Just in time for Thanksgiving shopping and the holiday retail crush that will inevitably follow, the Lehigh Valley’s first Costco warehouse store will open Friday, Nov. 18 at 8 a.m., the company officially announced in a news release Tuesday.
The 148,000-square-foot warehouse will be located at 791 N. Krocks Road, in the sprawling Hamilton Crossings shopping center just off Rt. 222 in Lower Macungie Township.
It will join other shopping center tenants that include the recently-opened, first-in-the-Lehigh-Valley Whole Foods as well as Target, Dick’s and Nordstrom Rack.
“We are thrilled to be bringing Costco’s low warehouse prices to the residents of the Lehigh Valley,” said Warehouse Manager Seth Friedman in a news release about the opening. “They have been asking us to open here for a long time, and we already have made an impact on the local job market. We look forward to contributing to the community in many ways.”
The new Costco location will feature specialty departments including a gas station, bakery, meat department, produce department, deli (with rotisserie chicken), optical department, pharmacy, tire center, hearing aid center and food court.
There will also be a special order kiosk, and an auto buying program as well as executive membership will be available.
Executive membership is $110 per year (plus tax) and includes an annual 2 percent reward on qualified Costco purchases along with other benefits, according to the Costco website. Regular memberships–business or Gold Star–are $55 per year.
The new store’s hours will be:
Costco said the Lower Macungie (Allentown) store will be its 11th warehouse in Pennsylvania, 506th in the U.S. and 723rd worldwide.
Until the opening of the Allentown store residents of the Lehigh Valley had to drive about 30 miles to Sanatoga or 35 miles to Montgomeryville to shop at a Costco.
Costco–which has a devoted following, especially compared to other warehouse members-only stores–is headquartered in Issaquah, Wash.
The new store’s phone number is 484-273-7056.
