New Costco opens in northwest Omaha on Friday, bringing signature hotdogs, popcorn and cakes

The store wasn’t open yet, but Costco employees were out front signing people up.

Hitchler also got a credit card during his visit to the store, which opens Friday at 8 a.m. after a formal ribbon-cutting.

The store’s location at 180th Street places it closer to his home than the other Omaha-area Costco stores. He’s looking forward to cheaper gas at the Costco pumps and tasty food offerings like the rotisserie chicken.

Costco is a warehouse membership club with diverse product offerings ranging from electronics to clothes, wine, appliances, auto supplies, optical products and grocery items.

The 180th and West Maple store is Costco’s fourth Nebraska location. The other Omaha store is at 12300 West Dodge Road. The others are in the cities of La Vista and Lincoln.

Will Hitchler come back for opening day?

“I might,” he said. “I’ve got some things to get done, first. I bet it’ll be a crazy place. I’ll drive by and see how busy it is.”

Joining him during the store visit was Jamie Bednar, 58, also of Waterloo.

He already has a membership card.

“They’ve got some good popcorn,” Bednar said.

His daughter likes the flavor of the Kirkland store-brand hotdogs, he said.

Also picking up membership cards Thursday were Karen and Rob King of Valley — married 53 years on Wednesday.

Convenience is a factor for them.

Karen King said she doesn’t like driving deep into Omaha.

“I’m better at driving on the fringe of Omaha than in that traffic on Dodge Street,” she said.

As a two-person household, the Kings said they don’t need to buy great quantities of goods for themselves.

But they figure they could stock up on nonperishable items like paper towels.

“We’re both involved in organizations, too, besides our household,” Rob King said. “And it’s an opportunity to purchase some things here that we could use at our church or at the many, many other things that we do.”

The sheet cakes are especially good, Karen King said.

The couple said they’ll likely avoid the opening-day crowds and visit the store in a week or so.

Costco announced Wednesday that, effective Sept. 1, it will increase annual membership fees by $5 for U.S. and Canada Gold Star (individual), Business, and Business add-on members.

With that increase, all U.S. and Canada Gold Star, Business and Business add-on members will pay an annual fee of $65, the company said.

Also, effective Sept. 1, annual fees for Executive Memberships in the U.S. and Canada will increase from $120 to $130.

Costco currently operates 882 warehouses worldwide.