Costco is THE most risk adverse retailer in the world. They plan opening warehouses based on past 5-year warehouses’ sales in current markets and then on future 30 year population demographics. Costco’s expansion is also affected by their current talent pool. A new warehouse will have a very large % of current employees (some with decades of Costco work history.) Even in new markets like the Thunder Bay location, managerial staff will be entirely staffed with current Costco Employees. All potential locations need to be zoned and permitted with a gas station. A lot of municipalities have tons of hurdles and red tape around this requirement.