Monday, October 29, 2012

Costco Opens Store in Spanish Fork

People from across southern Utah County gathered in the dark, cold and snow to be part of the ribbon cutting for Spanish Fork's newest business and to have the chance to be some of the first customers inside the newest Costco store.

Costco Wholesale Corporation is the fifth-largest retailer in the United States and the largest membership warehouse club chain. Costco focuses on selling high-volume products for a low price. Most goods are bulk-packaged and marketed to large families and businesses. Costco doesn't carry multiple brands or varieties, which allows for a high volume of sales from a single vendor and further price reductions and low marketing costs.

To bring Costco to town, Spanish Fork offered the wholesale giant incentives totaling millions of dollars. Incentives include paying the store's utilities for four years, giving the store sales tax rebates for the first 18 months, waiving all city-related building, impact and connection fees and reimbursing the company $225,000 for the grading and fill work done by the city and paid by Costco. Costco's end of the agreement including building, opening and operating a store in Spanish Fork. Costco opened its doors after little less than a year of work to prepare the area.

Spanish Fork city believes that the incentives given to Costco will pay off. The city conducted a study that determined that incentive costs will be recovered in sales tax within three years from when Costco opens its doors. Daily Herald