Costco board member who disliked poor people

August 6, 2017 4:47 PM

I think it was during the 2012 election that I read an article about a Costco board member (or someone like that) saying something to the effect of "it's poor people's own fault that they're poor" (paraphrasing with hazy memory here). My google fu is failing me, does anyone remember this and can you point me to an article about it or a mention of it someplace? They were definitely with Costco and they were definitely either on the board or on some other internal group of leaders or financiers or something. Thanks!
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

Some quick googling led me to a 2014 article about Costco board member Ben Carson.

I couldn't track down anything from 2012, but he has more recently been in the news for calling poverty a state of mind.

Perhaps folks with better google-fu or memories will get you better answers....
posted by bunderful at 5:12 PM on August 6, 2017

That is the same Ben Carson that ran for president.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:36 PM on August 6, 2017

Yup: https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/morning_call/2015/05/ben-carson-leaves-costco-board-after-declaring-run.html
posted by basketballandinternet at 11:10 PM on August 6, 2017

Response by poster: Not to thread sit but it's not Ben Carson. It was an older wealthy individual, I'm pretty sure he was white.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 11:34 PM on August 6, 2017

Just so this doesn't turn into a "Costco is evil" thread, Costco members are in a union, the company pays middle class wages, they have a 401k match and provide quality health insurance.
posted by cnc at 9:31 AM on August 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've been googling and haven't found anything about a particular non-Carson board member... I did find an interesting article about Costco not accepting food stamps, but no board members are quoted.
posted by purple_bird at 9:35 AM on August 7, 2017

"Costco accepts all Visa cards, as well as Costco credit cards, cash, checks, debit/ATM, EBT and Costco Cash Cards" and has since 2009.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:09 PM on August 7, 2017

The then-CEO of Costco, Jim Sinegal, was a big Obama supporter who spoke at the DNC in 2012. Is it possible the article you're remembering was more of an election-year, right-wing blogpost/email forward/Facebook thing looking to smear rather than inform?
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:22 PM on August 7, 2017

Response by poster: Just adding a final followup. I know I didn't imagine this because I wrote a protest email about it to Costco, but I can't find anything on the Internet to back me up so my googling isn't acvurate enough or something. I know Costco is a great company to work for and has great culture, that's why when I saw that comment from someone somehow associated with it, it made me mad. I don't have my email accessable from 2008 or so when I think this must have occured (I seem to recall Occupy was going strong at the time so maybe 2009) , so I can't referance that, it would make this question needless if I could do that! In any case, thank you to people for trying! I swear I don't hate Costco and also that I didn't imagine it.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:45 PM on September 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This is very late but I found it, it was Charles Munger. In 2010 he said basically that people should suck it up (if they were having a tough time). More here. The more I see how many rich people are the more I seriously dislike them...especially lately.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 12:03 AM on March 16, 2018