People waiting in lines ... is people not buying stuff. Once they get in and shelves are then bare ... more people later are not buying stuff. Retailers, including big box buying clubs, work on thin margins and need volume volume volume on a regular daily consistent basis. Not wham bam toilet paper and bottled water chaos.
It depends on the item, but when you buy in huge quantities, you get a discount from the manu. You mark it up to your heart's delight. When SHTF, you mark down. Still making profit. When more SHTF, you mark it lower, you still make a profit. When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, you can either sell at BE or a loss, or you can RTM for full credit by tossing the product into the trash compactor. Big-box retail is not for the timid if yer a tree-hugger.
I was referring to the overall company wide margins. Of course product to product it varies. Loss leaders, shelf leasing, bulk purchasing, end of quarter, seasonality etc etc.
Yeah I thought about the whole thesis a couple days ago. Not just COST, all of em. KR, DG, WMT, etc. They're elephants. There's better bounce plays.
Just in case, COST went down during 2008 while WMT was one of the best stocks: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/top-stocks-of-2008.341727/