Shareholder Meeting Shows Costco Bounty

Costco Wholesale, the second- largest global retailer after Wal-Mart, is more than ever a land of nearly incomparable bounty: last year it sold 120 million hot dogs, 76 million $4.99 chickens and $5.5 billion worth of produce sourced from 44 different countries.

But there are challenges that come with that status. “It’s a very difficult business to do this kind of volume,” CEO Craig Jelinek said in discussing produce in a room packed with investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday. “It’s a major undertaking for our company, but it’s paid big dividends for us.”

Costco’s worldly cornucopia was highlighted at the Bellevue gathering, where hundreds of stockholders lined up for freebies — from maple-leaf-shaped bottles of Canadian maple syrup to Spanish extra virgin olive oil, Kirkland Signature roasted seaweed and an instant coffee popular in Taiwan.

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