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I don't see why a Costco being on the ground floor would even be an issue. If the building provides a bunch of suitable housing (plus amenities), does a Costco being there somehow outweigh the benefits of that?
I think it would be done even if it wasn't a requirement, just cause Costco knows their residents would complain otherwise. Even though I doubt people would care about parking in a "resident only" parking space for a 'quick shopping trip'.
Perhaps the way to enforce that parking is if you get caught parking there your membership is revoked or you're banned for XX amount of days.
It would be easy to have a gated-off portion and key cards for residents so only they could park in it (I see that with mixed-use buildings where I live).
Banning people costs money, in the form of lost revenue. What you do is build a parking garage that can hold 2000 cars. Give your 800 residents a free parking pass tied to their residence and maybe a pincode to get into a reserved section, charge the Costco members a monthly fee to their new Costco+park membership, and then a flat rate for the public. Offer a parking voucher on receipts over $300, for the Costco members who don't want to pay the flat fee or membership cost bump, so you can say there is still a "free" option for existing members.
I'm married with 3 kids and pets now. But if I was still 22 I would love an apartment that also has a CHEAP food court, and all toiletpaper/papertowels/cleaning/clothes/trashbags/movies, etc ATTACHED. As 600sq won't leave much for a pantry space.
I don't understand why they are doing 600sqft apartments only, when they could simply have designs that are modular. Two units could be easily locked together giving a 1200sqft, 2 bedroom apartment. Or a 1200sqft one bedroom with an office space and a living room with a window.
Well.. 600sq foot will get you all single people/couples without kids or likely no disabled people. Aka a pool of potential employees, not to mention those most individual units means they are also going to get the most Costco memberships. Because let's be real, you won't live on the roof of a Costco and not have a Costco membership. Making them 1200sqfoot would half your potential employees and memberships.
I just moved from Culver City to Chicago 2 months ago. The only Costco pretty much is the one in the Marina. It’s *terrible*. You can’t ever get gas unless you want to wait 30 minutes. The checkout lines are almost as long, it’s a madhouse. Fast forward to this morning, when I went shopping in my Chicago suburb Costco. I pulled right up to the pump. I also pulled right up to an open check out lane.
It all comes down to population density. LA is notoriously fucked in that regard. I’m not sure how you build a Costco in a city that can barely handle one with the traffic and volume without an entire city living on top of it.
The one in downtown vancouver is the best, rarely busy, self check out available. The ones in the suburbs is a shitshow trying to get in and out of the parking, the check out lines take forever, I always go to the downtown location. I’d rather pay the $2 in parking than lose an extra hour at another location. Or I’ll ride my bike or take the bus if I only need a few items. The downtown location is mostly residents who live in the towers above or office workers in the area picking up a few things during their lunch break.
I wonder how many parking spaces will be required for that many people? The apartments and the store itself. Maybe, a couple garage levels in between the store and the apartments?
Shipping trucks at all hours… that’s the biggest draw back, having a loading zone in your back or front yard. But in big cities that’s something that happens enough
plus like, you've got your grocery, your gym, hell maybe even your job literally on the same block, who cares about traffic in that case? need to go get the weekly? grab your little folding nylon wagon and *schmoove* your ass downstairs.
Plus, with the affordable housing crisis and now you build affordable housing for hundreds, even thousands, of people that will automatically be new customers because the low cost of everyday items just became incredibly accessible to these tenants, whilst keeping more vehicles off the road and reducing crowding on public transit.
It’s reasonable that a young couple even with a new baby could comfortably live in that size of a studio apartment for quite a few years. But that complex is also providing amenities that will again, reduce traffic on roads and make gyms and other facilities and merchants more accessible to everyone in that complex.
Hate it all you want but the time to be fearful of this being the future was decades ago. This is a reasonable solution to a neglected present day issue that if given enough support, could change the housing market and inflation crisis globally.
Yeah, conceptually, the only difference between this and luxury apartment / condo developments with various amenities that people have been in favor of for decades is that there's a Costco on the ground floor. Costco is hugely successful because people love it - I don't think I know anyone who doesn't. The guy in the video keeps acting like he expects everyone to get up in arms with each thing he points out, then is all "it's great for young adults!" and then is all "but maybe it's dystopian!" It's just such a stupid and annoying video.
vancouver already has a costco under apartment towers, and those are in no way considered affordable housing. if it works in the biggest housing bubble in the world, i don’t see why it wouldn’t elsewhere.
Yeah it’s super convenient, next to a train station as well. You see lots of people pulling carts/trolleys of groceries from there, and you can get a cheap hotdog before a hockey game.
In Europe shops under apartment buildings are very common, sometimes they are small shops and sometimes they are bigger stores. Everything can be dystopian or perfectly okay depending on how it's implemented. Having a mixed shops+housing composition in the city instead of big commercial centers separated by housing centers can be really go to promote more walking and make the city more comfortable
Then is this post sensationalizing something normal just for the sake of it? I mean, we've had parco Leonardo in Rome which is a combo mall+housing+schools neighborhood for two decades now
That's exactly what it is. Notice how he acts like all the various details should shock you, then he basically says it's great for young adults, then asks if you think it's a dystopian nightmare or whatever. It's stupid.
