Costco

[Maria S.]

Costco will be opening a new store in Manhattan

Is it at 325 Pleasant Avenue or at 116th and FDR (the highway?)

[Ant112]

The Pleasant Avenue address is a temporary location for customer service and to register.

The actual store will be on 116th and FDR Drive.

[William]

From Crain's New York:

Costco stumbles out of gate in Harlem
January 31, 2010
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20 ... /301319983

After opening a store in late November with promises of jobs and economic revival for the community of East Harlem, warehouse club Costco Wholesale Corp. terminated 160 of its 453 workers there last month in order to cut costs...

The Costco locations in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Long Island City, Queens, are popular. But the recently opened Harlem location at East River Plaza—Costco's 110,000-square-foot foray into the Manhattan market—is struggling.

One of the problems plaguing the store is a lack of nearby public transportation: It's a 15-minute walk from the nearest subway stop to the far east 116th Street location, which is partially obscured by a parking garage. The retailer's Brooklyn outpost, by contrast, is a mere block from the trains. It also offers free parking, while the Harlem lot charges $2.50 per half hour.

“How exactly are people from the community going to come into the warehouse club and carry this stuff out?” asks Pat Purcell, assistant to the president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500. “I can't carry it around the club, let alone from the club to a house.”

[Susan18]

It serves them right, taking away jobs and business from the local merchants.