Team Librarian Consultation

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of business databases on its homepage; see under Business Databases; see also the five folders at the top of that list for lists of Foster databases by topic:  Books; Articles—-Full Text; Articles--Citations and Abstracts; Company and Industry; and International/Country Information.   For more information on the three dozen Foster business databases, click here.   For more information about which of the three dozen Foster business databases to use, click here.   For more information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, click here. For answers to some frequently-asked questions about connecting to UW library databases from off-campus, click here. And, finally, see the UW Libraries' Database Usage Guidelines.

• Hoovers Online:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Hoovers Online offers information about 14,000 public and private companies worldwide, with links to company homepages and annual reports, charts, company capsule, competitors, divisions, earnings, financials, Fortune and Forbes rankings, history, industry information, insider trading, mission statements, news links, press releases, officers, patents, products, SEC filings, splits, subsidiaries, etc. Most information on this site is free and available on the Web (not just through the Foster Business Library homepage) but, via the Foster homepage, UW students and faculty can access the more detailed Subscribers information (on campus and from home). To connect with Hoovers Online's list of non-U.S. public and private companies in 70 countries, click here.

  See the Hoovers Online company factsheet for Costco as well as the extensive company overview for Costco, with Financials and a long list of competitors, in Hoovers Online, in the Warehouse Clubs & Superstores industry. See also the company's Competitive Landscape, comparing the company with its top three competitors.

• Investext:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases; also listed under Company and Industry. Investext contains indexing and the full text of company and industry research reports prepared by leading Wall Street firms, as well as regional and international brokerage and financial firms. All reports are in PDF format. (This database is available widely on campus and may be accessed from home via the U.W. connectivity kit or via the Libraries' proxy server.)

  A company search for COST produced a list of over 1,200 reports; an industry search for Retailing, over 31,000 reports. A keyword search for Discounters produced a list of 46 reports.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic:   To find company information, go to Business and then to Company Financial where you can obtain financial and other data for companies. Information is available from twenty different sources (each of which must be searched separately). Included among the sources is Hoovers Online, with members' access to company profiles. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, particularly company 10-K annual reports, are a particularly rich source of company as well as industry information. Use your browser's Find command (or Control-F) to locate references to particular terms of interest in 10K filings such as trends, strategy, competitors, industry, etc. (This database is available widely on campus and may be accessed from home via the U.W. connectivity kit or via the Libraries' proxy server.)

  Go to Business and then to SEC Filings to obtain the 10-K annual filings for Costco, using the ticker symbol COST. A search for 10-K filings for this company retrieved over forty reports or parts of reports.

• EIU Online:   One of the world's top sources for country intelligence, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) employs 500 analysts who research almost 200 nations. The Foster Business Library provides access to their Country Profiles, Country Reports, Country Commerce, and Country Finance in print editions and this database provides online access to these publications, often in both HTML and PDF formats. Go to Client Access to obtain country information.

  A search in Viewswires for Costco produced a list of over 700 articles.

• Euromonitor Market Research Monitor:   This database provides global consumer market information, with demographics, trends and developments, market background, market sizes and forecasts, market shares, key players, and company profiles. This database provides over 1,800 reports with market data and detailed company profiles, including market shares, brand information, company strategy and SWOT analyses of the companies, for many countries. For eight major countries (Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States), in-depth industry information is also available. Euromonitor also publishes important print titles in the Foster Business Library reference collection including European marketing data and statistics, International marketing data and statistics, and World consumer income and expenditure patterns.

  A search in this database, in titles, for Costco, produced two reports, the most recent dated June 2002. This report is extensive, with history and development, retail business information, operating structure, geographic coverage, market share, strategic evaluation, strengths and weaknesses, and future prospects for the company.

• Lexis-Nexis Statistical:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Statistical Universe is an index to statistical data in commercial, international and U.S. government publications. Try the Power Tables for quick access to tables of data in GIF format.

  A search in this database for the subject Discount Stores retrieved over thirty tables.