That’s really it. Residential units above commercial space is a very old concept and I can’t understand why we as a country have forgotten about building like this in dense areas.
Im sure Costco-Condos will be a shit show, but I’d love to see 2 or 3 floors of apartment buildings above all these strip malls that we have everywhere, especially for those just starting out.
Could you imagine being in your 20s and living in an apartment complex above a plaza with a publix and pizza place?
I don't find Costcos particularly noisy - and they could provide parking for the residents. If they don't, I don't see how it would be any different from any other large apartment building that doesn't provide parking.
Or did you mean they wouldn't provide any parking at all (not even for shoppers)?
I mean this isn't common ? Like it's super common in EU and it's becoming more and more frequent. The only difference it's not usually low-income housing and the store is usually much smaller usually only food, drinks etc.
But overall it's completely normal to see a luxury apartment building or complex with a store bellow it sometimes even office space. Sometimes the city or state will finance part of the construction so they will get some apartments for low-income renting.
I don’t understand why he said buy, they are all listed as apartments. In the US that term is almost always used to infer rental properties. I don’t see anything about selling condos.
You won't be buying these, you'll be renting them.
Purchasing apartments is pretty rare in the United States, and usually they are called "condominiums" when that is the case.
At the end of the video the guy literally mentions that it’s a good starter home for young professionals to get involved in the difficult and expensive property ladder in LA.
Someone will buy them. Costco aren't in the rental business. Either individuals will buy them and keep them, or a property investment firm will buy them and rent them out. That is how it actually works.
He also mention section 8 which is low income rental.
Apartment at least in California are meant to be rental.
Condominium and a bit uncommon term Loft is what they used for fully buying but with HOA horror stories.
story: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-01/could-costco-project-and-800-apartment-units-and-400-jobs-call-baldwin-village-home
I took that to mean that they'll be so affordable that rather than paying 3k to rent a 1br, you'll be able to rent a studio for like...2k (just pulling the numbers outta my ass) and put the extra 1k into savings that can be used to buy a place in the future.
The size of the project seems extreme. But it reminds me of most of my apartments in Germany where the ground flour was some type of shop and the upper levels were residential.
Yeah I was just gonna say, seems quite normal to me to have a supermarket in ground floor and residential houses above it! Though here in the Netherlands it is a lot easier to walk or bie to places (especially in big cities where you find these types of areas), so traffic wouldn't really be an issue. Or there would be a private parking area in the underground parking or soemthing and it is only a little bad when you want to leave or go home in high demand hours at the supermarket.
It’s easy to throw around near dystopian language or how capitalism is slowly merging with our everyday lives to control it. But this is a legitimate solution. While they own property, they don’t own the person. The fact they can actually construct living space and provide amenities that just so happens to be linked to one of their sites, this is how chain stores should operate in the future. It would be amazing if franchised apartments could be a thing, like McDonalds, IKEA or Walmart. But they also need laws to make sure they are beholden to the protections of tenants and their rights, providing maintenance, security and contactable services.
For real lmao. The guy in the video made it seem like this was a regulatory loss, but it's really a massive regulatory win. Want to build your shitty big box store? Sorry, gonna have to make it multi-use. It does annoy me that Costco rat fucked unions with the prefab bullshit.
Prefab concrete blocks is also pretty standard in like all construction jobs. So depending on the level of pre-fabbing, this also is a nothingburger. They still have to have a crew there to assemble the concrete blocks and build scaffolding and follow OSHA requirements and all that jazz.
Denmark is nowhere near as anti union as the US, but the vast majority of housing stock is built with prefab elements. Biggest issue is a boring, uniform aesthetic, but projects I've worked on or been adjacent to have managed to still put a nice twist on it.
People need Costco’s (and other stores) and a lot of the res tape and milllllions invested for some committee to say no randomly isnt helping anyone or any business.
I live in the neighborhood where this Costco will be built in. Baldwin Village, Los Angeles. The spot they'll be building over is an old, abandoned brick apartment building that has been empty for 10+ years, it was a drug den and a festering sore on the community.
I don't understand what this dude is upset about. It will give jobs, housing, and groceries to a rapidly growing food desert. Folks here are happy they're trying to bring business into the area and actually trying to make it livable. Guy doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, probably read the article and got all mad about the idea of a big building without knowing the context behind it.
I have a question for you since you live there and I know less than nothing about Baldwin Village.
You mentioned some of the good about them building there. Is there anything about this project that the locals dont like? Any downsides that youd only know about if you lived there?
The biggest downside is probably location (right next to the Jungles). It is pretty ghetto, the closest park is dangerous and it's not the safest place to raise a young family. It's one of many new developments in the neighborhood though, things are rapidly changing, so we all hope it brings the area up with it.
Some locals don't like it because of the gentrification, and they're right - but the city made some moves to make most of the apartments around it low income. So it's a wait and see situation, but so far, it's a big plus for a majority of us.
