First look inside Australia’s newest Costco store

Australia’s newest Costco store is opening its warehouse doors in Melbourne’s western suburbs this week, offering mega deals for its customers to mark its arrival.

The newly-built store is situated in Ardeer, located 15 kilometres west of the Melbourne CBD, and will officially open at 8am on Wednesday April 9, joining a list of 14 other Costco stores in Australia.

Locals were flocking to the highly-anticipated Costco Ardeer store on Monday ahead of the opening to buy a membership – in a sign of just how popular the US discount retail chain has become in Australia.

The new Costco Ardeer store spans about 16,000sqm.

Shoppers will be able to buy fresh food, groceries, clothing, appliances, electronics and white goods, jewellery and more.

Customers looking for something different will find special promotions including 100-inch televisions, golf carts, human-sized teddy bears, palm trees, go-karts and more.

The warehouse also includes a tyre centre, optical centre, hearing aid centre and a food court.

Costco Australia and New Zealand marketing and ecommerce director Megan Belanger said they were excited to bring Costco to Ardeer and Melbourne’s west.

Customers can pick up a life-sized teddy bear during their weekly shop.

“We think it’s a great opportunity for the people who live out here to take advantage of some really great value,” she said.

“This is an opportunity for us to have a larger footprint for a warehouse, this is a much bigger warehouse and it’s an opportunity to have a fuel station too.

“It’s sad to close the Docklands warehouse, it was a great time that we had – 16 years in the Docklands area.

“Our philosophy hasn’t changed, we’re all about what we can do to drive more value for our members, it might be in the items or quantity that we sell, but it’s always about driving more value for our members.”

The new store sells everything from 100-inch televisions to fresh food.

One of the standout additions to the Costco Ardeer store has been the 38-pump fuel station that opened a few weeks ago ahead of the main store.

It’s the largest Costco fuel station in Australia, with ULP 91, premium 98 and premium diesel on offer.

“Like everything that we sell, we’re all about how can we save our members money, and we’ve been able to demonstrate that in our fuel prices here,” Ms Belanger said.

“We’ve also found that the market around us has brought their prices down to compete with us.”

Get yourself a go kart on your next shop.

The Ardeer store will also have a sushi room where they will make fresh sushi onsite that will also be delivered to other warehouses in Victoria.

The new store complements Costco’s other locations in Melbourne, with sites in Epping in the north, Ringwood in the east, and Moorabbin in the southeast.

Ms Belanger said Costco was always looking to expand in Australia.

“We would like to grow and we would love to open more warehouses in here in the Melbourne market and also around Australia,” Ms Belanger said.

The Costco Ardeer fuel station has a whopping 38 pumps.

“Our real estate team is constantly on the lookout for new sites.

“If you were to look at Costco markets around the world, you could have a Costo within 10 to 15 minutes from another Costco.

“We’re not yet at that stage here in Australia and we should be, so we need more Costcos and we’re on the lookout for them.”

It comes as cost of living remains a top issue for Australians, with shoppers watching their weekly shops grow increasingly expensive.

Get a golf buggy on your next visit to Costco.

Ms Belanger said Costco was good for retail competition in Australia.

“Globally, we have this thing called the Costco effect, where we open a Costco and the prices drop in that area,” she said.

“We’ve seen this happen with fuel, I hope this happens in this area for the people who live here and that there will be some good savings for them.”