Maine’s first Costco set to open in one week

Costco in Scarborough is scheduled to open next Friday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Soon Mainers who are Costco members will no longer have to drive to New Hampshire or Massachusetts to shop.

Maine’s first Costco is set to open at 8 a.m. next Friday, Nov. 17, just off Payne Road in Scarborough, adjacent to Maine Turnpike Exit 42.

Workers are putting the finishing touches on the 161,000-square-foot warehouse store located at 455 Downs Road. The store’s gas station opened Friday, selling regular unleaded for $3.09 per gallon to members.

In a tent in the parking lot, Costco employees sold memberships to a steady flow of customers anticipating next week’s opening of the discount retail club.

They’ve held over 150 sign-up sessions at businesses, country fairs and polling places around the state in the last two months, said Robyn Harper, Costco’s regional marketing manager. They’ve sold more than 5,500 new memberships in Maine since September, adding to the 8,000 that were already here.

“Unum had us come back five times,” Harper said. “So many of their employees wanted memberships.”

Brian and Donna Gordon of Scarborough were among the new members who signed up Friday outside the store.

“We have friends in Florida who absolute swear by Costco,” Brian Gordon said. “We went with them when we were visiting and it was everything they said it was. We’re going to check out everything when they open here.”

The Scarborough store will have special hours Nov. 17 from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. After that it will be open Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Based in Issaquah, Washington, Costco Wholesale Corp. is a multinational corporation that operates over 860 member-only, big-box retail club stores worldwide, according to the company website. It has 127 million card holders, 71 million member households and 310,000 full- and part-time employees.

Although it was unknown how many people would be employed at the Scarborough location, other Costcos had lent as many as 200 workers to get the new Maine store up and running, Harper said.

In addition to selling groceries in bulk sizes at discount prices, Costco carries clothing, toys, electronics, computers, furniture, appliances, yard equipment and other household goods.

Like most Costco warehouses, the Scarborough store includes a food court, gas station, tire service center, pharmacy, and optical and hearing aid departments, according to the company website. The store was approved by Scarborough officials in August 2022 after the developer and town reached agreement on certain conditions.

Costco occupies one of the premier spots in the ongoing redevelopment of the 525-acre Scarborough Downs, a former harness racing facility that sold the property in 2018 and closed in 2020.

The developers of The Downs have already completed over $178 million of $621 million in planned commercial, light industrial and residential projects that stretch from Payne Road to Route 1. They broke ground on a planned town center last month.

Costco will be the third major supermarket operating in Scarborough after Hannaford opened a second store in a former Shaw’s Supermarket building at 417 Payne Road in October. Hannaford already had a store about 2 miles away in Scarborough’s Oak Hill area and another about 2 miles away at the Maine Mall in South Portland.

Costco offers gold star, executive and business memberships ranging from $60 to $120 per year, with special $30 digital memberships available to new members who choose automatic renewal.