Costco recently began posting signs indicating that it will no longer accept returns on six items that consumers have been stocking up in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Do you agree with Costco’s move to refuse returns of products that have been hoarded during the coronavirus outbreak?

Costco is planning to enhance its ability to deliver the appliances, furniture and other bulky products it sells with a big last-mile logistics and installation acquisition. Did it make sense for Costco to acquire Innovel Solutions?

IKEA announced the kickoff of a six-month test selling its products to Chinese consumers on Alibaba’s Tmall online marketplace. Are third-party platforms becoming increasingly critical for retailers selling to U.S. consumers or is online marketplace participation primarily required in other countries?

Outside of chains like Trader Joe’s, most retailers remain fairly risk-averse with their private label food offerings. Most are more comfortable following — albeit faster than in the past — than leading. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for grocers to elevate their food private-label offerings?

The increasingly acrimonious U.S./China trade war didn’t seem to have an impact on the opening of Costco’s first store in China earlier this week. In fact, the first location was so slammed that it had to close early on its first day to prevent pandemonium. Why do you think Costco received such a strong initial reception in China?

The Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards get the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback by completing a company review about their CEO’s leadership. What do you think makes a strong retail leader?

Sam’s Club earlier this week announced the chainwide launch of a free, same-day online order pickup program. Do you expect Sam’s free, same-day pickup program to prove popular with existing members while helping to recruit new ones?

Costco has tapped into members’ desires to hunt for fashion treasure to grow its clothing sales to $7 billion annually. What retailers/channels do you think are at greatest risk for apparel and footwear market share losses to Costco?

Six years after getting rid of them, Costco is again testing self-service checkouts to help combat long waits at manned registers. Do you see more pros or cons in Costco’s re-introduction of self-scan checkouts?

Last June, Costco raised its hourly base wage by a buck to $14. Last week, the company jacked base pay up again to $15. Do you think it is important for Costco to remain a step above its competitors in terms of compensation and benefits?

A new study says that a lot of shoppers today don’t like to linger, and that’s something retailers might want to take note of. What have you seen retailers doing to successfully facilitate smaller, faster trips?

With the demise of Chef’d underscoring the troubled meal kit subscription space, Blue Apron’s best chance to stabilize may be through offering on-demand meals such as in its partnership with Costco, and potentially with other retailers and via online channels. Do you see a big opportunity for Blue Apron to turn its business around with on-demand offerings?

When news that Costco was revamping its snack bar menu to add more items designed to appeal to health-conscious club members, the chain decided to dump its Polish hot dogs, a move deemed just too radical for some Costco club members. Does Costco have an actual customer experience issue on its hands now that it is not selling Polish hot dogs at its snack bars?

Costco plans to raise its starting wage by $1 an hour and bump up the hourly rate it pays other workers between 25 and 50 cents an hour. Do you think the retail industry, in general, needs to reevaluate its labor practices in light of the job market?

Blue Apron’s recently announced partnership with Costco is meant to help the meal kit provider out of a year-over-year slump. But one consultant who spoke with RetailWire saw the Costco deal as a poor move for Blue Apron. Do you agree that an acquisition by Starbucks offers Blue Apron better prospects than a partnership with Costco?

Sam’s Club announced yesterday that it is consolidating the number of membership options it offers from three to two and that, as previously announced, it is ramping up efforts to drive its online sales business. Will Sam’s new membership options and e-commerce strategy help it grow its business?

Boxed, the online retailer and wholesaler of bulk items, reportedly has a surprise possible suitor: Kroger. Does an acquisition of Boxed make sense for Kroger?

Boxed, the online wholesaler and retailer, believes that private brands, when done well, are not just an add-on or “me too” value option anymore but can be a “fundamental defining piece” of the entire retail experience. Should retailers aggressively seek to elevate the reputation of their private brands?

Costco is all about attracting members to its warehouse clubs. Even this week, when the company announced the rollout of two new delivery options, Costco maintains that attracting members to its clubs is still the goal. What do you make of Costco’s decision to expand its delivery options?

Costco has long stated that its focus is driving customers to its clubs where members often spend more due to the treasure hunt experience. So why is the retailer aggressively underpricing Amazon on costco.com?

Walmart apparently has no problem selling Amazon.com’s Echo and Fire devices on its website, but the company has to draw the line when it comes to allowing its Jet.com business to sell Costco’s Kirkland private label. Has selling products created by competitors such as Amazon and Costco become a reality of retailing today?

Facing a host of competitive pressures, Costco last week announced a raise in its membership fees for first time since 2011. Is now the right time for Costco to raise its membership fees?

Costco has hinted that it may raise its annual membership fee in the U.S. in 2017. The company earlier this year noted that it typically increases its membership fees every five or six years. Is Costco in a solid position competitively to increase membership fees?

There’s one thing you can say about Costco’s management team. They are confident in the company’s position in the marketplace and don’t feel the need to follow what retail rivals are doing even when Wall Street wants them to do so. Should Costco pursue e-commerce and omnichannel initiatives more aggressively than it currently appears to be doing?

While Costco acknowledges shortcomings in its digital approach, Richard Galanti, EVP and CFO, last week inferred the wholesale club has no plans to become an omnichannel retailer. Does “shop anywhere, anyhow, anytime” not apply to the Costco model?

What are online super fans worth to retailers? Well, over 560,000 subscribers is nothing to sneeze at. That’s how many Instagram followers Jen Coleman and Laura Wiertzem have established with their @TargetDoesItAgain account. How can retailers work to encourage and capitalize on social media super fans?

If history repeats itself, Costco will bump up its club membership fees early next year. That’s the conclusion of a UBS analyst who noted in a letter to investors that the warehouse chain typically increases its annual membership once every five or six years. How likely is Costco to suffer pushback from members over an increase in its annual membership fees?

