How Costco Decides Where To Open A New Store

[terracore]

My 2 cents,
I had dinner with a friend from the mainland the other night. He has 5 Costcos within a 20 minute drive of his house.  Did you read the Costco earnings call? I simply quoted what their CFO said during the call.

Population density has to support that. 200k total people on the island won't support 2 Costco's

I think the tourists negate the population part of the equation.  When I've been to the Kona costco there were times when it was readily apparent most of the shoppers were tourists.  Kona Kostco is clearly having a tough time dealing with the hordes of people.  In the last few years they started enforcing the "you need a costco card to use the food court" rule and they bought an adjoining lot for their employees to park because the customer parking lot was always full, and there are certain days and times when there still aren't any spots readily available.  I see the problems cropping up in other areas, like they are having problems keeping their warehouse stocked with employees trying to move product into place with pallet jacks etc.  I've also noticed parts of their store shrinking, the last time I went they only carried a fraction of batteries (cars, golf carts etc) as they used to.

And then there is Cost-U-Less.  Most of the stuff they sell is from Costco that is marked up by quite a bit.  The ghetto-pricing off-brand Costco on the East Side.  When the bowling place was for sale I suggested that Costco buy the bowling place, Cost-U-Less, and any other fringe properties, raze it all, and put in a costco.  No dice.