I went last night around 7:30 pm, still a lot of vehicles arriving into the area. As I turned onto Aurora Blvd from Victoria Ave., the end-of-the-day, mass exodus had begun as I noticed a long stream of vehicles heading north, to line up for the traffic light intending to turn left onto Victoria Ave.
Although I found parking for my vehicle quite easily among the exodus of shoppers, vacant parking spaces were still sparse and scattered throughout the parking lot, and vehicles were still parked on the streets.
Inside the store, there is definitely more space, the old location often had centre section aisles that would barely fit 2 shopping carts abreast. The new location has significantly more aisle space than the old.
Cashier lanes are set further away from the first aisle of shelvings, so there is almost no congestion along that aisle when approaching the line-ups to pay, even during the busy, end-of-day exodus. (Although I hear it was way busier in there earlier that day, possibly negating my observations!)
The eating area seems less crowded, with more tables, and with new items on the menu at the food counter (chicken wings!). And there is also ample space buffering the area between the cashier lanes and eating area which lessens shoppers' through and egress traffic congestion.
Interior store layout is more in-line with Costco's in other cities (Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Billings, MO, Seattle, WA).
On the way out (just past 8 pm), I was looking for alternate road exits (like
openstreetmap.org shows from Anaquod Rd into the Greens on Gardiner neighbourhood), but it seems Aurora Blvd is the only way in and out for now. From the
Aurora website planning layout, it looks like Haughton Road, Arens Road E. and Buckingham Drive will eventually connect east-west to Anaquod Rd and beyond (Arens Road E.), while Chuka Blvd and Aurora Blvd will extend north-south to connect Aurora with the southeast neighbourhood.
Upon exiting via Aurora Blvd north-bound, I noticed 2 left-turn lanes to go west-bound onto Victoria Ave., but I turned right from the single turn lane to head east toward Tower Rd and the new east Bypass to get back to Arcola Ave. (convenient for me) to get back home. I'm not sure if I noticed traffic lights at Tower Rd and Victoria Ave. for traffic exiting the north-bound Bypass, intending to head west onto Victoria Ave. Please correct me if I'm wrong. East Bypass to Victoria Ave. may be more convenient for me (and family) if I need to get there from home, until they finally build and connect the neighbourhood roads. I may head back that way to explore the area again later today.
Prev
Linear Mode
