Costco opened its first Lawrence location at 8 a.m. Thursday, and shoppers poured through the doors of the new warehouse store, trying samples and watching product demonstrations. Early Thursday, cashiers waited to check out customers.
The store sits at 6200 Mercato Drive, near the interchange of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Sixth Street, according to Lawrence Times. It's positioned as the centerpiece of The Mercato, a 90-acre mixed-use development near the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Kansas Highway 10, south of Rock Chalk Park, as reported by Ingram's. Before Thursday, Lawrence-area shoppers traveled to Costco locations in Lenexa and Overland Park, while a Topeka resident attended the opening, per the Lawrence Journal-World.
Inside, the scene played out like a grand reopening of the city's shopping landscape. Customers shopped, played games and tried samples throughout the store, while employees spoke with shoppers in the frozen food section, the Journal-World's photo coverage showed. Christopher Dino posed in a Costco Executive Member shirt, and Nakia McCloud took part in a knife-set demonstration, with photographer Shawn Valverde capturing scenes from the opening.
A 166,000-Square-Foot Anchor for West Lawrence
The warehouse includes a bakery, produce and floral departments, a tire center and auto service shop, and a gas station with 24 pumps, the Lawrence Times' report on the store's construction noted. Plans filed with Lawrence City Hall described a 160,000-square-foot full-service store with a full deli department, while other reporting pegged the finished store at 166,000 square feet — a discrepancy that has appeared across coverage of the project.
The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted unanimously last December to approve a final plat for the Mercato 4th Addition, clearing a procedural hurdle for the development, according to the Journal-World. Membership options at the new store include an Executive membership for $130 per year or a more limited Gold Star membership for $65 per year, per the same outlet's earlier report.
Fifth Store in a Fast-Growing Metro Market
Lawrence's location is the fifth Costco in the broader Kansas City area, joining stores that have reshaped shopping patterns across the region. The Linwood location was the first Costco in metro Kansas City, according to KCUR, while Kansas City's Midtown Costco closed Oct. 1 after a 25-year run and is set to reopen next spring as a Costco Business Center. That Midtown project, along with an adjacent Home Depot, was built with more than $50 million in public tax breaks, and more than $6 million in sales-tax revenue from the surrounding Midtown Marketplace was diverted to support nearby housing, per KCUR's reporting.
A similar pattern unfolded in Lee's Summit, where a 166,000-square-foot Costco opened Oct. 2 as the anchor and first tenant of the East Village development, according to The Kansas City Star. Officials there braced for a surge of traffic when that store opened, and a local traffic study had projected a warehouse club would generate around 7,000 vehicles a day — a figure Costco itself raised to 11,000 once its plans were finalized.
Betting on Growth West of K-10
Western Lawrence has been one of the fastest-growing markets in the city in recent years, and officials expect the Costco to accelerate that trend further. Large infrastructure projects extending water, sewer and roads, along with a planned water tower west of K-10, are expected to spur additional residential and commercial development, according to KSHB. The Mercato's ownership group has described the store as a major destination anchor expected to draw shoppers from across Douglas County and Lawrence's surrounding communities.
Lawrence Mayor Brad Finkeldei said the Costco and the city's new convention center would together represent the two largest single drivers of sales tax growth the community has seen in 50 years, both coming online in 2026, per KSHB. Braum's Ice Cream & Dairy Store and Truity Credit Union have already purchased parcels within The Mercato, a sign that other businesses are moving to capitalize on the Costco's pull — a pattern Lawrence officials have watched for since at least 2015, when a city blog quoted hopes for a retail catalyst like Costco to anchor growth west of town.
What the Store Could Mean for Lawrence's Retail Scene
A typical Costco store produces $150 million or more in sales per year, and the chain's warehouses often draw a cluster of other retailers seeking to locate nearby — a dynamic that's already playing out at The Mercato. With the Lawrence store situated near the Sixth Street and K-10 interchange, local officials are counting on the location to become a major addition to the northeast Kansas retail scene, cementing Costco's reputation as a leader among wholesale discount clubs in a market that, until Thursday, had no location of its own.
