Discount retailer Costco Wholesale is making greater inroads into the Washington area with plans for a new store on a 12-acre tract in Alexandria, one of three locations in the works in the region.
Costco stands to gain grocery market share, albeit marginal, at a time when traditional players, like Food Lion and Superfresh, struggle to compete in a changing industry. Drug stores and big-box chains are muscling in on supermarkets with a wider selection of groceries. Value-oriented merchants, such as Costco, still hold a profitable stake in the industry and are finding room for growth.
Compared to Wal-Mart, which is opening more than a dozen new stores in the Washington area, Costco’s local expansion might seem minor. But given the sheer size of a Costco, at an average 148,000 square feet, and some of the locations, the growth is significant.
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