Jose Loera celebrated his birthday on Thursday morning, March 30, alongside hundreds of strangers hungry for deals and tubular meat. Clad in a crown, a sash, and a button that reads “Birthday King,” he appears to be the first recipient, Hays County edition, of the most famous and popular food promotion in big box history.
“I was dragged out here by my roommate,” he says. “As soon as he told me that Costco was opening up, I was like, yeah, I need to get a hot dog.”
Jose Loera got his birthday wish, a $1.50 hot dog, on Thursday.
Chris O’Connell/MySA
Loera and his roommate, a Texas State graduate student named Connor Davis, were surprised to see the throngs of people jockeying for shopping carts as the sun rose.
But in speaking with Travis Mitchell, who was one of four speakers to introduce the 160,533-square-foot, $15.1 million Costco to a vibrating mass of Hays County residents, it’s clear that the city was climbing up the walls for a store that sells $1.50 hot dogs and $10,000 golf carts.
“We’ve been talking to Costco for more than 10 years,” Mitchell says.
There is, apparently, a population threshold to cross before Costco considers moving into an area, and Kyle finally hit it. The city has approximately 51,789 residents, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.
There are two Costco locations inside Austin city limits, but Julie Snyder, CEO of the Kyle Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau, after leading a cheer for the new location in Kyle, says that she hears about parking issues at those stores to the north. The Kyle parking lot is sprawling, despite the crowd, and each spot is — you guessed it — ample enough to accommodate the type of vehicle that might be called upon to transport a 72-inch television, a kayak, and a month’s worth of groceries.
Costco employees distributed hundreds of carts in minutes to eager shoppers on Thursday.
Chris O’Connell/MySA
Though the site, at 19086 S. I-35 Frontage Road, was not originally planned for a Costo, Mitchell says that once the company decided to land in Kyle, the city “moved heaven and earth to make it happen.”
“Costco has always been the number one business on the lips of our community,” he says.
That might be an understatement, considering the scene following the ribbon-cutting. Once the metal doors slide up, opening the enormous cube filled with goods, people start elbowing toward the store. But there’s one problem: they’ve put themselves ahead of the carts. That’s a particular issue at Costco, where everything in the big box store is almost comically oversized.
Costco employees become red blurs, repositioning carts into serpentine rows that slither through the crowd, as shoppers desperately grab at each one. People try multiple positions in the line, seeking an advantage at getting inside early. Before long, the carts run out and employees have to bolt out to the lot to wrangle more rows of them.
Kyle Costco’s general manager cuts the ribbon as hundreds of locals press toward the front door.
Chris O’Connell/MySA
Walking through the store, it’s evident that being inside the Costco without one is futile.
There are lifetime-supply sized tubs of M&Ms and almonds, enlarged sets of patio furniture, and enormous Sony boxes that makes one wonder if they secretly made the Playstation 5 bigger just for Costco. The discerning shopper can pick up a motorized scooter or one of a couple of those aforementioned golf carts, though not even the mammoth Costco carts can fit those inside.
Once the fury to get inside subsides, everyone behaves as they throw items into their carts. Outside the store, the sun is up but smothered by clouds. A light drizzle rains down as two locals gab about the spectacle before us.
“Wow,” one says, “we’ve sure come a long way since the first Dollar General.”
Find it: 19086 S. I-35 Frontage Road, Kyle, TX 78640
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