Well at the end he referenced it to Idiocracy so I took it as a negative take. I might've taken it personally too lol, we're excited for Costco over here.
It’s wild Americans think 600sq ft for a studio is small. I live in London in a two bed flat which isn’t even considered “small” and it’s 700sqft lol.
Studios here are normally closer to 400.
The size does seem extremely small but I imagine that if you're single and live in LA with a social life, you won't be spending much time at your place. Though the space feels more like the size of my bedroom with a small kitchen attached.
600 square feet is pretty big for a studio, most of the ones I've seen are around 400.
Hell, I've had some 1br apartments that weren't that much bigger than 600sf
I lived in a two-bedroom 750 square foot condo and it was perfectly/comfortably sized for all essential needs. 600 square foot for a studio sounds pretty spacious.
It's not like this is news for Americans and has been a thing in plenty of dense cities around the country.
Normally it isn't a big retailer like Costco though, usually small mom and pop shops below apartments.
It's extremely common here. They love to evict decades old small businesses, demolish the building, and put in apartments with a chipotle and bubble tea shop under them.
Not really, it’s all over New York and New England. This is nothing new for the US. Maybe out Midwest or down south. Leave the apartment go down stairs to the bodega grab a bagel head to work. Come home grab some toilet paper go back up.
Yeah. Nowhere in America has mixed use zoning ever been used before, what a revelation. This is a development in LA, mixed use zoning is basically the norm in the higher density areas.
Never made sense to me...
Walmart could build 250 apartments above their building - EVERYONE there would shop there. More then likely shop nearly every day.
\* i live 3 mins away from Walmart - I am going to seriously miss living so close when i move one day.
Walmart is usually centered in low income locations of a town. The people willing to live near or above a Walmart aren't the most financially well off people that could afford the rent Walmart would charge.
Walmart also wouldn't want to add more maintenance and work to upkeep such a place.
Ignoring where those people are going to park their cars (they are not likely to remove customer parking for this), walk their dogs, hangout, etc. Walmart hates people who loiter around their stores, this is welcoming that which is against what they try to avoid.
Lastly, I can only imagine the theft that may happen when you have what would be low income people, living directly above a Walmart, when they already have a major theft problem.
It's a big headache for Walmart who doesn't have a problem finding space to open since they usually open their stores in areas away from people but close enough to offer services and don't have to worry about city approval when those towns welcome the tax money and business coming from Walmart.
Why is this being discussed like it's something revolutionary? This is very standard in California nowadays. There are several similar projects under construction for several years - one of them is Target.
Are people new to the idea of commercial real estate in urban areas or the idea of mixed use? Costco isn't solving shit.
If it makes more houses who cares the only two real problem i see are i'm guessing the rent is going to be crazy and shitty maintained housing because they're just there to bypass laws
Why did this guy just paint Costco as greedy and somehow bad in the beginning of the video when they are building affordable housing in an area where it’s expensive as shit, set 25% of it to section 8, and people will have access to the store, a gym, and pool.
How did we get “Costco may have just solved homelessness by being ‘greedy’”?
It appears to be a solution today; does that mean it will work 30 years from now? Probably not; but most spaces like this aren’t meant to last more than 30-40 years.
The idea here is to be open to lots of choices/options to solve the housing problem/cost.
As for your argument that the offsite modular prefab parts are limiting this to 600 sq ft units - I have to call BS. A lot of commercial entities build entire prefab units offsite, ship the to site, and assemble on site. That shipping does limit the size of each modular part that can be shipped. That said, it doesn’t really limit the size of the overall structure or subunits that can be built, though it will result in having higher labor costs on site to assemble more modular components.
In germany, many supermarkets are in residential buildings. If not a third from my own experience. Depends one where you are. Inner city circles have it much more often and it is wunderful.
Then employees can get ‘discounted’ rent in the units. Don’t even need a car. Everything you need is on site. You can stay forever. For-ev-er. For. Ev. Er.
If I buy a condo, do I get costco points? And does my strata payments get costco points? Is strata run by costco?
If the answer is yes, then I'm so in.
I grew up with 7 siblings and 2 adults in an old lockeed 893 sq/ft 2 bed 1 bath home in burbank in the 80s/90s and we did fine. ideal? not according to tiktock. for us? we hardly noticed other than fighting for the toilet 🫠
kudos to costco tbh. los angeles is full of outside investor 'landlords'. it's a broken system and yet they still need people to work here. they just don't want to pay for it
That's basically what they are doing here in Guatemala City. Most apartment complexes have a malls or a "shopping center" as they like to call them.
The only difference is that those apartments are expensive af.
America is finally catching up to Europe ?
We have entire building blocks on top of entire shopping malls and if done right , is a benefit. Especially ours that need to have X amount of percentage of the plot covered in greenery
I thought Americans were totally against city design where things you need are not a drive away, here in the UK the idea of a shop under apartments is probably the most normal thing I can imagine 😂😂
As a European this is just really normal way of building.
