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Business View Magazine
PriceSmart
Driving down prices
“Our primary objective is to be able to create this wide
gulf between our pricing and the competitor’s pricing,”
says Bill Naylon, Chief Operating Officer and Executive
Vice President of PriceSmart, the largest operator of
membership-based warehouse clubs in Latin America
and the Caribbean. “If the competitor’s at 30, and
we’re at 20. . .we’ll try to figure a way to get to 19.”
According to Naylon, that business philosophy is a di-
rect inheritance from the legendary Sol Price, an early
pioneer of the membership-warehouse store concept.
“The Price family – Robert and Sol Price – started the
whole warehouse club industry back in 1976, in San
Diego,” he states. “About eight years later, Sam’s Club,
Costco and BJ’s came along as well as several others
that eventually either went out of business or were ac-
quired.”
“Price Club competed with Sam’s, BJ’s, Costco, and
some of the others until the early ‘90s,” Naylon con-
tinues. “In 1994, Price Club and Costco decided to
merge. Jim Sinegal, the CEO and Co-Founder of Cost-
