Good news for students who love to buy in—a new Costco store will be opening up next month in Waterloo.
The store will be located west of Ira Needles Boulevard on Erb Street.
Ron Damiani, a spokesperson for Costco Canada, explained in an email that the decision to open a Costco store in Waterloo was primarily driven by a high market demand.
Costco’s presence within the Kitchener Waterloo market for over 20 years has given them the ability to pin-point shopping behaviours and shopping frequency.
With this information, Costco was able to evaluate the impact of a new store located in Waterloo, given the high demand.
The new Costco will also provide approximately 200 jobs in Waterloo.
The popular demand for this location has also created a concern for high volumes of traffic in the Ira Needles Boulevard area-an already congested area in K-W.
The proposal to bring a Costco store to this location was brought forth to Waterloo counsellors almost two years ago.
By 2014, counsellors had provided a condition approval for the store, stating that work on the store building and gas bar could proceed; however, neither could open until the necessary construction work was completed.
City of Waterloo officials have been supportive of the Costco development and executed a traffic study as part of the new store’s process for approval.
As a result, Erb Street has been under heavy construction throughout the past summer months in order to implement two new roundabouts.
One will be in front of the upcoming Costco entrance, for added customer ease of access, and the other has been placed near the entrance to the neighbouring regional landfill.
