Costco’s 14-Wave Autumn Blitz Opens New Frontiers and Replaces Legacy Sites

Costco Wholesale Corp. is accelerating its physical footprint across North America as part of an aggressive, multi-year expansion strategy spearheaded by Chief Executive Officer Ron Vachris. Vachris, who assumed the chief executive role in January 2024 succeeding long-time leader W. Craig Jelinek, has outlined a blueprint to open 30 or more new warehouse locations annually over the next five to ten years.

This physical expansion operates hand-in-hand with Costco’s membership-driven financial model. Because membership fees generate the vast majority of the retailer’s operating income, expanding the physical footprint is critical to capturing new cardholders. To further bolster this revenue engine, Costco implemented its first membership fee increase in seven years on September 1, 2024, raising the price of its basic Gold Star membership from $60 to $65 and its high-tier Executive membership from $120 to $130 annually.

The immediate growth phase begins in October with five new U.S. openings. The upcoming locations will serve shoppers in Lee’s Summit, Missouri; The Colony, Texas; Amherst, New York; Lawrence, Kansas; and Camarillo, California.

The momentum will continue into November with nine additional warehouse openings, including a major push into the Canadian market. Four of the November locations are scheduled to open in Canada: Northeast Edmonton and Lloydminster in Alberta, and East Windsor and Wasaga Beach in Ontario. The remaining five November openings will expand Costco’s presence in the United States, with new warehouses debuting in South Meridian, Idaho; Vallejo, California; Chandler, Arizona; Newport News, Virginia; and Franklin, Wisconsin.

A prime example of this relocation strategy is the upcoming November opening in Newport News, Virginia. Instead of adding a second store to the market, Costco is replacing a legacy warehouse that has operated in the city since 1988. To facilitate the upgrade, the company purchased a 32-acre parcel of land located just blocks from the original store. The newly constructed site features a massive 163,000-square-foot retail layout and a high-capacity fuel station, a standard fixture of modern Costco locations designed to drive high-frequency ancillary sales. As the retailer executes this global playbook, a wave of 14 new warehouse openings is scheduled to take place across the United States and Canada during October and November.

Despite the broad domestic push, Costco’s expansion strategy has yet to breach the final three U.S. states currently lacking a warehouse location. Residents in Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming will have to continue waiting for local access, as Costco’s current multi-year pipeline does not include entries into any new U.S. state territories.

The expansion target is split almost equally between domestic and international markets, with the company eyeing long-term growth in Canada, Mexico, Asia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

While much of the expansion targets entirely new suburban and metropolitan markets, Costco is also executing a parallel real estate strategy focused on optimizing and replacing legacy locations that can no longer support the company’s modern operational requirements. Beyond the immediate autumn openings, Costco is actively building out its development pipeline for the coming years. Earlier this year, municipal officials in Downey, California, approved plans for a new warehouse location. During the summer, formal development proposals were submitted to local planning boards in Charleston County, South Carolina, and Hillsborough County, Florida.

Additionally, real estate planners are actively exploring potential new warehouse sites in Fresno, California; Lake St. Louis, Missouri; Southborough, Massachusetts; Silver Spring, Maryland; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Des Plaines, Illinois. The upcoming pipeline builds upon a busy year of physical growth for the warehouse giant. Over the course of 2024, Costco has already established new locations across a wide swath of the United States, including California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin, alongside international openings in Mexico and Taiwan.