Published Thursday August 11th, 2011
Costco opening | Store to open next Friday morning
A1 By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
[email protected]
The long-awaited ribbon cutting for Fredericton's Costco store is set for Aug. 19 at 8 a.m. as the store throws open its doors to fans of the members-only grocery, pharmacy and household goods store.
Shopping carts are lined up and ready in the parking lot of the Costco store at the Corbett Centre on Regent Street on Wednesday. The store will open Aug. 19. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony shortly before the doors open next Friday.
The last few weeks of construction at the site atop Regent Street in the Corbett Centre shopping area have been a frenzy of activity with the final touches on parking lot paving and landscaping wrapping up.
Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. spokesman Ron Damiani said construction in Fredericton has gone well with few glitches, adding the company has had a positive development process in the capital city.
A pre-opening membership drive has gone well, but he won't say how many memberships have been sold.
"That's confidential, really, really sensitive," he said in a telephone interview from the company's Ottawa headquarters. "But there is a lot of pent up demand in the Fredericton market."
Frederictonians have been travelling to Moncton and Saint John to shop at Costco. They'll now be able to use their Costco membership at the Fredericton location at the same time as the new store will draw regionally from the Upper St. John River Valley.
The Fredericton building is approximately 13,000 square metres (146,000 square feet), the same size as one already opened in Saint John. The two locations are the largest Costco outlets in the Maritimes and the capital city location will have all the bells and whistles - a bakery, meat department, photo and optical area, pharmacy and a members-only gas bar.
First day sales are expected to be in the hundreds of thousands, but Damiani isn't sharing that data either.
"The opening warehouse sales vary greatly from market to market. That's all I can say," he said.
Costco's aim is to offer good deals based on its bulk-buying capacity in a warehouse-style setting.
"We're not a company that focuses on specials, but what we focus on is getting really exciting special merchandise for a short period of time to create a really big excitement factor. They might bring in a $20,000 diamond ring or something like that. I don't know what they have planned (for Fredericton)," he said. "We look for special buys. Perhaps a high-end clothing or jeans or we might bring in a really wild line of sunglasses that are going to knock you over in terms of price."
About 225 people will likely end up working at Costco in Fredericton. Employee training is in progress, Damiani said.
"The gas station will open a day before, probably mid-afternoon or early morning on Aug. 18. We like to do that a day before just to make sure that everything is working properly. You have to have a Costco membership to purchase anything. At the gas station, you stick in your (membership card) and then you stick in your payment card, either your debit card or your American Express."
American Express is the only credit card Costco accepts.
"That's how we're able to provide reduced margins," he said.
By not taking Visa or Mastercard with their associated merchant fees, Costco is able to shave its gasoline margins to reduce costs for members, Damiani said.
"We don't have a mid-grade of gas. We only have regular and super ... and we're not open 24-7. We're open an hour before the store opens and we close an hour after the store closes, so those things limit our expenses, so we're able to still make money and provide significant savings to our members," he said.
"Most of the time our buyers are going out and searching for merchandise that is uniquely interesting for Canadians," he said.
Costco has 82 locations in Canada.
Charlottetown wants a Costco, but Damiani won't confirm if that's the next expansion point.
"We never, never comment on upcoming openings or markets that we're interested in. What I can tell you is that ... we'd like to get up to about 100 (locations), so there's room for expansion Canada-wide, but for us to say where's it's going to be, we just don't comment.''
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/front/article/1430983
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