Good and bad news at the Hackensack Costco Wholesale

Teterboro Landing will be an enormous new shopping center across the street from Teterboro Airport. A Costco Wholesale with a gas station and a Walmart will be the anchor stores. The Costco is scheduled to open in November 2015.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale won't be closing its Hackensack warehouse store after a larger Costco with a gasoline station is completed about 3 miles away in Teterboro.

That's the good news. And the bad news?

Members who rely on the Hackensack store for wild-caught fish, organic and non-GMO groceries, clothing and other items no longer will be able to shop there.

The store, which opened in July 1994, is expected to be converted into a Costco business center exclusively for members who buy by the pallet, a store manager said on Monday.

The Teterboro Costco is scheduled to open in November 2015.

The walls of the Walmart store went up in about three weeks, a Teterboro police officer said.

The new Costco will go up in this area.

The main entrance to the shopping center will be via Teterboro Landing Drive, which is about a block from Route 46 and across the street from a busy business airport, below.

Costco v. Walmart

I plan to boycott the new Walmart in Teterboro -- because of its labor policies -- but will go into the store to see if it offers anything to compete with Costco Wholesale's Kirkland Signature store brand and its selection of organic, antibiotic-free and non-GMO food.

I appreciate a bargain as much as any shopper, but don't shop by price alone, which is the main appeal of Walmart.

I am not interested in the gas station the new Costco in Teterboro will have.

My Toyota Prius gets better mileage on Shell than it does on any other brand, including the low-price fuel sold at Wawa.

The Walmart in Teterboro will be 160,000 square feet and the Costco will be 156,000 square feet, compared to 122,000 square feet in Hackensack, according to press reports.

There should be enough room in Teterboro for a wine department offering Costco's Kirkland Signature label, and for wheel alignment, which is missing at the Hackensack Costco tire store. 

Two new items at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, above and below.

A large bottle of cabbage kimchi is a good value, but the label lists "beef bone extract" as one of the ingredients, below.

Missing items

Will a bigger Costco in Teterboro mean the store will not run out of items as much as the Hackensack Costco does?

In April 2013, I bought a 164-foot roll of Kirkland Signature Parchment Paper for $5.99, and when it finished, I could never find it again in Hackensack.

The "genuine vegetable parchment" eliminated the need to use aluminum foil when roasting fish, meat, poultry or salt-free almonds in the oven.

On Monday, I couldn't find any salted fish in the Hackensack warehouse store -- not the Canadian cod we had been buying or the Alaskan pollock we used as a substitute.

I also came up empty when I asked for a 3-pound bag of peeled garlic from the Christopher Ranch in California.

A manager said the store had run out of the refrigerated item, and that there may be a shortage.

I e-mailed the company, but haven't heard anything back, which is typical of Christopher Ranch.