On Monday, when I drove to Costco at the Bridgewater Promenade to return a pair of sweats that didn’t fit, it suddenly struck me: Costco’s policy of accepting only cash on the barrelhead is a great retail model:
Who would have thought that establishing a cash-only, high volume business with an annual membership fee would succeed? But it did – wildly. On any given day, because of quality and good prices, the Bridgewater Costco has a stream of customers purchasing an assortment of food and merchandise, and happily rolling their carts up to the checkout to pay with greenbacks or debit card. (American Express is the only credit card accepted.)
It’s a sterling example of a good business enterprise, one which could be well emulated by governments and citizens across the land: Don’t spend what you don’t have. And, if you are in a position of responsibility in a government agency at any level, don’t try to fleece cash from Americans through a confiscatory tax structure.
But we all have short memories and, as the economy recovers, people and bureaucrats will return to their old habits. That is, if they even modified them to begin with.
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