• Mergent Online:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases; click on Company and Industry.   Online access to the print edition of the Mergent Manuals, with extensive information on 11,000 U.S. and 17,000 international companies, including financials, stock, properties, joint ventures, annual reports, subsidiaries, S.E.C. filings, etc. For search tips, see About Mergent Online.

  The company is included in this database, with extensive information.

• Value Line:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases.   Stock information and advice on 1,700 companies, 90 industries, the stock markets and the economy; an online version of the print Value Line Investment Survey. To search for companies or industries, go to the left menu for Look Up Company or Look Up Industry.

  See the Retail Store industry and Costco (both one-page PDF documents).

• Mediamark Reporter:     CD-ROM version of Mediamark Research, a tool for market research, with information on demographics, product and brand usage, and advertising media preferences based on survey responses from a sample of over 25,000 consumers in the United States. Print copies of Mediamark Research are available in over 20 volumes in the Foster Business Library reference collection, call number HF5415.3 .M43, dated spring 1998; the online version offers year 2000 data. Search tips for using this database are available by clicking here. Available only on PC #19.

  Demographics of purchasers at Costco, for Spring 2001, may be found by searching for the company name, under Shopping, Warehouse/Club Stores, Price Costco.

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, these Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the UW Connectivity Kit or the UW Libraries Proxy Server for authentication. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.
• Costco Wholesale Corporation:   Public company homepages are often (but not always) an excellent source for information about the company, with links to annual reports, company news, product details, information about corporate goals and culture, company financial information, Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and company history. Look for the Investor Relations and About Us areas on the company homepage for company information.

  For corporate information (not easy to find), go to the bottom of their homepage for (in small print) Investor Relations for company overview, SEC filings, analyst reports, etc. This site also includes Annual Reports back to 1998.

• Company Research (Business Week):   Business Week offers information on 4,000 companies in its Careers section (so some of the information is aimed at job-seekers), with a Corporate Snapshot, a Vault.Com Scoop, a Wetfeet.Com profile, as well as Business Week articles about the companies (some of which are available only for subscribers but are also available in the Foster Business Library database ABI/Inform Global).

  See the links to information on Costco.

• Industry At A Glance:   This U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics site is a good source for information and data about U.S. industries.

  See Retail Trade. See also the Occupational Outlook Handbook general information on the Department, Clothing, and Accessory Stores industry. And, finally, see the Annual Benchmark Report for Retail Trade and Food Services (92 pages in PDF format).

• Ernst & Young--Industries:   This Ernst & Young site, while trying to sell their products and services, also provides some free information about seven industry sectors:   Energy/Chemicals/Utilities; Financial Services; Health Sciences; Industrial Products; Real Estate/Hospitality/Construction; Retail & Consumer Products; and Technology/Communications & Entertainment.

  See their Retail & Consumer Products industry information, including Trends and a Library of downloadable documents about this industry from Ernst & Young.

• Quicken.Com:   This site is a good source for information about companies and about their position among their competitors; use the Compare Companies feature on the left menu for this information.

  See the company profile for Costco as well as the company's position (a distant third) among its competitors in terms of market capitalization in the Discount, Variety Stores industry.

• Yahoo! Finance:   This site is excellent for company and investment information as well as an excellent source for financial ratio comparisons with industry, sector and S&P 500.

  See the company profile for Costco as well as the company's Key Statistics.

• National Retail Federation:   This organization is the world's largest retail trade association, including department, specialty, independent, discount and mass merchandizing corporations in the U.S. and in 50 other nations. See their monthly retail industry pulsetakings, the Retail Executive Opinion Survey. It also publishes STORES magazine, with annual listings of the Top 100 Retailers, Top 100 Specialty Stores, and Top 200 Global Retailers (the last of these is in PDF format). There is also a search engine for STORES.

  Costco ranked eighth in the 100 Top Retailer and twelfth in the Top 200 Global Retailer rankings.