Costco is looking to build a poultry processing plant in Nebraska with the aim of gaining greater control over its food supply chain. What are the pros and cons of such moves by retailers to take greater control of the food supply chain?

Costco has been quietly reducing tobacco SKUs in its clubs over the last several years. Do the low margins and high shrink associated with tobacco lead you to the conclusion that many other food, drug and mass retailers will discontinue the category over the next five to 10 years?

With other retailers raising pay rates, Costco is hiking its wages even higher. How important is it for Costco to keep its wages well above its competitors? Does Costco have more elasticity to pass down wage costs to consumers than other retailers?

Low gas prices may be good for consumers and could prompt more frequent visits at some stores. But chains that rely on gas sales, including Costco and Kroger, posted lower gas sales as a result. On balance do you think lower prices are good or bad for retailers with gas stations?

The rule used to be that when you walked into a warehouse club, the cashier would accept only one form of credit or debit card as payment. But Sam’s Club has announced that the company will now accept Visa beginning on Feb. 1 in addition to American Express, Discover and its own branded credit card. Do you think it is a right or wrong move?

Costco is a bit of a puzzle at the moment. A best-in-class retailer by most standards, they are noteworthy for legions of devoted shoppers. But earnings per share declined year over year in its most recent first quarter, falling short of analysts’ expectations. Is Costco’s business model as relevant as always, or do you see chinks in the armor?

Retailers’ love affair with data-driven insights and action will continue to heat up as tech advances promise to keep everything fresh and exciting. But the human touch that, back in the day, drove everything from product buying to ad spends consequently seems to be going the way of the cash register. How do you see the balance between people-power and Big Data shifting within retail organizations?

Warehouse clubs have had a “greater effect on retail than e-commerce” over the past 15 to 20 years, according to a university study. Do you agree that warehouse clubs been more transformative to the retail industry than online selling over the past two decades?

Earlier this week, Brian Elliott, general manager of Google Express, told Bloomberg that the tech giant was planning to deliver fresh foods and groceries from Costco and Whole Foods as part of a two-city test that will launch before the end of the year. Should it expand beyond the test phase, what impact will Google’s move into online grocery have on the market?

What would happen if Costco and Whole Foods got together and produced a child that happened to be an e-commerce site? The result might look something like ThriveMarket.com, according to an article on the WTOP website. Do you see the potential for Thrive to be a disruptive force in the natural and organics market?

Are daily deals the answer Sam’s Club has been searching for in its efforts to gain a competitive advantage over Costco? Probably not, but Sam’s Shocking Values program provides at least one point of difference in the head-to-head competition between the warehouse club rivals. Will Sam’s Club’s emphasis on newness help the retailer bridge the competitive divide with Costco?

Will raising prices be necessary to offset the cost of higher wages? A Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher found that strong retailers treat the money spent on workers as a strategic investment and design operational systems that enable their workers to be more productive. What’s the secret to keeping prices low and wages attractive?

Glassdoor, the online career site where employees rate their employers, has just released its 2015 Highest Rated CEOs list, and retail executives figure prominently. What makes a great retail CEO? Do you see any commonalities among the executives on the Glassdoor list?

Costco’s new exclusive credit card deal with Citicorp and Visa will reduce the warehouse retailer’s acceptance costs to almost zero, sources told Bloomberg. Will Costco gain a competitive advantage from its low-fee Visa/Citi credit card deal?

Instacart, the popular grocery delivery service, has partnered with more than half the retailers on its platform to guarantee its prices are the same as the ones a shopper gets in-store. How important is a promise of “same price as in-store” for e-grocery services such as Instacart?

Apparently about to land another banking partner, Costco Wholesale Corp. has decided to end its 16-year deal to accept only access American Express cards in its stores. What are the pros and cons of Costco’s exclusivity deals with its credit card partners?

Last week, a heap of retailers joined Macy’s and Kohl’s in announcing earlier Thanksgiving openings. At the same time, family value statements continued to roll out from others that have chosen to stay closed on the holiday. Will stores not opening on Thanksgiving disappoint more shoppers who want to shop than please those wanting to preserve the holiday?

Shoppers often subconsciously feel a duty to make a purchase of an item after sampling, according to studies, to the point that it often leads to extra buys across the store because of lingering shopper gratitude. Are the benefits of free sampling more applicable to warehouse clubs and grocery boutiques than traditional grocers and larger discounters?

Wegmans, Publix, Hy-Vee and Costco were named by consumers as the top grocery brands in the Northeast, South, Midwest and West respectively in the 2014 Harris Poll EquiTrend study. Do you find any commonality between the list of top regional grocers in Harris’ research? What grocer do you think is the best in your region of the country and why?

Walmart, Costco and four other retailers reached an agreement with New York’s attorney general to list unit prices on their websites and mobile apps for shoppers nationwide within nine months. Is the push for unit pricing online more of a positive or negative for companies engaged in e-commerce?

Costco was the only traditional retailer to make Glassdoor’s list of 2014’s Top 25 Companies for Compensation & Benefits, coming in second by a fraction of a point behind Google. Does Costco’s high employee satisfaction level stem more from its pay structures or benefits/perks? How much of a benefit does Costco gain from its strong reputation for pay and perks?

Groupon has launched a new online bulk-buying service, Groupon Basics, that promises to provide customers with big savings on more than 100 everyday HBC and household items. Will consumers be drawn to buying in bulk from Groupon?

An age-old practice still in wide use, price codes on tags continue to alert staff when an item is heading to clearance. Now, blogging snoops are regularly telling the shopping world about each store’s unique code. Does it matter if the general public is becoming more knowledgeable of major retailers’ clearance practices?