Mission Viejo now has something new where the aisles of towels and kitchen gadgets used to be. Costco on Thursday opened its first standalone, gas-only station in the city, taking over a shuttered big-box space and turning it into a high-capacity fueling hub with 40 pumps under a roughly 17,234-square-foot canopy. The setup is open only to Costco members, and early check-ins by locals found the lines surprisingly tame at launch, easing worries about instant gridlock near the freeway ramps.
What opened and where
The fueling site at 25732 El Paseo features a 17,234-square-foot canopy sheltering 40 pumping positions, according to City of Mission Viejo planning documents. The project fills the footprint of a 35,020-square-foot Bed Bath & Beyond in the Mission Viejo Freeway Center and officially opened this week, as reported by The Mercury News.
How it will work for members
The new location follows Costco’s standard membership-only fuel model, with the site staffed and supervised by Costco employees and operating hours expected to run from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, according to C-Store Dive. Plans filed with the city call for three 40,000-gallon underground storage tanks and a small employee breakroom, but no convenience store on the property, meaning this stop is strictly for fueling up.
Local traffic and competition
City staff approved conditions that let the city engineer hold off on installing a new traffic signal at El Paseo unless future operations show it is needed, according to City of Mission Viejo records. The station sits just off the I-5 at Oso Parkway and is about 2.5 miles from the nearest warehouse-attached Costco in Laguna Niguel, a setup that could reshuffle where South Orange County drivers go to fill their tanks, SFGATE notes. On Thursday, prices at the new pumps were around $4.79 a gallon, based on GasBuddy data reported by The Mercury News, though local fuel costs can move quickly.
Industry coverage indicates Costco is treating Mission Viejo as a proving ground before rolling out more standalone gas stations, with a second fuel-only site in Honolulu already slated for 2027, according to Supermarket News. For now, the Mission Viejo location gives members a high-capacity, members-only option and adds a fresh dose of competition for nearby gas retailers.