• Porter's Five Forces:   This site is from QuickMBA, with a good summary of Porter's five forces. "QuickMBA is an online knowledge resource for business administration. Our goal is to help you to quickly find the business knowledge you need, when you need it, wherever you may be. Topics are presented as frameworks and summaries in the various subjects of business administration, as taught in the world's top MBA programs. QuickMBA is operated by the Internet Center for Management and Business Administration, Inc. No registration is required." See also their SWOT Analysis page. For similar pages, see Business Resource Software, Inc.'s pages on the Michael Porter Five Forces Model and SWOT Analysis. Finally, see Porter's homepage.

The Foster Reference Collection is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster.
• International marketing data and statistics.
  Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade, energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing information for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania; companion volume to European marketing data and statistics.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA42 .I56. 2003.
  Also available online.

  See Department Stores on pages 427 and 430 and Discounters on pages 426 and 429.

• Statistical abstract of the United States.
  Information about many industries as well as demographic information; check index for references to tables. The sources for each table are often a valuable source of additional information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA202 .U56 2003.
  Also available online.

  See index page 986 for Department Stores.

• European marketing data and statistics.
  Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade, energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing information for European countries.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA1107 .E87 2003.
  Also available online.

  See Department Stores on pages 280 and 287; see also Discounters on pages 278 and 285.

• Standard & Poor's industry surveys.
  This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries with a focus on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for each industry. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74

  See the industry survey, dated November 2003, for Retailing, General in volume three; Costco is one of the companies featured in the Comparative Company Analysis at the end of the survey, under Hypermarkets & Supermarkets.

• Business: the ultimate resource.
  This 2,200-page single volume is "designed to offer a wide range of insights, information, and practical guidance on every aspect of management" via 2.5 million words of text from 200 contributors, with 700 illustrations and 150 maps, in seven major sections including best practice, a management library, business thinkers and management giants, a business dictionary, a world business almanac, and a guide to business sources.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD38.15 .B878 2002.

  See the Industry Profile for Retailing on pages 1882 to 1884. See Michael Porter on pages 900 to 901 and pages 1038 to 1039; both sections cover his five forces; see also Performing a SWOT analysis on pages 468 to 469.

• Encyclopedia of global industries.
  Twelve-page descriptions of 125 global industries, with background and development information, current conditions, industry leaders and further reading.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2324 .E53 2003.

  See Grocery Stores, starting on page 906, and Retail Department Stores, starting on page 934. No mention of Costco but Wal-Mart is mentioned in these industries.

• International directory of company histories.
  Studying the history of leading companies in an industry is a good way to learn more about the history of an industry. This set of more than thirty volumes covers over 4,700 company histories worldwide, with each history running just two to four pages; check the company index in the latest volume to locate a specific company history or update as well as any other references to that company in other company histories. There is also an index by industry.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2721 .I57

  See PriceCostco in volume 14, pages 393 to 395, with an update for Costco Wholesale Corporation in volume 43, pages 123 to 125.

• Market share reporter.
  Annual compilation of U.S., Canadian and Mexican market share data for companies, products and services, arranged by SIC code, and with indexes by product, company and topic.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 2003.

  See numerous references to Costco on index page 528, for tables 1332, 1406, 1408, 1413, 1422, 1440, 1446, 1451, 1464, 1469, and 1509.

• Plunkett's retail industry almanac.
  This almanac offers information about major industry trends, industry statistics, industry information, major companies in the industry, with indexes by state, country, region, etc. The major part of the almanac provides one-page profiles of companies in the industry, with directory information, growth plans and special features, contacts, brief financials, brief salary and benefits data, and women officer-director and advancement information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5428 .P558 2003.

  See Costco on pages 3, 5 through 10, 13, 16, with a company profile on page 199 .

• Mergent OTC industrial manual.
  This one-volume work covers over 3,000 U.S. companies traded over the counter, with extensive information about companies, including history, chronology, acquisitions, mergers, spinoffs, properties, joint ventures, subsidiaries, officers and directors, consolidated income and balance sheets for three and two years, respectively, long term debit, options, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG 4501 .M66 2002.

  For Costco, see pages 1282 to 1284.

• Mergent industry review.
  Statistical data on 3,000 companies in 137 industries, with rankings, key financial information, operating data and ratios, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4961 .M68.

