Local retailers are not shaken by the prospect of competing against a city-block long Costco retail store and fueling station in southeast Longmont.
Costco is known for offering members in-store deals on hefty packages of tissues, laundry detergent as well as giant stuffed teddy bears. There are also three-pound fully cooked and seasoned rotisserie chickens and 4,000 other products in stores that can measure up to 230,000-square-feet, according to the blog Cheapism.
The Costco being proposed in Longmont is 150,000-square-feet, according to city staff reports.
The company is the nation’s fourth-largest retailer in market share, behind Walmart, Amazon and CVS. The company — which boasts 559 locations in the United States — had net sales of $121 billion in 2020, up nearly $25 billion in less than 10 years, states Cheapism, citing statistics from the National Retail Association.
All that size doesn’t mean the retail behemoth can match what Longmont’s Budget Home Supply offers, said Vernetta Angelo, who heads website sales and marketing for Budget Home.
Budget Home has supplied specialized products and friendly customer service to customers since 1984. It currently operates out of a 80,000-square-foot store on Boston Avenue, Angelo said, via email.
“With our specialties such as composite lumber, new and remodel kitchens, lumber, fencing, windows and doors, delivery truck service, etc., I do not believe Costco will have a very big impact on Budget Home Supply,” Angelo said.
She admits she doesn’t appreciate that the retail landscape is being swallowed up by giant Costco-like outlets. “It is unfortunate that our choices for shopping are becoming more and more big chain stores,” Angelo said.
Richard Warren, owner of Warren Appliance, said the 42-year-old business has absorbed the impacts of other big retailers and will do the same with Costco. “Everybody said the same thing about Sears and Sam’s Club and other big places that sell appliances. But we are still here, “ Warren said. “Just don’t expect it will affect our business very much.”
“Thankfully, we have a pretty good core of customers that keep coming back,” he said.
A city staff report states that potential taxable sales generated by a Costco facility is $767 per square foot. That means the Longmont Costco will generate about $4.06 million in the first full year of operation.
The staff report also estimates that 25.9% of that revenue could come from the “cannibalization” of existing Longmont retailers. “That would still result in over $3 million of net news sales tax to the city annually,” the report states. “That means that $10.6 million to incentivise the Costco project would essentially be covered in less than four years.”
The store is also projected to bring in 300 new jobs, which are usually well paying compared to other big box retailers, according to Cheapism. Costco’s average minimum wage is $16 hourly but longevity means the average worker takes home $24 hourly. That compares to the starting hourly wage of $13 an hour.
The advocacy group Residents and Workers for a Safe Longmont, claims Costco will be detrimental locally, crushing local retailers and ushering in traffic and environmental woes.
Boulder attorney Randall Weiner — who represents the group — said Costco will inhabit over 16 acres and questions whether it will be an “eyesore” field of parking spaces that impedes the use of bicycles and pedestrians, according to a letter to city officials. Weiner also said the city calls the Costco a “regional center” but that Longmont appears to be providing “insufficient space” for other regional center features including “high density housing and employment options in close proximity to transit and other services,” Weiner said in his letter.
He also blasted the city for providing a $10 million incentive package for Costco although the city already possesses a Walmart, Best Buy, Target and many local and national grocery outlets.
“Shockingly, Longmont's incentive Costco plan is not for a public amenity, but rather for a private big-box employer…” Weiner said
Even so, Longmont is now at a place where it can support both big box stores and cozier, customer-oriented businesses, said Kimbelee McKee, executive director of Longmont Downtown Development Authority.
The city, Mckee adds, needs both.
“Our locally owned, small businesses offer unique goods, often not found in large big box stores,” McKee said. “They also offer a personal, one-on-one experience and build strong relationships with their customers. “
“Costco,” McKee said, “meets a different type of retail need in our community, and the ability to keep those dollars in Longmont will help the city overall.”
