a badly timed acquisition.