A boycott of US retailer Costco for its diversity efforts? It’s likely to fail

livemint.com:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Costco Wholesale Corp has made a business out of doing things its own way. It pioneered and perfected the high-low formula, selling bulk toilet paper and $1.50 hot dogs alongside gold bars, diamond rings and more wine from Bordeaux than any other retailer.

It keeps its profit margins low while requiring a membership fee for the privilege of shopping at its no-frill warehouses. It’s a discounter that pays employees some of the highest wages in a retail industry notorious for squeezing its workforce. Costco has made another bet on zigging while the rest of the sector zags.

As retailers like Walmart bow to pressure to reverse their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Costco has stayed the course. The company’s board last month recommended that shareholders vote against a proxy proposal from conservative think-tank National Center for Public Policy Research, which would require the company publish a report on ‘risks’ associated with its DEI programmes. The proxy proposal has little to do with forcing Costco to publish mundane facts and figures; it’s about killing Costco’s DEI efforts.

The board put it bluntly: NCPPR’s “broader agenda is not reducing risk... but abolition of diversity initiatives." Rather than back away meekly, Costco goes on in its reply to make a strong business case for its DEI efforts. To the retailer, diversity is a critical business imperative, not a PR initiative, something that companies bowing to the anti-woke mob may have forgotten—or perhaps never really understood.