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Angela Bauer serves as general manager for the Springfield Costco store.
McKenzie Robinson | SBJ
Angela Bauer serves as general manager for the Springfield Costco store.

Costco to open its doors tomorrow

Posted online

A little over a year after announcing its plan to put down roots in Springfield, Costco (Nasdaq: COST) will hold its grand opening tomorrow.

City officials will be present to mark the occasion, and so will W. Craig Jelinek, president and CEO of Issaquah-Washington-based Costco Wholesale Corp., a company that is ranked No. 12 on this year’s Fortune 500 list with $166.8 billion in revenue.

The 160,000-square-foot store is located at the intersection of Chestnut Expressway and U.S. Highway 65 at 279 Eastgate Ave., and 700 parking spaces await its first shoppers.

Angela Bauer is the general manager of the Costco store, and she spoke to Springfield Business Journal in an exclusive interview and sneak-peek tour on Monday.

As Bauer pointed out some of the highlights of the store, final preparations were apparent in every aisle. One large room featured displays of organic items, including asparagus and packages of mixed mushroom varieties, and the meat counter was being loaded with cuts of lamb, including roasts, legs and chops. Costco famously offers $5 rotisserie chickens at all its stores, and there was a display area for them to be added Wednesday.

Of note were shoe selections, men’s dress shirts, Segway scooters, TV and gaming devices, area rugs and a wide variety of whiskeys and bourbons, among thousands of other offerings. The store appeared fully stocked, without an empty slot in any display in sight, outside of the refrigerated food area.

The store includes a food court, known for its $1.50 quarter-pound hot dog. Departments will include a tire center, a travel agent and a vision center with an optometrist on duty. A gas station is located outside the store.

Bauer, who moved to Springfield from a Costco GM position in West Fargo, North Dakota, said residents and development officials have been pushing for a Costco in Springfield for years.

“The response has been overwhelming,” she said. “It’s really been great. When they were asking for us to come here, they meant it.”

While Costco officials declined to comment on local membership numbers, Bauer said there was a huge response from people signing up in kiosks around town, online and through workplace visits by marketing teams.

Springfield City Council paved the way for Costco in a June 2020 meeting, when they approved a $4.8 million access and infrastructure agreement with Costco. The city will reimburse the company for public infrastructure improvements made to its 18-acre site. Plans called for relocating Eastgate Avenue and making traffic signal modifications and stormwater improvements. Springfield will repay Costco over a 15-year period through sales taxes generated by the store, according to past reporting.

Bauer said 180 or so employees will work at the Springfield store, alongside a temporary teaching and training team. The average hourly pay is $25.50, according to past reporting.

When asked how the hiring process went, Bauer said, “Better than I had hoped. The quality of people is phenomenal.

“The people of Springfield should be proud of their workforce. They are eager to learn, and if they can’t do it, they will figure it out and lean on each other for assistance. That’s the Costco way – to teach each other.”

Bauer said the store’s employee count includes about 55 transfers into Springfield.

“We made sure the people who would transfer in had a purpose and would bring extra value to our community,” she said.

“Our community” is not a phrase Bauer uses loosely. She moved here in May, and her husband and their four children followed soon after the end of the school year.

Bauer said that the store’s offerings reflect the local community. Market research showed that there was a huge following for bourbon and whiskey, for instance, so she reached out to her buying staff to stock an expanded selection. She pointed out a Japanese variety, a Yamazaki 12-year-old single-malt, as an example.

What else do locals like?

“We like family gatherings, time at the lake; we like quality in meats, and we seek out exceptional produce,” she said.

Bauer added that she hears what people are interested in during conversations with her neighbors and people at church, and she keeps track of those needs.

“Organic came up a lot. I pass it along,” she said. “We’re constantly looking, and when we hear requests, we try to fill them.”

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What is the annual charge for a membership?

Tuesday, August 17, 2021
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