Celina got its first Costco on Wednesday, and by the following afternoon the aisles looked like the store had been there for years.
The warehouse at 3445 S. Preston Road, on the corner of Ownsby Parkway, opened Aug. 26. It covers 158,000 square feet and comes with a fuel station, which for a town where the nearest membership warehouse meant a drive south is the more consequential half of the announcement.
What is in it
The Celina warehouse carries the departments a Costco member would expect and a few worth naming: a bakery, fresh produce, fresh meat and fresh fish, a service deli, rotisserie chicken, a pizza kitchen with take-out, beer and wine, home improvement, bedding and lighting.
There is an independent optometrist on site, a T-Mobile kiosk, an ATM, self-checkout and a membership desk. The warehouse number is 1645 and the phone number is (972) 346-6702.
The fuel station is the part likely to change routines fastest. Petrol pricing is one of the few things a warehouse club competes on where the saving is visible at the pump rather than at the till.
What it looked like
Both Halloween and Christmas merchandise were already on the floor during opening week, which is ordinary for Costco in late August and still slightly startling to see side by side in Texas heat. Steel racking ran to the roof, stacked to the do-not-stack line.
The car park and the aisles were busy without being chaotic. Staff were working the fresh cases while shoppers pushed flat carts past pallets of electrolyte drink mix and rice cookers.
Why here
Celina has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country for several years, and its population has moved past 50,000. Retailers of this size do not arrive early. They arrive once the rooftops are already counted, which is why a Costco opening tends to work as a lagging indicator of a town's growth rather than a leading one.