One of the world's biggest retail chains is set to open its first New Zealand store in just a few months.
On Wednesday, Costco opened a petrol station on the site of its upcoming West Auckland store, but it's what's inside the store that many shoppers are excited about.
READ MORE: Retail giant Costco opens petrol station in Auckland
Seven Sharp got the opportunity to take a sneak peek inside the $100 million store, which New Zealand and Australia Costco manager Patrick Noone said will offer everything and anything.
"You can buy a 3L bottle of milk or a diamond ring for $200,000. Or you can buy a new TV or some Calvin Klein underwear. It’s all here under one roof."
Costco is a membership-only retailer, and Noone said most members shopped once a month so they could do a big shop.
Not only will there be the standard supermarket offerings, but also the likes of a pharmacy, an optometrist, a cafe and even a tyre centre.
Noone described the chain as a hybrid of a department store, hardware store, supermarket and fresh food market.
"We have everything in here, so we don't compete against one chain or one store, we compete against the retail market," he said.
Costco's biggest competitors are the two major supermarket companies that currently operate in New Zealand, Woolworths and Foodstuffs.
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While that pair have controlled the market for decades, Noone was confident Costco would fit in comfortably.
"We are going to fit into the market just fine. We are going to offer a different way of shopping, different merchandise, different shopping times. We will fit in nicely to the market place. We will be different, but different is good, and competition is good for everyone," Noone said.
The big difference is that everything inside Costco is big.
"For example peanut butter. It'll be a full pallet and it won't be stacked on the shelf. So efficiency of scale, efficiency of labour and efficiency of purchasing a kilo of butter all equals value in the end," Noone said.
With 800 stores around the world, when things are on shelves in New York, Tokyo or London, they'll be in West Auckland too.
The big question then - when will the doors open?
"We are hoping for late August 2022," Noone said.
"It does depend on local jurisdictional challenges of building approvals and things like that. If it goes into early September it goes into early September."
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