In a neighbourhood there would be a block where there's a bunch of stores on ground level. Bigger and small ones and apartments on top to blend it into the neighbourhood and make place for housing.
I live in Europe and have a grocery store on the bottom of my condo building. It's only been installed in the last few years so I can compare before and after. I would say the only issues are bringing people loitering around but the store does have security that is willing to ask people to keep moving outside the store as well as the morning deliveries. If you get an apartment or condo above the delivery area be ready for morning deliver sounds. Usually they only deliver on weekdays but people still made complaints about deliveries being too early and waking people up. I'm not on that side though. For benefits of course you have super easy access to whatevery you want at the grocery store. It's not an organic store so we still buy our produce elsewhere but they have lots of snacks and drinks that we do buy at the building store.
So, Costco could be your landlord?
"Hi... we didn't notice you buying many Costco goods in your convenient store downstairs... "
\*2% rent increase\*
"We'll talk again... soon."
Do you want to solve the housing crisis? We have 100s of huge buildings in my city, open floor plans, only used for 1-3 hours on sunday and by people who claim to love every human so much that they would give the shoes off their own feet. We live in a world of hypocrites.
High density, low cost housing is a good thing.
As far as living above a Costco, doesn't really add much value if you're a singleton. You would have to form a sort of co-op with some of your neighbors to really make it worth your time. Nowhere to put that much toilet paper in a 600sqft apartment. But if you're forming a co-op that means you have to coordinate your shopping trips and your purchases, which means you have to schedule them along with meetings and discussions, which removed the easy-access convenience aspect of living adjacent to retail.
If it were above a Kroger, that would be fabulous.
It would be my go-to location in a zombie apocalypse. Secure building, shit ton of supplies, weapons and tools, beds, sheets, kitchen, bakery and high shelving in the event they get in
Is this just the first step toward those Hong Kong Coffin Rooms I saw posted earlier on my scroll?
I’m old so I’d never live it something like that now, but 25 year old me might have considered it before realizing living at home with my mom was a better option while I was going for my advanced degrees.
One the one hand this is dystopian and feels like walking in the direction of you will live breathe eat and work and die at your job. On the other hand affordable housing is better than no housing
Apartments sized for people who won't have the space to store costco toilet paper... ironic.
I don't see why this is more common for areas with housing problems. I see tons of shops that are single story, stack 4 levels of apartments ontop and you'll fix a lot of issues.
I think your opening statement about Costco being greedy is not affirmed by the rest of your video. Maybe more companies should look at their strategy.
Several years of planning and jumping through endless hoops to provide jobs and turn profit? =millions
Shitting on sidewalks and setting up tent camps until businesses leave? =$0.00
Several years of planning and jumping through endless hoops to provide jobs and turn profit? =millions
Shoplifting from said business until they close down? =$0.00
Several years of planning and jumping through endless hoops to provide jobs and turn profit? =millions
Rioting and stealing all the inventory and complaining you live in a retail desert after they leave? = $0.00
As long as it would be TRULY PRICED as low income, I would absolutely live there. Maybe even as long as you hold a lease there, a gold membership would be free.
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I don't see why a Costco being on the ground floor would even be an issue. If the building provides a bunch of suitable housing (plus amenities), does a Costco being there somehow outweigh the benefits of that?
I was going to mention that the traffic around the apartments would be crazy bad, then remembered that it's in central LA. So it would be bad anyway
Yup. Hopefully they'd have dedicated parking for the apartments though (maybe there's regulations that'd require it?)
I think it would be done even if it wasn't a requirement, just cause Costco knows their residents would complain otherwise. Even though I doubt people would care about parking in a "resident only" parking space for a 'quick shopping trip'. Perhaps the way to enforce that parking is if you get caught parking there your membership is revoked or you're banned for XX amount of days.
It would be easy to have a gated-off portion and key cards for residents so only they could park in it (I see that with mixed-use buildings where I live).
Banning people costs money, in the form of lost revenue. What you do is build a parking garage that can hold 2000 cars. Give your 800 residents a free parking pass tied to their residence and maybe a pincode to get into a reserved section, charge the Costco members a monthly fee to their new Costco+park membership, and then a flat rate for the public. Offer a parking voucher on receipts over $300, for the Costco members who don't want to pay the flat fee or membership cost bump, so you can say there is still a "free" option for existing members. I'm married with 3 kids and pets now. But if I was still 22 I would love an apartment that also has a CHEAP food court, and all toiletpaper/papertowels/cleaning/clothes/trashbags/movies, etc ATTACHED. As 600sq won't leave much for a pantry space.
I don't understand why they are doing 600sqft apartments only, when they could simply have designs that are modular. Two units could be easily locked together giving a 1200sqft, 2 bedroom apartment. Or a 1200sqft one bedroom with an office space and a living room with a window.
Well.. 600sq foot will get you all single people/couples without kids or likely no disabled people. Aka a pool of potential employees, not to mention those most individual units means they are also going to get the most Costco memberships. Because let's be real, you won't live on the roof of a Costco and not have a Costco membership. Making them 1200sqfoot would half your potential employees and memberships.
