Costco has set an opening time for its new east Windsor location.
The warehouse at 6670 Catherine Street will officially open to the public at 7 a.m. on Nov. 20. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 6:30 a.m.
The new store will bring more than 200 jobs to the area and features an on-site pharmacy, hearing aid centre and optical centre, along with a five-bay tire centre, a 24-pump gas station and parking for more than 900 vehicles.
Outgoing Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens recently toured the facility and says shoppers will notice a significant difference when they walk through the doors.
“It’s bigger. It’s more modern. The aisles are wider. They have some pre-scan aisles where when you’re pre-scanned, you just literally have to go through. They’re set up specifically for pre-scanning,” Dilkens said.
He says traffic flow has also been improved throughout the warehouse.
“The flow is much better. The flaws that you see in the existing store, they’ve corrected based on their designs elsewhere, and I think people will be very impressed with what they see moving forward,” he said.
Dilkens believes the development will attract additional investment around the site.
“When you put the road infrastructure in, the sewer infrastructure, when you have a major draw like a Costco, it becomes very attractive for other retailers to want to be co-located in that general area because of the volume of traffic that that Costco brings,” Dilkens said.
Costco’s grand opening ceremony is expected to include company officials, Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie and warehouse manager Daniel Gomes.