Costco Wholesale Canada has opened a new location Oshawa, Ont. The store marks the second location in the city.
Ribbon cutting ceremony at the North Oshawa Costco. From left: Marc-André Bally, senior vice president and general manager for Costco Wholesale Eastern Canada, Randy Cenerelli, general manager of the North Oshawa Costco (directly beside Bally) and Jennifer Klassen, regional vice president of operations for Costco Wholesale Eastern Canada (fifth from the left).
The new 161,391 sq ft location features wide aisles and an extensive selection of food offerings. It also includes a large variety of specialty departments, such as an on-site bakery, fresh meat, expansive produce area, rotisserie chicken section, optical centre – including an on-site independent optometrist – a hearing aid centre, five tire centre bays, large food court, gas station with 24 pumps, propane station and a large pharmacy. With 12 checkout registers and a new self-checkout section with six stations, the warehouse features 830 shopping carts and 804 parking spots.
“With the opening of this new warehouse, we can serve all of our members in the Oshawa and surrounding area and can bring new consumers and businesses to uncover the benefits of a Costco membership,” says Gino Dorico, senior vice president and country manager, Costco Wholesale Canada. “We are very proud to share this new location with our valued members and member businesses in the local community and throughout the area.”
Marc-André Bally, senior vice president and general manager, Costco Wholesale Eastern Canada, tells Grocery Business that Costco felt it was the right time for a second location in city.
“We see growth in the city and we’ve seen the success of the other Oshawa location. Generally speaking, the area of the new Costco is a high-income one with a lot of new development and new builds and people are coming to the area from the GTA. We want to capture this market. To attract these consumers, we’re offering some higher end products, such as TVs, accessories and electronics that we think will benefit new homeowners as they get ready to move into their new homes in this area.”
The new location is also offering a high number of organic foods and a growing array of Costco’s Kirkland Signature private label products, adds Bally.
“Organics have been a focus for us in the last few years and you’ll find probably more organics at this location in produce and dry grocery. In fact, all food departments have a presence with organic items. We’re also focused on growing our Kirkland Signature brand. It’s important to us and has a role to play in our mix when we cannot have the right price or the right quality from brands and we continuously want it to grow.”
The North Oshawa location offers more than 3,800 products.
Jennifer Klassen, regional vice president of operations, Costco Wholesale Eastern Canada; Randy Cenerelli, general manager, Costco North Oshawa; Marc-André Bally, senior vice president and general manager, Costco Wholesale Eastern Canada
