Retail giant Costco Wholesale (Costco) officially opened its new location in Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood, marking its 21st location in the Greater Toronto Area.
The sprawling new 164,162-square-foot location at 2260 Islington Avenue, just north of Highway 401 — reported on by blogTO back in September — opened its doors to the public on Thursday morning.
Costco’s newest location brings its wholesale offerings to northwest Toronto, including over 3,800 products such as Kirkland house-brand staples and those famously cheap rotisserie chickens and hot dogs — all sold at reduced prices to attract shoppers into the sprawling maze-like warehouses.
Other features include an on-site bakery, a fresh meat department, a large produce area, an optical centre with an on-site optometrist, a hearing aid centre, five tire centre bays, an expansive food court, a pharmacy, and a gas station with 24 pumps.
A combination of extra-wide aisles, a dozen registers and an additional self-checkout section with nine stations will keep the flow of customers and approximately 1,200 shopping carts moving.
Corresponding with that massive number of shopping carts on-premises, the new Costco is served by a gargantuan underground parking garage with a capacity for 1,200 vehicles.
Underground parking with elevator access at this location marks a first for Costco warehouses in Eastern Canada, which have traditionally sat amid wide expanses of surface parking.
The members-only wholesale brand’s latest expansion in the Toronto market is also a boon for local employment in the Rexdale neighbourhood, providing 135 new full-time jobs and 100 new seasonal jobs for the area.
Toronto’s newest Costco location marks the 107th warehouse from the brand in Canada and the 861st worldwide.
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