Warehouse retailing chain Costco Australia has announced its first store will open on 17 August in Melbourne, with the company also identifying a Sydney site for expansion during the next year.
Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone has also said consumers looking for memberships with the discount warehousing retailer can do so in person from today at the chain’s Docklands location.
The company has identified a property site in Sydney on Parramatta Road, and hopes to expand onto the site during the 2010 calendar year.
“We have identified a property, and we are trying to get planning approval. We’re very optimistic about it, and we think that once we open here in Melbourne people will be able to see the benefits we bring to the market,” Noone says.
Noone says the company has been looking at expanding into Sydney even before the Melbourne location was being set up, and that the identified property has been in the company’s eye for some time.
“We’ve always wanted to find a new site in Sydney, and we’ve been looking at it for a couple of years now. I think in Sydney we’ll be able to bring a new layer of competition.”
Meanwhile, Costco says the opening of the Melbourne store is going ahead as planned, and the company is currently in the process of hiring over 200 employees.
“Everything is doing fine, we have merchandise arriving every day and we’re in the process of finalising hiring employees, it’s all very exciting,” Noone says.
He also announced that consumers looking to buy a membership to the chain can visit the Melbourne site at Docklands in person, or visit the company’s website. Memberships will cost $55 for businesses and $60 for individuals.
“From today people can come down and sign up for a membership, but they can also have a look around the warehouse, not the whole warehouse, but some parts of it and they can see what’s going on down here. It’s all really coming along.”
Costco makes most of its money from membership fees, which allows the chain to sell brand-name merchandise at significantly lower costs than rival stores. Costco Australia has already sold thousands of memberships.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
