Costco Shoppers In Japan Waited 5 Hours To Get Into The New Okinawa Location

The southern Japanese island of Okinawa has been looking forward to opening day of a local Costco for a while now, and the wait is finally over as of August 24, 2024. The grand opening was met with a surprisingly robust reception. According to a Reddit post, the line to get inside the 14,000-square-meter store covered a huge portion of the parking lot as hundreds of people started patiently lining up outside before the sun had yet risen.

Possibly due to just how large the crowd had become, the Costco in Okinawa's Nanjo City opened about three hours earlier than anticipated — sometime around 7 a.m. instead of 10 a.m.. Unfortunately, that didn't make the wait go any faster, as some people found themselves waiting a full five hours in line before they could finally get inside. Whether they were looking to enjoy Costco Japan's unique food court or stock up on Costco's delicious frozen dim sum, the new store must be pleased to see just how well received it's already been. 

Alongside Costco's baseline offering of wholesale discounts on groceries and household goods, the Okinawa location will offer a pharmacy and gas station. It will be interesting to see how the arrival of this international grocery chain will affect local Okinawa businesses, but if the community's willingness to show up before dawn and wait for hours to get inside indicates anything, it's that there is a welcoming consumer market in the area looking to cash in on the brand's unique discount offerings.

Costco is an American corporation that went global shortly after its debut in Seattle, Washington, in 1983. The first international store location opened near Vancouver, Canada, in 1985, just two years after the first Costco was established. Japan is Costco's third largest market outside of the U.S., with the Okinawa location bringing the current total up to 35 different locations throughout the country. Canada is Costco's first largest international market and Mexico is its second largest.

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down Costco's pace as the company continued to expand into new territory. On average, the wholesale chain opens 23 new locations every year, and plans on increasing that number in the short term have resumed as the economic and logistical uncertainty surrounding the pandemic have largely subsided. The new Nanjo City location will provide hundreds of jobs to local residents with many of those positions being full-time employment. 

If opening day is anything to go by, the store is going to need all the help it can get to handle the high demand. The seemingly constant crowds that flock to Costco stores worldwide have become something of a meme, but that just means the retailer brand is offering prices and goods that many people desire. If the lines continue to form before the store opens at 10 a.m., maybe the Okinawa location will start handing out free pastries before doors open like Costco China.