James Sinegal

 ( American Catholics ) 

Together with Seattle retailer Jeff Brotman, he co-founded Costco. From 1983 until his retirement in 2011, Sinegal served as Costco's president and CEO. As CEO, Sinegal was well known for traveling to each Costco location every year to inspect it personally. Sinegal's innovations made Costco the first "warehouse club" to include fresh food, eye-care clinics, pharmacies, and gas stations in its mix of goods and services.

Sinegal was a protégé of Sol Price, widely considered to be the "father" of the "warehouse club" concept. Most if not all of Sinegal's business philosophy can be attributed to Price; Sinegal has said that he "learned everything" from Price. Sinegal is known for a benevolent style of management rooted in the belief that employees who are treated well will in turn treat and serve customers well. Sinegal, through Costco, provided his employees — at every level of the company, including the stores — compensation and benefits that are much higher than retail industry norms. For example, over 90% of Costco employees qualify for employer-sponsored health insurance; the US retail industry average is just under 60%. As a result, Costco has one of the lowest employee turnover rates in retail. In 2006, Costco's turnover rate was 17% overall and 6% after one year of employment.

In 1993, when growing competition threatened both Price Club and Costco Wholesale, Sinegal was invited to a partial merger. The two companies entered into a partial merger just after Price's earnings dropped by 40%. The new company, named PriceCostco, Inc., focused heavily on international expansion, opening stores in Mexico, South Korea and England. Despite best efforts to recover losses, sales continued to drop. Robert Price and James Sinegal had different opinions regarding company direction and recovery policies. A breakup between the companies was formally announced in 1994. Price's breakaway company was named as Price Enterprises. Sinegal still continued to manage PriceCostco, Inc.

In 1997, the name of Sinegal's company was changed to Costco Wholesale.

In an interview published in the Houston Chronicle on July 17, 2005, he told Steven Greenhouse that he did not care about Wall Street analysts who had criticized him for putting good treatment of employees and customers ahead of pleasing shareholders. Investors might want higher earnings, but Sinegal stated, "We want to build a company that will still be here 50 and 60 years from now." A favorite quote attributed to Sinegal, in part about his philosophy on dealing with success, is "You have to take the shit with the sugar". Investors who bought $10,000 of Costco stock in 1992 found it worth $43,564 just 10 years later — a return of 354% (15.855%, annually). From 1985, when Costco went public, to 2020, the company's stock value increased 19,000%.

In 2009, Sinegal was named a TopGun CEO by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency. The Market's Best Managers – Forbes.com, Forbes.com Brendan Wood International Announces 24 TopGun CEOs in the US , Reuters.com

Sinegal and his wife, Janet, have three children.Schmit, Julie (September 23, 2004) Costco wins loyalty with bulky bargains USA Today, accessed March 1, 2012 Sinegal's son David owns and operates the Sinegal Estate Winery in St. Helena, California.Jackson, Candace (March 5, 2015) [5] The Wall Street Journal, accessed May 18, 2015

Sinegal is a staunch Democrat Political donations Political donations and spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Sinegal has hosted President Barack Obama at his home on two occasions.Brunner, Jim (July 21, 2014) [7] The Seattle Times, accessed May 20, 2015King 5 Staff (July 24, 2012) [8] King 5 News (NBC), accessed May 20, 2015

Sinegal received an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College alongside Jake Tapper and others in June 2017.