  Costco may be found in the Retail—Specialty Stores section, on pages 410 to 415, in the February 2004 to July 2004 issue. Wal-Mart, by contrast, is in the Retail—Discount & Variety section.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics, including many books useful for country research. To identify relevant books, go to the UW Libraries Catalog on the Foster Business Library homepage (under Business Databases). Try searching by keyword. Use the Limit/Sort feature to create a list of books in the Foster Business Library and in order from newest book to oldest. To do so, use the pulldown menu under WHERE item is located to specify Foster Business Library and click on the box near the bottom Sort results by year. Then click on Limit/sort items retrieved using above data. Clicking on the titles in the resulting list will bring up the full catalog record, indicating which Foster area has the book (general stacks, reference, reserve, etc.), the call number and the circulation status.

Circulation status is indicated in the box in the middle of each online catalog record, on the right. Check Shelf indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. Due and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

A keyword search for Costco produced a list of just two records, both in the Foster Business Library, for the company's annual reports.

See also the subject Department Stores; a subject search for this term, limited to the Foster Business Library, retrieved a list of over 60 records.

Foster Business Library Corporate Annual Reports:

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of several thousand annual reports for hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies. These reports are filed in lateral filing cabinets near the Foster Reference desk under the sign Corporate Annual Reports. Annual reports for companies in an industry can be a valuable source of information about the industry itself. For a list of all the companies in the Corporate Annual Reports collection, click here. For an index to corporate annual reports in the collection by industry sector, click here. For an index to companies in the collection with headquarters outside the U.S., click here.

The collection includes annual reports for Costco as well as competitors in the Retail sector.

Foster Business Library Articles:

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library Periodicals Collection, the Foster Business Library offers access to 11,000 full text periodical articles through its full text article databases such as: ABI/Inform Global, Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed alphabetically under Business Databases or in the Articles: Full Text folder.

Of these three main sources, all but Factiva are available from any computer on the campus network (as well as from home) via the UW Connectivity Kit or via the Libraries' proxy server. The easiest of these databases to use is ABI/Inform Global. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, click here. For more information about business databases, click here.

• ABI/Inform Global:

  This database offers full text articles for over 800 journals. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box. ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers (though the Wall Street Journal is included). It also does not include valuable trade and industry and other periodicals. Your searches will span the widest possible array of publications by expanding your search to all databases in ABI/Inform. To expand your search to include all collections in this database, click on Select multiple databases, to the right of the search box. Click then on Select all databases.

  Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, click here.

  As an example, a search, in all databases, for Costco produced over 5,600 articles. A more focused company search, for CO(Costco Wholesale Corp.) produced over 900 articles, including two articles in scholarly journals, over 30 articles in magazines, over 300 articles in trade and industry publications, and over 400 articles in newspapers. This search may be combined with other subject searches to narrow and focus the list of articles. Examples include:

  • CO(Costco Wholesale Corp.) and SUB(Competition), 64 articles;
  • CO(Costco Wholesale Corp.) and SUB(Discount department stores), over 30 articles;
  • CO(Costco Wholesale Corp.) and SUB(Market strategy), 36 articles;
  • CO(Costco Wholesale Corp.) and SUB(Retail stores), over 50 articles;
  • CO(Costco Wholesale Corp.) and SUB(Retailing industry), over 80 articles.

  To increase the yields of these searches, go to More Search Options at the bottom left of the display, and change Look For Terms In from Citation and Abstract to Citation and Article Text.

  See also an excellent Seattle Weekly article on Costco and Wal-Mart, entitled Company For The People, dated December 15-21, 2004, by Nina Shapiro.

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find business research tools and resources, exploit business databases to the fullest or advise on research strategies. For e-mail questions, direct your query to balib@u.washington.edu. For assistance by telephone, dial (206) 543-8012 during library hours.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

• Team Consultation Course/Program Index      (Management Assignments)
• Team Consultation Industry Index      (Retail)
• Team Consultation Quarter Index
• Team Consultation Title Index      (Wal-Mart Stores)
• Team Consultation and Research Guide Index