You could raise the price of, say, a bottle of ketchup to $1.03 instead of $1, and no one would know. Raising prices just 3% per product would add 50% to your pretax income. Why not do it?
It's like heroin: You do a little and you want a little bit more. Raising prices is the easy way.
There was a proposal in California that would keep out Wal-Mart but allow Costco. You opposed it. Are you nuts?
That's true: I always oppose these kinds of things. Competition makes us better. Some of our best stores have a Sam's Club next door.
Driving stock up from one day to the next is not what we are about. We are about building a good company and performing for the long term. I know everyone says that, that sounds trite when I repeat it that way, but that is and has always been our attitude about our business. If we do the right things, the stock price will take care of itself, and our shareholders will be rewarded.
Our attitude has always been that if you hire good people and provide good wages and good jobs and more than that -- if you provide careers -- that good things will happen to your company. I think we can say that that has been proved by the quality of people that we have and how they have built our organization.
Our attitude is that if you hire good people and pay them a fair wage, then good things will happen for the company.
