Opinion on Costco and 301
 

Ok, my opinion looks like customers will be coming from all directions in central Florida to Costco’s off CR 446 and 301? Probably as far north as Gainesville or beyond?

301 already nightmare with bottle neck from CR42 to Summerfield. CR 42, CR 466, CR 484, and 30l all directions will be impacted. 466 and 301 intersections IMO can’t hardly handle traffic now due to turning lanes too short and not 2 lanes to turn north, south, and east on 301. This backs up traffic pass stop light at railroad tracks by Walmart. Not to mention when trains come? Also good luck getting through intersections in front Costco on side streets?

Also IMO the bottle neck after summerfield south should have been 4 lanes 10 years ago. Looks like they are working on bottleneck ( think they will be done before Costco’s opens? :)

It will be interesting for sure how many Costco members will lose their lives
coming and going to shop before someone from the highway planning
commission stands up and admits this was a big mistake to permit Costco here.

God help us all.

I'm gonna stick with Sam's club a while longer. Y'all have fun.

Apparently not many drive to Clearmont Costco. 80mph down TP, then 8 lanes of stop go on Hwy 50. Then the bonus of either returning to TV on 27 with stop lights, or TP and the 30-60 minute backup because of construction. As executive member I will be buy fuel, then shopping an hour before open to the regular members.

My wife shops at the Clermont Costco frequently. If the new Costco is crowded she will probably just keep going to Clermont. It is fairly convenient from the southern sections, particularly if you are headed to Orlando anyway for another reason, which we frequently are.

Excellent !!!!!! I hope everyone shops at Costco. Drive up the stock price even further. Costco stock is a gold mine.

A bit dramatic, don’t you think?

I do wonder what they were thinking. It seems like it would have made more sense to put it on 44 somewhere, which would catch both the turnpike and I-75 traffic. A highway makes much more sense than in TV. 466 will be a nightmare with all the out of town traffic it will bring.

Oh I don’t think there was any thinking put in place for the location of Costco. It will be chaotic!!

Apparently Costco and the developer have been in negotiations for locations in near and around The Villages for more than 3-7 years.

We are extremely happy for Costco to be built at this location. Big reason Not in our back door, but within 10 minutes. So blissfully we are still in the lack of retail traffic for hopefully many years to come. Will there be more traffic, yes. Will it draw customers away from Walmart, HL, Homegoods, probably not. The restaurants should see an uptick in customers. The only downside I see, is Fresh market. Costco meat prices may hurt them.
Costco would never build at a site that wouldn’t draw customers from 6am fuel station opening to shoppers at 9-10am. (Depending on site hours and membership status). Pretty sure traffic flow in-depth studies were done for years to maximize, customer base from outside the bubble.
Bonus Costco won’t have offer $25 memberships for new customers. So for a month or so most customers could be long standing Costco patrons, who will drive up to an hour to shop.
We have been Costco Business Members over 20 years, along with Sam’s. We didn’t renew Sam’s this year, and had a brief 3 month free with BJ’s.

Costco home delivery, along with Amazon, Kroger, Walmart+, takes care of 90% of our retail needs. We only fuel up very 30-45 days so one stop shop very early or just before closing. We will still shop Clearmont on our return from the parks, or want better dining options.

^ This 100%.

Ya think?!!! It’s funny when businesses open how many people think they’re road engineers and county commissioners.

topspinmo....where is 446? did you mean 466? not near 301 either

I can’t wait.

Amen