Costco opened its doors today in Riverhead, with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at its new 150,000-square-foot warehouse on Route 58.
The warehouse store will be open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. till 8:30 p.m., Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
It’s been a bumpy road to opening day for the giant warehouse retailer, a publicly traded company based in Issaquah, Wash. The Town of Riverhead didn’t issue a certificate of occupancy for the new store until yesterday, after site developer Brixmor Property Management cleared compliance hurdles required by its amended site plan. The store’s gasoline facility was not operational pending clearance from the Riverhead fire marshal’s office. See prior story.
Riverhead Councilman John Dunleavy was the only town official on hand for today’s 7:45 a.m. ribbon cutting. Scores of Costco employees were on hand to put the finishing touches on displays and welcome shoppers.
“It’s tremendous,” Jacki Messineo, of Shirley, said as she put her purchases into her car. Friend and fellow shopper Patti Ogno of Bayport agreed. “We had fun,” Ogno said. The two women, coworkers at the Hanlon Allstate Agency in Riverhead, stopped in to check out the new warehouse before work this morning. They are already Costco members and said they are happy to have a warehouse near their office.
The Riverhead location is the seventh Costco on Long Island. It is one of 16 Costco warehouses in N.Y., 464 in the U.S. and 658 worldwide. Riverhead store is one of six new warehouses Costco plans to open before its current fiscal year ends on Aug. 31.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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