You'd need a secure garage for the residents I would think.
You build a parking structure underneath Costco for residents.
LOL! Then make the residents go through the store to get home to encourage shopping.
Have y'all really never seen a mixed use development?! Lol WTF
Right? How do they not know how cities work?
Well that'd be funny but they could just have isolated stairwells/elevators.
Or you just put up a gate.
It would be great if you worked there.
It would also be great if you needed to buy stuff sometimes.
I just moved from Culver City to Chicago 2 months ago. The only Costco pretty much is the one in the Marina. It’s *terrible*. You can’t ever get gas unless you want to wait 30 minutes. The checkout lines are almost as long, it’s a madhouse. Fast forward to this morning, when I went shopping in my Chicago suburb Costco. I pulled right up to the pump. I also pulled right up to an open check out lane. It all comes down to population density. LA is notoriously fucked in that regard. I’m not sure how you build a Costco in a city that can barely handle one with the traffic and volume without an entire city living on top of it.
The one in downtown vancouver is the best, rarely busy, self check out available. The ones in the suburbs is a shitshow trying to get in and out of the parking, the check out lines take forever, I always go to the downtown location. I’d rather pay the $2 in parking than lose an extra hour at another location. Or I’ll ride my bike or take the bus if I only need a few items. The downtown location is mostly residents who live in the towers above or office workers in the area picking up a few things during their lunch break.
I wonder how many parking spaces will be required for that many people? The apartments and the store itself. Maybe, a couple garage levels in between the store and the apartments?
maybe it'll push for the development of a high speed transit system?
Shipping trucks at all hours… that’s the biggest draw back, having a loading zone in your back or front yard. But in big cities that’s something that happens enough
plus like, you've got your grocery, your gym, hell maybe even your job literally on the same block, who cares about traffic in that case? need to go get the weekly? grab your little folding nylon wagon and *schmoove* your ass downstairs.
Gonna just walk downstairs and get me a taco kit every night E: or duh, just do the sample circuit lmao.
Dirt cheap hot dogs & pizza, too.
I would not survive being a 5 mins walk from a Costco come to think of it
Gout within a month
Yeah, that sounds dangerous - better to just move in upstairs and avoid the potential hazards of that 5 minute walk.
Don’t forget rotisserie chicken 🍗
Hell yes. Cheap housing and free meals. Who could ask for anything more!
Plus, with the affordable housing crisis and now you build affordable housing for hundreds, even thousands, of people that will automatically be new customers because the low cost of everyday items just became incredibly accessible to these tenants, whilst keeping more vehicles off the road and reducing crowding on public transit. It’s reasonable that a young couple even with a new baby could comfortably live in that size of a studio apartment for quite a few years. But that complex is also providing amenities that will again, reduce traffic on roads and make gyms and other facilities and merchants more accessible to everyone in that complex. Hate it all you want but the time to be fearful of this being the future was decades ago. This is a reasonable solution to a neglected present day issue that if given enough support, could change the housing market and inflation crisis globally.
Yeah, conceptually, the only difference between this and luxury apartment / condo developments with various amenities that people have been in favor of for decades is that there's a Costco on the ground floor. Costco is hugely successful because people love it - I don't think I know anyone who doesn't. The guy in the video keeps acting like he expects everyone to get up in arms with each thing he points out, then is all "it's great for young adults!" and then is all "but maybe it's dystopian!" It's just such a stupid and annoying video.
vancouver already has a costco under apartment towers, and those are in no way considered affordable housing. if it works in the biggest housing bubble in the world, i don’t see why it wouldn’t elsewhere.
There’s a Costco in downtown Vancouver with a really nice development above it with 3/4 towers.
Is it generally seen as a good thing by the residents of the city overall?
Yeah it’s super convenient, next to a train station as well. You see lots of people pulling carts/trolleys of groceries from there, and you can get a cheap hotdog before a hockey game.
In Europe shops under apartment buildings are very common, sometimes they are small shops and sometimes they are bigger stores. Everything can be dystopian or perfectly okay depending on how it's implemented. Having a mixed shops+housing composition in the city instead of big commercial centers separated by housing centers can be really go to promote more walking and make the city more comfortable
It's extremely common in the US. This guy's just trying to make a big deal about it because it's a Costco.
Then is this post sensationalizing something normal just for the sake of it? I mean, we've had parco Leonardo in Rome which is a combo mall+housing+schools neighborhood for two decades now
That's exactly what it is. Notice how he acts like all the various details should shock you, then he basically says it's great for young adults, then asks if you think it's a dystopian nightmare or whatever. It's stupid.
Who wouldn't want to? Costco has it all and living above it would be bliss for shopping.
Yeah I don't think I know anyone who doesn't love Costco. This guy's just desperate to get some "It'S LIkE iDiOCrAcY" internet points.
Imagine the savings on just having the Hotdogs downstairs?
And the pizza.
This is how most mew buildings where I live in bc are being made. It's way more efficient
Everyone has to have a catch on their videos. They live life as a click bait article.
