MORE than 270 workers are busy in preparation for Friday’s opening of the much-anticipated Costco Wholesale warehouse in Canberra.

Canberra is the third warehouse for the American retail giant in Australia – which stocks not only the top Australian household brands, including Vegemite, Byron Bay Cookie Company and Carmen’s, but top-quality department store items including a baby grand piano – worth about $2000 and a 40-carat diamond necklace worth more than $100,000.

Despite Majura Park’s unhappy experience with Brand Depot, Costco Wholesale country manager Patrick Noone said Costco offers a different style of retail.

“You come here to shop and buy in bulk and save money,” he said. “We become a very different destination shop.

“Our experience around the world is when we build a Costco, with great transportation links like Canberra has, people will find a way to get here to save money.

“Most of the merchandise we sell is Australian, but we have about 20 to 30 per cent come from the US or Asia which gives us a nice international flavour as well as a national flavour,” he said. “All we are really doing is using a formula that works really well overseas and leveraging some of their international buying power and launching ourselves here and it’s done really well.”

The warehouse will also include fresh food, bakery, butcher, selling quality meats including Wagyu beef and a fish monger selling king crabs and lobster, and a wide selection of liquor and fine wines – thanks to Costco being the largest importer of fine wines in North America.

Other services include an optical centre, hear aids centre, tyre centre and digital photo centre. To access these services, a $60 membership is required.

Costco opened a temporary office eight weeks ago to accept new memberships, and although they won’t reveal the numbers, a spokesperson said they have received an overwhelming response from Canberrans.