Costco Sells Cadillacs for Christmas

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Quick Read

  • Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) members can get deals on Cadillac, Chevrolet, Volvo, and other brands.

  • This deal is good for Costco and for the car companies.

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Costco Sells Cadillacs for Christmas

© J. Michael Jones / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

There are many reasons people think that Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST | COST Price Prediction) is the best-run retailer in America. For example, it offers a $1.50 hot dog as a loss leader and has refused to raise its price. Costco has done the impossible. It makes billions of dollars by enticing people to shop in its stores.

Costco also gets deals from major car companies to offer customers (which it calls its “members”) large discounts. The program has some real benefit, as the average price of a new car in America is approaching $50,000.

Members can currently get deals on the Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Polestar, and Volvo brands. Depending on the model, discounts range between $1,000 and $2,000. The members receive certificates that they take to dealers.

“Our goal is to deliver a great value and experience on the vehicles Costco members purchase year-round,” said Jay Maxwell, Costco Auto Program general manager. The new deals run until January 2.

Presumably, while the deal is good for Costco, it is at least as good for the car companies. Cadillac falls into this category specifically. It operates in one of the most competitive segments of the car market: luxury cars. And it does not do very well. It sits well behind Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW in unit sales. It has not gained any ground in market share for decades.

Cadillac has several disadvantages. For instance, it has a tiny model line. Cadillac’s competition sells dozens of models, from sedans to crossovers and SUVs. They offer gasoline-powered and electric models, as well as hybrids.

Cadillac is an SUV and crossover company that also sells a few sedans. The Costco deal gets at least a few people through the door. Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus already have that.

Costco Stock Price Prediction and Forecast

 

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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