{"id":328471,"date":"2026-05-22T22:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/328471\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T22:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:36:10","slug":"americas-first-stand-alone-costco-gas-station-lands-in-calif-suburb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/328471\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s first stand-alone Costco gas station lands in Calif. suburb"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to corporate innovation,\u00a0Costco keeps betting on California<\/a>. The company has a long history in the state, particularly in Southern California, where the first Price Club (which would go on to become Costco) opened in 1976. In the decades since, Costco has used California\u2019s size and massive population to pilot big new ideas, including a first-of-its-kind housing model<\/a> currently in the works in south Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Next up: a stand-alone gas station, with room for 40 cars at a time.<\/p>\n

In June<\/a>, Costco is expected to debut its first gas station that\u2019s not attached to any current or forthcoming retail warehouse. The project, landing right off Interstate 5 in Orange County<\/a>\u2019s Mission Viejo, is no small feat, either. With a more than 17,000-square-foot<\/a> gas canopy and a trio of 40,000-gallon storage tanks, the membership-only place is planned to be seriously high-capacity when it opens, and should undoubtedly give other area gas stations a run for their money.<\/p>\n

The closest actual Costco warehouse location to the Mission Viejo site, which also comes with its own gas station<\/a>, is 2.5 miles away in nearby Laguna Niguel.<\/p>\n

Costco\u2019s new stand-alone gas station is a big move for the ever-popular brand, for a variety of reasons. First, Costco\u2019s less-expensive gas has frequently been seen as something close to a loss leader for the company. Selling cheaper oil \u2014 especially in a global crisis \u2014 makes more folks want to sign up for a membership, which itself is incredibly valuable for the business. In 2023, Costco earned $4.5 billion<\/a> just off membership fee revenue.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Costco\u2019s new gas-only side business is good for brand recognition. With a smaller (but still giant) footprint, Costco gas stations can go into locations and communities that otherwise could or would not allow a full-scale warehouse, thus driving even more people toward the brand.<\/p>\n

While this forthcoming location is Costco\u2019s first foray into a gas station-only model, it\u2019s worth noting that California does have a couple of other similar-ish setups already. In Seaside, just north of Monterey, Costco\u2019s warehouse-adjacent gas station isn\u2019t actually on the same property, but is instead one street and an old set of train tracks away. It\u2019s also technically in a different city (Seaside) than the warehouse<\/a> (Sand City), though operationally they work together.<\/p>\n

And this month, a Costco gas station debuted in Ventura County\u2019s Camarillo<\/a>. While the station is currently a stand-alone, that\u2019s only because the warehouse itself has yet to be built. The store is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Historically, cheap and easily accessible gas has made existing members more likely to swing by for a fill-up … and a few other items, of course. Just like\u00a0the $1.50 hot dog combo<\/a>, sometimes just getting people to the property is half the battle.<\/p>\n

At the Mission Viejo site at 25732 El Paseo, slated to open in June, Costco is betting that some customers don\u2019t need the warehouse at all in order to be happy with their membership, as long as the gas is cheap enough. It\u2019s a calculated move, and one that Costco is ready to embrace wholesale; there\u2019s already a second gas station-only\u00a0Costco in the works in Honolulu<\/a>, with a planned debut in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to corporate innovation,\u00a0Costco keeps betting on California. The company has a long history in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2008,1228],"class_list":["post-328471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-sfgla","tag-sfgtravel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}