Will Costco steal your home to pad their pockets?

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In the movies it seems that the bad guys are usually businessmen; specifically CEOs of large corporations. These business leaders are often portrayed as being involved in conspiracies and interested in nothing more than making money – no matter who or what gets in their way. For the most part this portrayal is the result of the strong anti-business (at least non-Hollywood, non-entertainment business) bias among movie writers, directors and actors. In reality, the majority of CEOs are some of the most valued and productive members not only of their businesses, but in their communities and families as well.

However, every so often along comes a corporation that plays right into that "evil businessman" stereotype, appearing as though its strategic growth plan were scripted by Hollywood specifically to validate their prejudices. Making for even better theater are a pair of masterful and cunning executives who are able to hide behind the scenes using the lure of unlimited tax revenues to incite local elected officials to do their dirty work, even if it results in a breakdown of law and the destruction of communities. This Chairman/CEO tag team is tailor-made for Hollywood (and perhaps even trained by them) as the Chairman directs an annual meeting where he boasts of conquering resistant markets even as the company CEO pens letters-to-the-editor which suggest that he's misunderstood, mistreated and the unappreciated victim of slander.

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Ken Lay and Enron? No. Bernie Ebbers and WorldCom? Not even close. Those guys were far too ethical to hold a candle to Jeffrey H. Brotman, Chairman, and Jim Sinegal, President and CEO of Costco, who admit (when it is advantageous, of course) to using local government officials to simply take prime property that they could not succeed in buying from the owner and deliver it into Costco corporate hands.

To hear Chairman Brotman tell it, Costco should be praised for being at the forefront of, shall we say, exploring all the ways shareholder value can be enhanced through the creative use of eminent domain laws. Indeed, according to a Forbes Magazine report (Eminent Domain In Bulk, February 3, 2003), Costco has boasted that "'probably dozens' of Costco projects have benefited somehow from eminent domain." This admission was in response to an investor initiated proposal which would have barred Costco Wholesale from building on property confiscated by local governments through the power of eminent domain, an action called "morally wrong" by the shareholder. But when does morality have anything to do with it, asks Brotman, as he "wrote that shareholders shouldn't set such limits on company management." But not to worry! Investors are encouraged to feel good about the company and themselves because "all laws are followed" when they take the land the owners don't want to sell. Well, almost all the laws are followed.

One place that "all the laws" were not followed was in Cypress, California when they were just ignored in an attempt to take almost 18 acres away from Cottonwood Christian Center. So unlawful was the Cypress/Costco maneuver that a federal judge stepped in to stop the charade and denounced in strongest terms the blatant struggle to grab the land simply "because Costco wants it." Another place "all the laws" were apparently not followed was in Lancaster, California, where a federal district court turned back an attempt to evict a Costco competitor and hand over property to the large chain for one dollar. Steven Greenhut, writing in The Orange County Register, reports that Judge Steven V. Wilson ruled "the evidence is clear beyond dispute that Lancaster's condemnation efforts rest on nothing more than the desire to achieve the naked transfer of property from one private party to another ... In short, the very reason that Lancaster decided to condemn 99 Cents' leasehold interest was to appease Costco. Such conduct amounts to an unconstitutional taking for purely private purposes." Of course, such strong judicial rulings indicate that rather than action assuring that "all laws are followed" we are faced with action which is explicitly unlawful.

Costco further damages the reputation of businesses and businessmen by pursuing purges of entire neighborhoods through the use of eminent domain. According to Greenhut in The Orange County Register, "a Costco attorney reportedly said at a Planning Commission meeting that a neighborhood targeted for demolition to make way for Costco was 'not much of a neighborhood anyway.'"

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There once was a king named Ahab who coveted a vineyard whose owner would not sell. He conveniently found a way around this problem by trumping up false charges to condemn the owner so the land could be confiscated for his personal use. Ahab had thought he had used the laws to his advantage and that he would benefit by an early version of eminent domain – condemnation and confiscation. However there was a Judge that held Ahab accountable to the eternal law of "you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness and you shall not covet your neighbor's property," not to mention "you shall not murder." That Judge pronounced judgement on Ahab and his family [1 Kings 21]. There would be no long lasting enjoyment of the vineyard, but only sorrow.

What Costco is engaged in makes no long-term business sense, for God the Judge is all-seeing and He doesn't take His law lightly. What you sow, you reap. In fact, "sow to the wind and reap to the whirlwind" is always the case. Not only would I not want to be an investor in Costco knowing that God is Judge, but I wouldn't want to buy their goods even though they're cheaper than other places, for I know that one of the reasons they're able to offer lower prices is that they're working on what the Bible says is stolen capital. For me to enjoy that and support it seems to be too much like being "a partner with a thief" [Proverbs 29:24].

We're upset when the movies paint businesses and businessmen as "bad guys." May I suggest we become upset when businesses and businessmen make it easy for them?

Craig R. Dumont, Sr. is the senior pastor of Okemos Christian Center in Okemos, Michigan (www.OkemosChristianCenter.com ). He has written articles on Christianity and business for Business Reform magazine, the Chalcedon Report and the Center for Cultural Leadership. For several years he has lead a monthly Business Luncheon Lecture Series held at the University Club of Michigan State. Craig can be reached at [email protected]