From the chaos at a UK Costco store, you’d be forgiven for mistaking a weekend in September for Christmas Eve.
There were huge queues at tills and in the car park of the Trafford Park wholesale warehouse in Manchester on Sunday afternoon (September 17).
One shopper described the shopping experience as being like “Christmas Eve an hour before the shops close”, making them leave without buying anything due to the wait times.
Costco is a popular wholesale retailer with 29 stores across the UK. Shoppers must be paid members to enter the store and make purchases.
As of 2022, it is the fifth largest retailer in the world and, as of 2016, is the world’s largest retailer of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken and wine.
George Icke got into Costco with friends at around 2pm after waiting for a space in the “rammed” car park for 20 minutes.
“I’ve never seen it so bad,” he said. “It was like Christmas Eve an hour before the shops close.
“The guy at the entrance said he thought something was being sold on the cheap but wasn’t sure what it was.
“It took us over 20 minutes to even get parked and by the time we went in and saw the queue, we decided to just go home. It was actually insane.”
Pictures taken inside the store showed huge queues of people with full trolleys waiting to pay at the tills.
This is not the first time that there has been chaos at a Costco, with drivers queuing up to half an hour for the retailer’s cheaper petrol in July of this year.
Costco was approached for comment by Manchester Evening News.
