Who: Costco
What: Has its largest warehouse in Salt Lake City
Where: 1818 S. 300 W.
When: Opened in 1995, received big remodel and expansion in 2015
Why: The location is a hybrid business center / consumer warehouse. The company wasn’t sure if SLC would support just a business center. So they combined the two into one mega store.

Salt Lake City, your Costco is so big…
“How big is it?” you appropriately ask.
235,000 square feet. Seriously. The average is about 148,000 square feet. – 50% smaller.
I didn’t wear a pedometer, but I’m guessing it was about 48 miles from my parked car to the front door. After noting that I parked in Mickey 3, I began my epic quest. (Not really, but still.)
Perhaps I haven’t been around enough, but this was my first experience with a card scanner at the Costco entrance. When I crossed the threshold and saw the store laid out before me, I gaped like a mole person emerging into New York City. I like Costco. I visit them often. I’ve never wondered if I needed a map or if the samples are to keep people from starving before they can leave.
This was how Bay found me. Thank you, Bay, for being my fearless guide on this epic journey. Or, at least, pointing me in the right direction and being a good sport about taking a photo. In fact, all the employees were super friendly and helpful.
There’s so much to see, so many aisles, so much stuff that isn’t sold in other warehouses. In addition to Costco’s usual offerings, there’s the business center with items like vending machines, refrigerators, boxes of folding chairs. It even has a tobacco cage. And although it wasn’t in the business center, there were pallets of Wendy’s chili. (It seems very possible that Wendy’s goes to Costco to stock up on their own chili.) Also, a meat case with their customary beef slabs and bags of chicken, but also goat cubes and entire lambs for roasting. An enormous walk-in refrigerator for the dairy section with five-pound blocks of cheese and quail eggs. More varieties of cases of water than I’ve ever seen in one place. A wall of nothing but mattresses. A hypnotizing alcove of rotating rotisserie chickens.
Bay told me it takes people about 30 minutes to 1 hour longer to get through this warehouse compared to others. In my case, it was more like 2 hours for the touristy picture deal and actual shopping.
But here’s the best part. No matter how big this Costco is, no matter what dynamic shifts there are in the world and reality itself: There are still $1.50 Costco hot dogs waiting at the end. Thank you, universe.
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