One of the largest big-box retail stores in the world is in the throes of a plan that will see it building at least two dozen new locations in the U.S. before the end of this year.
Based in Seattle, the Costco Wholesale Corporation is a membership-only operation with nearly 900 locations domestically, as well as in Europe and Asia, among other destinations.
The company, seeing more than $242 billion in revenue last year, has been steadily expanding its footprint in the last decade or so, adding at least 300 new locations since 2011.
Now Costco is planning to build new warehouse stores in a variety of domestic locations, with the most recent spots in Loomis, California; North Port, Florida; Mount Juliet, Tennessee; Riverbank, California; and Richmond, Texas showing a decided Sunbelt emphasis.
The company, in fact, has long been heavily invested in the West, with 137 locations in California, 20 in Arizona, and 16 in Colorado. Texas represents Costco’s second largest market with 38 stores.
Costco outlets typically range in size from 80,000 square feet to 231,000 square feet. A plan to build what the company billed as its largest store in history at 241,000 square feet in Fresno, California, has recently been reduced to 219,000 square feet.
Even so, the Fresno store will include 32 gas pumps as well as a 48,000-square-foot drive-through car wash.
The number of new Costco stores expected to be built and open for business by the end of this year marginally surpasses the 23 it completed in 2023.
Last month in a quarterly earnings call with analysts, Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti remarked that location growth is expected to be steady for the foreseeable future. “I’m confident we’re going to open 25-plus for the next couple of years,” he said, “then go up to 28 and up from there.”
According to reports, the company is also in the planning process for new warehouse stores in Buckeye, Arizona, and Littleton, Colorado.
By Garry Boulard