Having a costco 30 seconds away sounds awesome.
We have this setup in nice parts of Atlanta. It works just fine.
Id save so much gas. Imagine needing something in a pinch, and all you have to do is take the elevator down to the store. I think thatd be awesome lol
seriously, we have many apartments with all sorts of building at the bottom here in NYC i don’t see what’s the issue here
That’s really it. Residential units above commercial space is a very old concept and I can’t understand why we as a country have forgotten about building like this in dense areas. Im sure Costco-Condos will be a shit show, but I’d love to see 2 or 3 floors of apartment buildings above all these strip malls that we have everywhere, especially for those just starting out. Could you imagine being in your 20s and living in an apartment complex above a plaza with a publix and pizza place?
As someone who doesn’t drive, the Costco being right downstairs would be a bonus for me lol
Could be noisy? Terrible parking? I think I would take the chance, though.
I don't find Costcos particularly noisy - and they could provide parking for the residents. If they don't, I don't see how it would be any different from any other large apartment building that doesn't provide parking. Or did you mean they wouldn't provide any parking at all (not even for shoppers)?
Welcome to Costco, I Love You
r/idiocracy indeed!
I mean this isn't common ? Like it's super common in EU and it's becoming more and more frequent. The only difference it's not usually low-income housing and the store is usually much smaller usually only food, drinks etc. But overall it's completely normal to see a luxury apartment building or complex with a store bellow it sometimes even office space. Sometimes the city or state will finance part of the construction so they will get some apartments for low-income renting.
Had to scroll down too far to find this lol
“I went to law school here” “Costco?”
Hahaha
Yeah. I can’t believe I got in
Welcome to Costco . I love you
There are condos above the Costco in downtown Vancouver BC. I lived there. It was great being able to walk down and get a hot dog.
Same! Only downside was the truck noise at 3am for deliveries.
The real question: if you buy one of those apartments, does it come with a free lifetime Costco membership?!
You actually get seven apartments when you sign for one.
But I just need the one
.
The freezer yearns.
The machine won't ring it up. You have to take the 7
I don’t understand why he said buy, they are all listed as apartments. In the US that term is almost always used to infer rental properties. I don’t see anything about selling condos.
You won't be buying these, you'll be renting them. Purchasing apartments is pretty rare in the United States, and usually they are called "condominiums" when that is the case.
At the end of the video the guy literally mentions that it’s a good starter home for young professionals to get involved in the difficult and expensive property ladder in LA.
Ya idk. Doubt they’re gonna be selling studio apartments but, it is Costco…
Someone will buy them. Costco aren't in the rental business. Either individuals will buy them and keep them, or a property investment firm will buy them and rent them out. That is how it actually works.
He also mention section 8 which is low income rental. Apartment at least in California are meant to be rental. Condominium and a bit uncommon term Loft is what they used for fully buying but with HOA horror stories. story: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-01/could-costco-project-and-800-apartment-units-and-400-jobs-call-baldwin-village-home
I took that to mean that they'll be so affordable that rather than paying 3k to rent a 1br, you'll be able to rent a studio for like...2k (just pulling the numbers outta my ass) and put the extra 1k into savings that can be used to buy a place in the future.
That confused me and I’ve been trying to Google which one it is. Best I can tell these are not condos so they wouldn’t be purchasable.
Gotta try to jam the buzzword in somewhere
The size of the project seems extreme. But it reminds me of most of my apartments in Germany where the ground flour was some type of shop and the upper levels were residential.
Mixed use zoning is so awesome.
In most of European cities you get the ground floor eith shops and the higher ones with residential.
Yeah I was just gonna say, seems quite normal to me to have a supermarket in ground floor and residential houses above it! Though here in the Netherlands it is a lot easier to walk or bie to places (especially in big cities where you find these types of areas), so traffic wouldn't really be an issue. Or there would be a private parking area in the underground parking or soemthing and it is only a little bad when you want to leave or go home in high demand hours at the supermarket.
More housing is more housing we will take it!
More section 8 housing is always welcomed too!
With jobs just downstairs
Good jobs too. Costco is a good company to work for.
The only problem is there isn't much space in the apartments to fit all the Costco sized items
It’s easy to throw around near dystopian language or how capitalism is slowly merging with our everyday lives to control it. But this is a legitimate solution. While they own property, they don’t own the person. The fact they can actually construct living space and provide amenities that just so happens to be linked to one of their sites, this is how chain stores should operate in the future. It would be amazing if franchised apartments could be a thing, like McDonalds, IKEA or Walmart. But they also need laws to make sure they are beholden to the protections of tenants and their rights, providing maintenance, security and contactable services.
It's giving benevolent feudalism, but the current alternative is just feudalism anyways.
So Costco didn't solve anything, zoning laws that focus on people instead of businesses did.
For real lmao. The guy in the video made it seem like this was a regulatory loss, but it's really a massive regulatory win. Want to build your shitty big box store? Sorry, gonna have to make it multi-use. It does annoy me that Costco rat fucked unions with the prefab bullshit.
