Thousands of shoppers search for deals as Costco opens in Waterloo

CTV Kitchener: Costco opens in Waterloo Shoppers jammed the new Costco store in Waterloo as traffic jammed the streets surrounding the store. Allison Tanner has more.

Shoppers were lined up by 7 a.m. Tuesday to be among the first to enter the new Costco store in Waterloo.

Following some speeches and a ribbon-cutting, the doors opened at 8:30 a.m.

According to store general manager Ken Shantz, more than 600 people entered the building within its first half-hour of operations.

“It’s pretty cool when people actually line up to come into your business,” he said in an interview.

As those people left the store, there were plenty of subjects on their lips, running the gamut from the deals they’d found to their thoughts on the layout of the new store.

There was one other hot topic of conversation, too – traffic.

Concerns about the volume of vehicles in the area delayed the approval of rezoning for the store. This summer, a roundabout was built at the intersection of Erb Street and Ira Needles Boulevard, with a second roundabout installed at the nearby entrance to the Waterloo landfill.

Jack Nahrgang, who said he was initially “intimidated” by the idea of the roundabouts and parked near the exit of Costco’s parking lot so he could get out quicker, said he was won over by the traffic planners’ solution after seeing it for himself Tuesday.

“If it can handle (today’s) traffic flow, then I think we’re OK,” he said.

Nahrgang said he would be curious to see if Tuesday morning’s smooth traffic would also be the case on Saturday, which is traditionally a busy day at the landfill.

Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky agreed with that assessment, noting in an interview that “Saturday will be the toughest” test of the new configuration.

He also pointed to “queueing facilities” at the landfill site designed to keep vehicle lineups there off of Erb Street, and the recent widening of Ira Needles to four lanes in the area.

“We hope that will certainly alleviate, if not solve, the problem,” he said.

Other shoppers at Costco’s opening day seemed pleased with the traffic flow.

“They’ve done an amazing job. I think it’ll be OK,” said Dana Malo.

Like most of Tuesday’s curious Costco-goers, Malo is used to shopping at the chain’s Kitchener store, which is well known for its own battles with heavy traffic.

Traffic did pick up later in the morning, causing delays even for waste collection vehicles trying to access the landfill. As a result, some homes normally getting Tuesday pickup were told to expect that it would be Wednesday before trucks made it to their neighbourhoods.

With reporting by Allison Tanner