Costco opens new location to much fanfare

The sun set on the Costco on Stavanger Drive on Wednesday, and rose on the retail giant's new store in Galway on Thursday morning.

The company opened the doors of its brand new centre in the west end of St. John's this morning shortly before 7:30.

In the first 15 minutes, more than 500 people walked through the doors.

A few dozen shoppers had lined up before 7 a.m., but the crowd had expanded to hundreds by the time the ribbon on the doors was cut half an hour later. 

St. John's Mayor Danny Breen, along with other municipal and provincial politicians — and former premier Danny Williams, the man behind the Galway development — were on hand for the opening ceremonies of the store on Danny Drive.

"I'm feeling fabulous. Another beautiful, sunny, Newfoundland and Labrador morning," Williams said.

In anticipation of the crowd, Costco paid the bill for an increased Royal Newfoundland Constabulary presence in the area to help conduct traffic.

There were some concerns about people unfamiliar with the area navigating the roundabouts into the area, but Williams said no one had had a problem figuring them out yet.

"The interesting thing about the east-end people, they're really concerned about going through roundabouts and everything else. But roundabouts are a piece of cake, once they get used to them," he said.

Williams said the Costco opening is "a big milestone" for his Galway development, and is the start of the neighbourhood's retail sector.

"This is the catalyst, this is what's really going to launch it," Williams said, adding he expects there will be 13 new businesses open in Galway by the end of the year.

The company says the Galway store is the largest Costco wholesaler store in the country, at 182,000 square feet and 500 employees.

The new store has 1,000 parking spots — 300 more than the previous location.

The gas bar has been open there for a few days.

The Costco in the Stavanger Drive area of St. John's closed at 5 p.m. Wednesday, with crews taking down Costco signage just minutes later.

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