On Friday morning, Sajjad Dilnawaz and his partner Marsha Vallecillo decided to skip their usual pre-weekend activities to wait in line with thousands of Bay Area residents and witness a spectacle 15 years in the making: the debut of the new Costco store in Vallejo.
They arrived at 6:30 a.m. at the new warehouse on Admiral Callaghan Lane, directly across from Highway 80, hoping to snag a two-day Disneyland Park Hopper deal — with Lightning Lane pass and food credit — one of several limited offers for the grand opening. But they were also there to capture a feeling.
“It’s nostalgia, I guess,” Dilnawaz of Vallejo told SFGATE. “I used to do this with my brothers for Black Friday when I was younger. It’s more for the rush. Just getting up, meeting people and being able to be a part of it.”
That camaraderie was palpable on the other side of the entrance, too, where a separate line for those purchasing liquor formed as early as Wednesday night and stretched around the big-box store. “I have no clue what they’ve got, but they usually get some really nice small-production bourbons and whiskeys,” said Kevin Foy of Benicia, inching his cart forward as he and fellow connoisseurs deliberated on what brands might lurk inside.
At 7:30 a.m., a swarm of onlookers busted out their iPhones to take video of general manager Ernesto Viera as he thanked the city of Vallejo and developer Lewis Retail Centers for their roles in bringing the lengthy Fairview Plaza project to fruition. Off-site construction involved widening a frontage road from two to four lanes and adding a traffic light. Costco closed the original Vallejo location, which was about a mile away and had been open since 1989.
Costco had been looking to relocate its Vallejo store since 2011, but those years of traffic and inconvenience seemed to melt away when Viera stepped aside and invited members into the new store for the very first time. As the assembled, Costco fans shouted “Woooooo!” and began filing in from both sides, all while an alert security guard dug in his heels and assumed a semi-squat position, ready to catch anyone trying to slip through the front.
Once inside, customers clamored for Costco teddy bears that held hot dogs, discounted Hoka sneakers and Birkenstock slippers, and Gucci Eau de Parfum for $59.99 ($140 at Sephora). But it was that selection of one-per-membership bourbons that caused the biggest stir, with an in-store line that stretched all the way back to the entrance. Adryan Tapia and Samantha Mercado grabbed what they could from among the bottles of Rock Hill Farms, Elmer T. Lee and Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, which fetched $195.
“Celebrations — soon,” Mercado replied when asked if there was an occasion for the high-end booze. “Maybe a wedding,” Tapia added.
The Admiral Callaghan Costco is about 20,000 square feet larger than the original Vallejo Costco and features nearly twice as many gas pumps, plus more parking spots, according to the San Francisco Chronicle . It also offers electric vehicle charging stations, a fairly rare Costco amenity that until now had only been available at four Bay Area locations — Napa, Hayward, Pleasanton and San Francisco. Like most Costcos, this big-box store location also includes a pharmacy, optical department, hearing aid center, tire services and a food court.
Among the other over-crowded areas of the warehouse on this opening day: a large seafood station situated near the meat department, where customers got their hands on plump scallops from Hokkaido, Japan, prized for their size and sweetness, and whole Dungeness crab brought in from Washington state. (California’s commercial crab season has been delayed until January.)
In the clothing section, people filled their carts with discounted North Face hoodies and San Francisco 49ers satin jackets, as well as cozy Barefoot Dreams women’s cardigans for $75 ($125 at Nordstrom).
The wholesale retailer first began looking to relocate its Vallejo store 15 years ago, according to the Vallejo Times-Herald . Costco submitted initial plans for the Fairview Plaza site in 2017. Two years later, the city published the first master plan for the area. In 2020, Safeway, which operated a store near the site, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the construction of the new retail warehouse, arguing that the city’s environmental review failed to evaluate potential impacts from traffic and energy use.
After a judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2022, the city of Vallejo and the developer settled with Safeway . The developer broke ground on the shopping center in 2024 and on Costco specifically in 2025. When complete, Fairview Plaza is expected to feature a Raising Cane’s restaurant, a Wells Fargo Bank, an office of NorthBay Health, a public park and around 200 residential units .
For now though, locals just seemed excited to peruse their new-and-improved Costco, which still had a line at 9:30 a.m., albeit a short one, and to learn the layout for next time. Doug Ramo was looking for deals on cognac, Napa cabernet and white Burgundy before getting on with his Friday.
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