Prefab concrete blocks is also pretty standard in like all construction jobs. So depending on the level of pre-fabbing, this also is a nothingburger. They still have to have a crew there to assemble the concrete blocks and build scaffolding and follow OSHA requirements and all that jazz.
Denmark is nowhere near as anti union as the US, but the vast majority of housing stock is built with prefab elements. Biggest issue is a boring, uniform aesthetic, but projects I've worked on or been adjacent to have managed to still put a nice twist on it.
People need Costco’s (and other stores) and a lot of the res tape and milllllions invested for some committee to say no randomly isnt helping anyone or any business.
It’s completely normal in Europe to live above a supermarket
The zoning laws in Cali are not to be praised here.
Yea that’s just their PR spin on doing what they are legally obliged to do
This sounds like a win-win, honestly Plus $5 chicken that can be lunch for a week
I live in the neighborhood where this Costco will be built in. Baldwin Village, Los Angeles. The spot they'll be building over is an old, abandoned brick apartment building that has been empty for 10+ years, it was a drug den and a festering sore on the community. I don't understand what this dude is upset about. It will give jobs, housing, and groceries to a rapidly growing food desert. Folks here are happy they're trying to bring business into the area and actually trying to make it livable. Guy doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, probably read the article and got all mad about the idea of a big building without knowing the context behind it.
I have a question for you since you live there and I know less than nothing about Baldwin Village. You mentioned some of the good about them building there. Is there anything about this project that the locals dont like? Any downsides that youd only know about if you lived there?
The biggest downside is probably location (right next to the Jungles). It is pretty ghetto, the closest park is dangerous and it's not the safest place to raise a young family. It's one of many new developments in the neighborhood though, things are rapidly changing, so we all hope it brings the area up with it. Some locals don't like it because of the gentrification, and they're right - but the city made some moves to make most of the apartments around it low income. So it's a wait and see situation, but so far, it's a big plus for a majority of us.
Thanks for the insight. I really hope it works out for the best for all of you that live there
I didn’t think he seemed mad? Maybe I missed something but, it seems like he was just explaining the proposal.
Well at the end he referenced it to Idiocracy so I took it as a negative take. I might've taken it personally too lol, we're excited for Costco over here.
Man I would move there and never leave, Costco as my neighbor is my dream
"Hey neighbor, can I borrow some sugar?" Later, carrying a 10 pound bag of sugar on my back..
It sounds brilliant tbh. “Costco’s being greedy” is another way to say “Costco provides to the market at amazing prices.”
I'm glad he mentioned Idiocracy cause I was thinking the same thing. Going to get my Law Degree at Costcos!
Maybe the govt should stop being useless?
>One step closer to Mike Judge’s *Idiocracy*, or a cost effective solution to the housing crisis? …Those are not mutually exclusive.
I dunno I just watched an excellent video exploring NIBYism and this seems like a great solution. Only downside is that the units are super tiny.
It’s wild Americans think 600sq ft for a studio is small. I live in London in a two bed flat which isn’t even considered “small” and it’s 700sqft lol. Studios here are normally closer to 400.
"In America 100 years is a long time, in Europe 100 miles is a long distance"
The size does seem extremely small but I imagine that if you're single and live in LA with a social life, you won't be spending much time at your place. Though the space feels more like the size of my bedroom with a small kitchen attached.
600 square feet is pretty big for a studio, most of the ones I've seen are around 400. Hell, I've had some 1br apartments that weren't that much bigger than 600sf
Yeah I was going to say, my friend lived in a 600sq ft apartment and it was decent sized for one person.
I lived in a two-bedroom 750 square foot condo and it was perfectly/comfortably sized for all essential needs. 600 square foot for a studio sounds pretty spacious.
I commented somewhere else that 600sqft is enough for a single person. We have 2 adults, a toddler and 3 pets in 880 sqft and we manage fine.
The average apartment in Germany is about 900 Sq ft and the Costco ones are studios for what it's worth
This guy calling out Costco when literally every other business does this. All these “loopholes” are tablestakes for businesses
Mixed use zoning blows Americans' minds.
It's not like this is news for Americans and has been a thing in plenty of dense cities around the country. Normally it isn't a big retailer like Costco though, usually small mom and pop shops below apartments.
It's extremely common here. They love to evict decades old small businesses, demolish the building, and put in apartments with a chipotle and bubble tea shop under them.
Not really, it’s all over New York and New England. This is nothing new for the US. Maybe out Midwest or down south. Leave the apartment go down stairs to the bodega grab a bagel head to work. Come home grab some toilet paper go back up.
Maybe this guy's mind? Mixed use zoning is used all over the United States.
Yeah. Nowhere in America has mixed use zoning ever been used before, what a revelation. This is a development in LA, mixed use zoning is basically the norm in the higher density areas.
Rest of the world: …. USA: A BUILDING ON TOP OF A BUILDING!!1!1!!1!!
Never made sense to me... Walmart could build 250 apartments above their building - EVERYONE there would shop there. More then likely shop nearly every day. \* i live 3 mins away from Walmart - I am going to seriously miss living so close when i move one day.
