Costco In Madison (Huntsville, Athens, Scottsboro: sale, high crime, home)

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by GreggT

Please explain the difference, with a tax, it works exactly the same. If one does not want to pay Tennessee sales tax, they can go to Georgia. When I go into Walmart, Walmart charges me the tax, not the government!

Walmart collects the tax, but they collect it for the city/county/state. They would not be allowed to be in business otherwise.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by cooldiver

Too late to edit the above post, so adding a new post (sorry).


That leaves it as most likely a Costco, the question being whether it will be a second warehouse or if the existing warehouse will close. The existing warehouse is in an area that is not doing so well. I can see it closing.

Hopefully we see something official soon!

There is no way that Costco will close their existing location for two reasons:

1. According to the Madison County Tax Assessor's Office website, Costco owns their store located near the N. Memorial Parkway and University Dr. intersection. Who would they sell the building to?
2. Costco would lose a large portion of their existing customer base - Do you think that customers living in far south Huntsville (especially Green Mountain) and Hampton Cove will traverse all the way out University to Clift Farms?

The Home Depot in the same shopping center does a good business attracting residents of some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Madison County - Twickenham, Blossomwood, and Jones Valley. So, the retailers in this shopping center are well positioned to the customers they want to reach. That Home Depot has the biggest appliance selection of their three stores in Madison County.

On the other hand, Costco has to consider that if they don't build a location in the Madison area, they will lose a significant portion to the new BJ's in Town Madison. Costco will now be well positioned to get the business of the Harvest/Monrovia, Madison, East Limestone and even Athens. with the Clift Farms store.

[dwhisent]

Originally Posted by cooldiver

I looked and could not find it. Can you please post the link? TIA.

edit: if you are referring to this permit modification it merely confirms something large is being built (which we already know), but does not mention Costco specifically.

https://lf.adem.alabama.gov/WebLink/...5227282&dbid=0

A guy on another platform noticed this, and I tried it, and sure enough...

If you search for Costco in the document, it finds 2, and highlights the word PROJECT in the title block. If you then highlight and copy the title block into a text document, you find COSTCO WAREHOUSE.

[johnsonkk]

Costco couldn’t pay enough to have this much interest on CD. Buc-eyes is taking notice.

For us, Clift farms is equal distance so literally, whichever one has the least taxes….

[Rick In Madison]

How is the Clift Farms "fee"/"tax" any different than a royalty payment based on merchant sales? In this case the merchants are assessing the fee/tax on receipt of gross sales and making the public aware of the fee.

This could have been hidden and merchants could choose to increase their cost to the public by 3% or just absorb it. Either way, the fee would be paid to the collector/franchise/Breland.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by David1502

There is no way that Costco will close their existing location for two reasons:

1. According to the Madison County Tax Assessor's Office website, Costco owns their store located near the N. Memorial Parkway and University Dr. intersection. Who would they sell the building to?
2. Costco would lose a large portion of their existing customer base - Do you think that customers living in far south Huntsville (especially Green Mountain) and Hampton Cove will traverse all the way out University to Clift Farms?

The Home Depot in the same shopping center does a good business attracting residents of some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Madison County - Twickenham, Blossomwood, and Jones Valley. So, the retailers in this shopping center are well positioned to the customers they want to reach. That Home Depot has the biggest appliance selection of their three stores in Madison County.

On the other hand, Costco has to consider that if they don't build a location in the Madison area, they will lose a significant portion to the new BJ's in Town Madison. Costco will now be well positioned to get the business of the Harvest/Monrovia, Madison, East Limestone and even Athens. with the Clift Farms store.

Don't know if they'll keep the existing location open or not, but if they do I'll continue to use it. From Edgewater, it's a simple drive on Zierdt to Madison Blvd, then freeway essentially to the store.

To go to the new location means going up Hughes with all the traffic signals and schools, then turning west on 72 with more signals. Much easier to use the Huntsville store. Lots of $$ on the west side of town though so maybe a good choice of location even though it's not so convenient for Decaturites. Athens and East Limestone are growing rapidly, and could possibly surpass Decatur in a few years, and Limestone County will likely pass Morgan County in population in the next two or three years if the metro growth rate continues.

[btcaub]

BJs will fill that demand for East Limestone and Decatur.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by cooldiver

That leaves it as most likely a Costco, the question being whether it will be a second warehouse or if the existing warehouse will close. The existing warehouse is in an area that is not doing so well. I can see it closing.

Have you ever been to that Costco? It is slammed out the door almost every day, all day long. So is the Home Depot next door. That Costco is so busy, many of us including myself do not go there very often anymore. I usually go to the Sams you mentioned close to Mid City. It is also busy but a little more manageable than the Costco. There is zero chance either of those stores will be closed. If they are in fact going to build a Costco on 72, it will be an additional store. It would not make any sense for them to open one there and close the one on Memorial Parkway because the one on 72 would be incredibly inconvenient for most of their shoppers at the current location. They need another one to relieve the pressure on the current one on the Parkway.

[cooldiver]

Originally Posted by dijkstra

Have you ever been to that Costco? It is slammed out the door almost every day, all day long. So is the Home Depot next door. That Costco is so busy, many of us including myself do not go there very often anymore. I usually go to the Sams you mentioned close to Mid City. It is also busy but a little more manageable than the Costco. There is zero chance either of those stores will be closed. If they are in fact going to build a Costco on 72, it will be an additional store. It would not make any sense for them to open one there and close the one on Memorial Parkway because the one on 72 would be incredibly inconvenient for most of their shoppers at the current location. They need another one to relieve the pressure on the current one on the Parkway.

Yes I have been there many times. Also I have been to Costco locations in other states which will be super busy with all of their checkout lanes running.

How often do you see all of the checkout lanes open at this location?

I'm not the only one to observe that it's not slammed 24x7:

Originally Posted by Rick In Madison

During the week, I think the crowd at Costco is reasonable with the exception of the retirement community who insist on stopping at each sample station and prevent those with work to do get their shopping done so they can get back to work....



Weekends.... avoid Costco and about all routes along HWY 72.

And it is absolutely a declining area. I have been panhandled twice in that parking lot. But I imagine somebody will argue with me and insist that it never happened.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by cooldiver

Yes I have been there many times. Also I have been to Costco locations in other states which will be super busy with all of their checkout lanes running.

How often do you see all of the checkout lanes open at this location?

I'm not the only one to observe that it's not slammed 24x7:



And it is absolutely a declining area. I have been panhandled twice in that parking lot. But I imagine somebody will argue with me and insist that it never happened.

You must go at odd times. The parking lot is often completely or almost completely full. I have seen lines extending back into the isles of merchandise many times. Like I said, it is so busy that I do not go in Costco very often anymore. I do go to the Home Depot and Zaxby's next to it and see how packed the parking lot is often though.

I just have to completely disagree with you. I am in that area quite often and I don't know where you get the perception that it is a declining area. It would be hard to find a better place to have a store. The corner of the parkway and university drive and just down the road from the I565 intersection. The traffic count is outstanding at that location. The newer Madison County building is just up the parkway and the new Huntsville City Schools complex is now under construction not far from there on the parkway. The entire area is going through an upswing.

As for the panhandling/bums in those parking lots, that has been going on there for literally decades all the way back to before Home Depot and Costco were even built and there was a mall there. It is because it is such a busy parking lot, they have a better chance at collecting money quickly. There are no more and no less bums in that parking lot than there was in the 90's.