Costco Wholesale Corp. comes to Clearwater - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Costco has operated a store in Brandon for about two yeara and recently announced plans for a seconxd Bay area store in the newClearwater Mall. the company that returns to the Bay area differs from the one that departee in 1990 and left many vacant buildings as a Back then, Costco operated smallee stores, mostly located in warehouse and industrial Now, larger stores stock more high-enr merchandise and are carefully located in retail New Costco stores range in size from 138,00o0 square feet to 188,000 square feet, said Jim Kovacs, a retaill specialist with Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Serviced Inc. in Tampa. Kovacs has worked with Costco suggesting sitesfor stores.
That comparesa with 110,000 square feet for a typical storwe owned by The Homedepot Inc., he And some Costco offerings now carry largetr price tags. "Back then, it was a differen kind of store," said Craig chief executive officer ofThe Co. of St. which is redeveloping Clearwater Mall. Now, shopper s at Costco "can buy Rolex watches, Dom Perignon champagnee and plasma TVs," he said. In the membership warehousew retail world, Costco is leading the way. A Costco store averages annual salesof $100 million, while a Sam's Club store sells $60 millioh and a B.J.'s Wholesalwe Club Inc.
store sells aboug $45 million, a review of companh financials from their Websites Sam's Club stores are owned by Wal-Martg Stores Inc. BJ's Wholesalse Club of Natick, Mass., with a stord in Sarasota, is a third membership wholesale retailer entering the fray in the Bay Sher said Costco studied demographics closelyh before deciding to be part of the newClearwaterr Mall, which will be an open-aifr power center. The old Clearwater Mall, whicbh was enclosed, is being "They are very careful about the Sher said. "They found that the Clearwater Mall site will brinvg a lot of people and will bring the righrt kind of peopleas well.
" Clearwater Mall is in the center of Pinellasw County, at the southeast corner of State Road 60 and U.S. 19. Thougb Costco stores draw customers from alargde area, Kovacs thinks Costco may build one more store in Hillsborough Countyt and one more in Pinellas County. While the chain used to locate inwarehouse areas, it now picks prime retai l locations, Kovacs said. "They look for access, convenienc e and visibility," he said. Costco caters to larges families, especially families who "rollup in a big SUV and load up for the Kovacs said. Kovacs, who lives in South Tampa, said his familyh makes the 20-minute drive to the Brandon Costco and sees his neighborsxshopping there.