First NZ Costco: What to expect
Amid job losses, closures and business ruin from the lockdown, one of the world’s largest businesses plans to thrive in New Zealand.
Costco Wholesale, the world’s second-largest retailer after Walmart, has said it will open here next year, selling 20 to 30 per cent cheaper than elsewhere.
Resource consent application documents are with Auckland Council for the operation at 67 Maki St, Westgate.
The operation is for a large-format store west of Harvey Norman.
Physical site work has not begun, but the Overseas Investment Office has cleared the application for Costco to buy the land from NZ Retail Property Group.
The site is bounded by the Northwestern Motorway (SH16) to the east, Gunton Dr to the south and Maki St to the west. Most of the western and northern boundaries adjoin the Kopupaka Reserve. The store will be the size of two rugby fields, at 14,740sq m.
The 2.7 hectare, irregular-shaped site is bound by Sakaria Stream to the west, Totara Creek and the Northwestern Motorway and is presently a grassed paddock.
The new warehouse will create an estimated 350 full time-equivalent jobs, according to a statement last year by NZ Retail Property Group in conjunction with Costco Wholesale Australia, Mayor Phil Goff and Waitakere councillor Linda Cooper.
Costco’s customer joining fee could be about $60 a person.
Food and grocery, cosmetics, household, electronic, electrical and general merchandise will be sold. The store will be prepared for the day’s trading in the early hours of the morning when goods will arrive and go on the shop floor on pallets or racks.
Pharmaceutical, audiological, optician, dine-in food, tyre sales and fitting will be in the three-level building, with two levels of parking.
The building will be 160m long, 114m wide, 11.9m high to the upper parking deck and 18.5m high to the top of the entrance/lift lobby, fronting Gunton Dr, with a triple-height entrance lobby in the southwestern corner for pedestrian access.
Vehicle access will be off Gunton Dr, with ramps on the southern face.
Parking is on top, unlike most other Costcos around the world, where it’s beside the store.
Costco will have 795 car parks, including 18 accessible spaces, six customer parking spaces for the tyre centre, 43 staff parks and 10 stands for 20 bikes.
Costco Wholesale Fuel will be at 6 Kakano Rd, where a Palmers Garden Centre and a Mitre 10 are to the northwest and a Resene colour shop to the west.
The self-service fuel station will be only for Costco members with one staff member and no retail, air, or carwash.
Buildings will be only a canopy above the bowsers, small data hut and staff amenities. Five rows of bowsers are proposed, with each row consisting of three bowsers, making a total of 30 refuelling spaces.