Rising oil prices, commerce and retail giants, construction companies and architectural photography…how and why do they come together…? Well, my client Jackson Dean Construction, a Commercial General Contractor headquartered in Seattle, WA, who specializes in retail, office, healthcare, industrial and gas station projects, has built strong relationships with retail giants such as Costco Wholesale, Lowe’s Home Improvement and REI.
Jackson Dean currently operates in 40 states, including Illinois, where they recently completed the featured Costco Gas Stations in Lincoln Park and Schaumburg, IL. I had the pleasure to have been selected by Jackson Dean to create architectural photographs of the Costco Gas Stations for their portfolio and marketing materials, given certain criteria.
Costco Gas Station in Lincoln Park, IL
When I was photographing the gas station in Lincoln Park a few weeks ago, I was baffled by the hustle and bustle of the whole complex, the Costco store as well as the gas station. My initial impression was: “Holy Cow, they must be giving something away here for free…” Yet, that was not the case, just a normal and regular day at one of the largest retailers in the country.
Costco Gas Station constructed by Jackson Dean in Schaumburg, IL
Costco Gas Station in Lincoln Park, IL
As we all know gasoline certainly is not for free…to the contrary, prices have risen sharply over the past three or four years in particular. To demonstrate the rising costs here are two interesting graphs:
International fuel prices in 2009
Another interesting graph can be seen here, depicting
International fuel prices data comparison for different countries
Costco Wholesale Corporationis the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. As of July 2009 it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world. As of October 2007, Costco was the largest retailer of fine wine in the world.
In the United States, the main competitors operating membership warehouses are Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Although Sam’s Club has more warehouses than Costco, Costco has higher total sales volume. Costco employs about 142,000 full and part-time employees, including seasonal workers. As of September 2009 Costco had 55 million members.
Costco was the first company to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in less than six years. For the fiscal year ending on August 31, 2009, the company’s sales totaled $71.42 billion, with $1.09 billion net profit. Costco is 25th on the 2010 Fortune 500.
To learn more about Jackson Dean Construction, please visit www.jacksondean.com and to visit the nearest Costco superstore near you please go here.
Now, we all have heard about Peak Oil and it will be interesting to see whether humanity will truly wake up to this seemingly real threat…here is one of many rather interesting and thought provoking clips available.