The Number Behind 33 New Warehouses
Costco plans to open 33 new warehouses in fiscal 2027, CEO Ron Vachris said on the earnings call that closed out fiscal 2026. The company finished the year with 939 warehouses, and the new openings include Buffalo, New York, and Lawrence, Kansas, two U.S. markets Costco has not entered before. Most of the other locations have not been publicly named, which has members across the country wondering whether a warehouse is headed to their town.
Thirty-three is a gross figure, and the details matter. Five of the planned openings are relocations of existing stores, which puts the net gain at roughly 28 new warehouses. Costco has said it targets about 30 net-new warehouses each year over the long term, so fiscal 2027 sits near that pace.
Reading the Coverage Carefully
Some coverage has been sloppy. A syndicated New York Post piece carried a headline that cited 19 locations while its own text repeated the 33 figure, so the headline appears to be an error. An outside analyst at shopappy.com has forecast only 24 to 26 net-new warehouses by the end of fiscal 2027. That forecast is the analyst's estimate, not company guidance, and the company's own figure remains 33 including relocations.
Several of the sources are aggregators, so the primary documents are the earnings call transcript and Costco's investor materials. If you are tracking a specific location, those are the places to check.
Where They're Going
Beyond the U.S. markets, the plan calls for four warehouses in Europe, five in Canada and one in Mexico. Buffalo is worth watching: a new Costco in nearby Amherst, New York, has been drawing local coverage as it nears its opening, and Lawrence, Kansas, is a college-town market that has never had a warehouse.
The company expects to spend about $7.5 billion on the new locations, according to reporting on the call. Capital spending at that scale reflects the cost of buying land, building large-format stores and fitting them out. It also shows how much of Costco's growth strategy depends on adding physical warehouses, not on raising prices at existing ones.
Why Costco Can Afford to Keep Building
The economics start with membership. According to a summary of the fourth-quarter call, Costco had 84.1 million paid members, including 42.3 million paid Executive members, a 9.4% increase that put Executive penetration at an all-time high. Renewal rates were 92.3% in the U.S. and Canada and 89.8% worldwide. Costco's 10-K says its renewal figure excludes affiliates of Business members and is a trailing calculation that captures renewals during the period seven to eighteen months before the reporting date.
Management has attributed a slight softening in the U.S. and Canada rate to online sign-ups, which renew at slightly lower rates than people who join in a warehouse. Fiscal 2025 membership fee revenue was $5.3 billion, according to a secondary source, and a base U.S. membership costs $65 with Executive at $130. A business that collects fees from tens of millions of members at renewal rates like these has a stable base to spread new-store costs over.
The Pace Problem
Opening 30 or more warehouses a year is hard to sustain. Each location needs land, permits, utility work and a staff that understands how Costco operates. Relocations, which are part of the 33, help because they replace a crowded older store with a bigger one in the same market, and the company can open them faster than an entirely new market.
What It Means for Members
For anyone with a Costco within a long drive, the most practical effect of new openings is relief on crowding. Existing warehouses that serve large catchment areas get busy, especially around the holidays, and a nearby new store tends to pull traffic away. For people in markets with no warehouse, a new store can mean a fuel station, a food court with a $1.50 hot dog and soda, and access to Kirkland Signature products without a long drive.
Relocations matter too. When Costco moves an existing store, it typically goes to a larger site with more parking and often a gas station, so a relocated warehouse can feel like a new one to the people who shop there.
How to Track a Local Opening
The company hasn't released a full list. The best way to follow a possible local opening is Costco's own warehouse-openings page and local planning or zoning filings, which usually surface before an official announcement. Local news coverage of land purchases and building permits is often the first public sign. Expect more locations to be named over the coming months as fiscal 2027 gets under way, and treat any rumor without a filing or an announcement as unconfirmed.
