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Dave Hargreaves, owner operator at Mitre 10 Mega Westgate, says having Costco open across the road will bring more customers to the area.
Business owners surrounding Costco’s Auckland warehouse are expecting a ‘big halo effect’ when it opens its doors on Wednesday.
Dave Hargreaves, owner operator at Mitre 10 Mega Westgate was given a walk through of Costco’s 14,800m² Auckland store last week and was wowed by what was on offer.
The store, which stocks $24 million worth of goods including diamond rings, coffins, food and clothing was over the road from the Mitre 10 carpark, about 300m away.
Hargreaves said the opening of Costco would have a positive effect on local businesses.
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“Costco will be a destination and 90% of what they do is complementary to what we do here at Mitre 10,” he said.
His store had recently completed a 4000m² extension and significantly expanded its key categories – paint, garden and power tools – and its covered trade drive-through and timber yard. None of which were central to Costco’s product range, Hargreaves said.
Abigail Dougherty/Stuff
The shelves are now stocked at Costco in Auckland pending its grand opening on September 28. There were few prices on the shelves when media were shown round the store.
“It’s going to bring much more traffic into Westgate, an already fast-growing area, and really accelerate growth in West Auckland.”
He expected there to be an increase in foot traffic and he had already seen uplift since Costco opened its 27-pump fuel station in April.
“We expect a big halo effect.”
Hargreaves said there was next to no negative impacts of having the United States giant down the road.
“There’s minimal crossover with our business and any detriment will be outweighed by the benefits. The odd line will be seasonally competitive, but they don’t carry these products year-round, so any direct competition will be temporary.”
Xplosiv Supplements chief executive John Birrell, agreed.
Abigail Dougherty/Stuff
Costco will open in Westgate on Wednesday.
“We see the opening of Costco as an exciting opportunity which will no doubt draw a larger pool of consumers into the region,” he said.
Birrell had two stores in the Westgate area.
He expected there to be initial disruption to business when the store opened on Wednesday morning with a surge in traffic, but it didn’t outweigh the positives of having the retailer in the area.
”We believe that the influx of bargain hunting consumers hoping to sample the Costco experience has the potential to increase the profile of our business and introduce our brands to a wider and more diverse pool of people.”
