Western New York is getting its first Costco, and the countdown is almost over. The 152,000-square-foot warehouse on Ridge Lea Road in Amherst is set to open to members on Oct. 28, bringing with it a pharmacy, an optical center, a tire service shop and roughly 250 new jobs.
The opening date and store details were confirmed by WIVB, which reported that the warehouse will stock everything from bulk groceries to its signature Kirkland-brand goods once doors open. Preparations are already well underway, with the site receiving about 10 truckloads of merchandise a day in the run-up to launch. For many in the region, the arrival marks Costco's long-awaited debut in Western New York, following the lead of Buffalo Business First, which got an early look inside the new warehouse ahead of its public opening.
Even before the shelves are fully stocked, Costco has been working to build its membership base locally. The retailer has set up a table at the Walden Galleria to sign up shoppers ahead of the warehouse opening, according to the same WIVB report, part of a broader push as the company counts roughly 925 stores worldwide and about 82 million members overall.
Gas Pumps Already Flowing Since September
While the warehouse itself has been under construction, Costco's attached gas station has already been serving members for weeks. The pumps went online Sept. 4, according to The Buffalo News, giving local drivers an early taste of the retailer's famously discounted fuel even before they could walk the aisles inside. A membership is required to fill up, the outlet noted, so anyone hoping to save at the pump needs to join the club first.
Construction crews have continued finishing work at the site in the weeks since, the newspaper reported, as the warehouse races toward its scheduled opening. The gas station's early debut is a familiar pattern for Costco rollouts — a similar sequence played out this past summer when a Guilderland, New York, location opened Aug. 6, with members lining up to fill their tanks the same day, according to the Times Union.
A Second Western New York Warehouse Already in the Works
Amherst won't be the region's only Costco for long. A second warehouse has been proposed as the anchor tenant of a much larger redevelopment at the former Seneca Mall site in West Seneca, according to WKBW, which would make it the second Costco location in the region.
The West Seneca project, submitted by the Benchmark Group, calls for a 187,000-square-foot development that would include Costco alongside 16 other retailers, local shops, a gas station and restaurants, per a report from Spectrum News 1. The site plan has already cleared the town's planning board, and Spectrum News 1 reports that Benchmark hopes to break ground in the second quarter of 2027, with the full build-out expected to take roughly two years.
Part of a Bigger National Push
The Amherst opening is one piece of a much larger expansion effort for the warehouse giant. Costco is set to add 10 new locations across nine states as part of its push, according to USA Today, with the company listing 10 U.S. stores slated to open by the end of November alongside four more in Canada.
The pace reflects a strategy the company has pursued of opening 25 to 30 new locations, the outlet reported, with Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip saying in March that roughly half of those new clubs would land in the U.S. and the other half in international markets. Locally, WIVB reports that Costco's expansion plans call for around 30 new locations annually — a pace that, for Western New York shoppers, now includes a warehouse of their own just a few days away from opening its doors.
