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Hundreds of people stood in line Wednesday morning to be the first customers inside Pleasanton’s brand-new Costco, which officially opened its doors after nearly a decade of planning, legal hurdles and construction.
“A special moment,” Wil Ramos, the warehouse manager of the new Pleasanton location, said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony before customers were let in. “This really has been over a decade for us to get here, but we know that the community wanted us here. We’re excited to be here … We got our very own Costco in Pleasanton.”
The store, located just off Interstate 680 between Stoneridge Drive and the I-580 interchange, celebrated its grand opening with a recognition event at 7:30 a.m. that was hosted by the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce. It will become the third Costco in the Tri-Valley, joining the stores in Livermore and Danville.
Swarms of first-time visitors flocked into the store once the doors opened — it took about 20 minutes for the main line to die down while dozens of others waited in a separate line just for alcohol.
Located at 7200 Johnson Drive, the new Costco is one piece of the larger Johnson Drive Economic Development Zone initiative that aims to redevelop approximately 40 acres of land near Stoneridge Drive and I-680 into a commercial corridor including the wholesale retail giant and two new hotels, which both opened in late 2023 and at the beginning of 2024, respectively.
The new warehouse store is approximately 160,000 square feet and comes with 768 parking stalls and 15 double-sided fuel pumps at its Costco gas station.
The Pleasanton City Council gave the final clearance to move forward with allowing the construction of the property, which estimated a total cost of about $33.5 million, in July 2022 following several setbacks.
“It’s truly an exciting moment,” outgoing Mayor Karla Brown said regarding the opening during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “As many of you know, it started almost 10 years ago.”
Recently, the project saw some minor roadwork and PG&E-related setbacks. However, one of the major hurdles dates back to the 2016, Measure MM, a ballot initiative aimed to prohibit large-scale retail stores within the JDEDZ that ultimately lost at the polls.
Another coalition — Pleasanton Citizens for Responsible Growth — also sued the city twice over whether air quality and traffic impacts were appropriately analyzed as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. The first lawsuit led to the city voluntarily doing supplemental environmental analysis starting in 2018 while the second lawsuit failed on appeal in February 2022.
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The excitement of Costco’s grand opening paired with the chaos of heavy traffic, is an all too common dilemma. Costco’s grand opening drew a large crowd that resulted in horrendous traffic, and several problems occurred.
Poor planning and underestimation of the turnout lead to inadequate parking, insufficient traffic control, and an overall lack of infrastructure to handle the influx of visitors.
When people cannot access the store due to traffic, it creates frustration and discouragement, deterring customers from coming back.
Heavy traffic leads to accidents, pedestrian hazards, and emergency vehicle access issues, causing significant safety risks.
Local businesses were negatively impacted by the increased traffic causing inconvenience and resentment towards Costco.
Prolonged idling in traffic contributed to increased emissions, impacting air quality and the environment.
Fed Ex, the two hotel parking lots were filled with drivers walking over to Costco, and Traffic was backed up to Stoneridge, and off Hopyard by Home Depot. As one neighbor rated it, F for failure.
It was opening day. What did you expect? When I was there, the store was filled with plentiful, patient employees and happy shoppers excited to have Costco finally open.
Two of the people who caused the delay are now in the picture cutting the ribbon…Bill Wheeler and Karla Brown. Both were part of the referendum against Costco in 2016. Oh, the irony.