You never forget your first Costco (NASDAQ:COST) experience. The membership card you flashed to get in. The bare racks. The bulk-sized edibles. The muffins. Oh, those tasty muffins.
The warehouse-club concept may not be the only way to improve on the standalone corner grocer. We've seen companies such as Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI) and Wild Oats (NASDAQ:OATS) give organic foodstuffs a mainstream nudge.
Even leading grocers such as Kroger (NYSE:KR) and Safeway (NYSE:SWY) have done their part to fend off extinction by rolling with the times and experimenting with everything from offering so-called home meal replacements to carrying organic and oversized grub of their own.
Still, you never forget your first Costco experience. Did I tell you about those muffins? Of course I did. Sweeter than that were the great gains Costco investors enjoyed through the 1990s. Things haven't gone quite as well on this side of the millennium, however, for the popular Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation.
Is Costco about to get its groove back? Did it ever go away? Not all Fools agree. Alyce Lomax is bullish on the warehouse club's prospects, while Ryan Fuhrmann admires the company but not the stock.
So who will bag the better argument? That's what this week's bout is all about.
Duel on!
- Read the bull argument
- Read the bear argument
- Read the bullish rebuttal
- Read the bearish rebuttal
- Sound off on Yahoo! in Motley Fool CAPS
- Vote for the winner
Whole Foods is a also a Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares of any company mentioned in this story. The Fool's disclosure policy makes us tell you so.