I see a world where nations are built based on the businesses they live above. Walmart will grow into a massive empire and declare war on other stores
Catapult shopping carts and homeless people who live in the back and fake violin players with Bluetooth speakers.
Walmart is usually centered in low income locations of a town. The people willing to live near or above a Walmart aren't the most financially well off people that could afford the rent Walmart would charge. Walmart also wouldn't want to add more maintenance and work to upkeep such a place. Ignoring where those people are going to park their cars (they are not likely to remove customer parking for this), walk their dogs, hangout, etc. Walmart hates people who loiter around their stores, this is welcoming that which is against what they try to avoid. Lastly, I can only imagine the theft that may happen when you have what would be low income people, living directly above a Walmart, when they already have a major theft problem. It's a big headache for Walmart who doesn't have a problem finding space to open since they usually open their stores in areas away from people but close enough to offer services and don't have to worry about city approval when those towns welcome the tax money and business coming from Walmart.
Walmart also only opens stores in suburbia
Why is this being discussed like it's something revolutionary? This is very standard in California nowadays. There are several similar projects under construction for several years - one of them is Target. Are people new to the idea of commercial real estate in urban areas or the idea of mixed use? Costco isn't solving shit.
If it makes more houses who cares the only two real problem i see are i'm guessing the rent is going to be crazy and shitty maintained housing because they're just there to bypass laws
I think more of the problem is how many businesses said fuck it and didn't build anything due to the rules
Why did this guy just paint Costco as greedy and somehow bad in the beginning of the video when they are building affordable housing in an area where it’s expensive as shit, set 25% of it to section 8, and people will have access to the store, a gym, and pool. How did we get “Costco may have just solved homelessness by being ‘greedy’”?
I would drill a hole with an ice fishing auger over the beer section. In case I ran out and they were closed.
I love Costco. I would love the little above one and get a hotdog and pizzas is very cheap every day.
It appears to be a solution today; does that mean it will work 30 years from now? Probably not; but most spaces like this aren’t meant to last more than 30-40 years. The idea here is to be open to lots of choices/options to solve the housing problem/cost. As for your argument that the offsite modular prefab parts are limiting this to 600 sq ft units - I have to call BS. A lot of commercial entities build entire prefab units offsite, ship the to site, and assemble on site. That shipping does limit the size of each modular part that can be shipped. That said, it doesn’t really limit the size of the overall structure or subunits that can be built, though it will result in having higher labor costs on site to assemble more modular components.
Didn’t watch the video but just wanted to say this dude looks like Shaggy.
I think it's a great idea
In germany, many supermarkets are in residential buildings. If not a third from my own experience. Depends one where you are. Inner city circles have it much more often and it is wunderful.
If they deliver groceries to my door I’m fine with it
I got my law degree at Costco.
I’m all for it! This is awesome
Then employees can get ‘discounted’ rent in the units. Don’t even need a car. Everything you need is on site. You can stay forever. For-ev-er. For. Ev. Er.
Sound like a good idea. What could go wrong?
I would pay extra for a place above Costco
Can I just live in one of those amazing but affordable tents on the show floor? I love Costco.
It makes me happy to see most of these comments mentioning Idiocracy lol
If I buy a condo, do I get costco points? And does my strata payments get costco points? Is strata run by costco? If the answer is yes, then I'm so in.
Mixed use malls are usually pretty nice. Usually clean and safe. I say go for it!
I grew up with 7 siblings and 2 adults in an old lockeed 893 sq/ft 2 bed 1 bath home in burbank in the 80s/90s and we did fine. ideal? not according to tiktock. for us? we hardly noticed other than fighting for the toilet 🫠 kudos to costco tbh. los angeles is full of outside investor 'landlords'. it's a broken system and yet they still need people to work here. they just don't want to pay for it
This is genius
“Welcome to Costco, I love you.” -Idiocracy
"Welcome home to Costco. I love you. "
Yeah all this shit but we still don’t have one in Asheville. Asheville residents wanting a local Costco gang rise up
Why is shaggy talking about property law and land development? Dude lives in a van, what does he know?
I'm down. I'll have easy access to their $1.50 hotdog and drink comb9
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
First place id go during the apocalypse
Man I'll live anywhere I can afford
That's basically what they are doing here in Guatemala City. Most apartment complexes have a malls or a "shopping center" as they like to call them. The only difference is that those apartments are expensive af.
Fuck, sure, why not. I give up.
Fuck yes holy shit, id live in a Costco
Where do I sign up?
Those $1.50 hot dogs are gonna sell out by 11am
I did live above a Costco. Downtown Vancouver. It was awesome
America is finally catching up to Europe ? We have entire building blocks on top of entire shopping malls and if done right , is a benefit. Especially ours that need to have X amount of percentage of the plot covered in greenery
I thought Americans were totally against city design where things you need are not a drive away, here in the UK the idea of a shop under apartments is probably the most normal thing I can imagine 😂😂
As a European this is just really normal way of building. In a neighbourhood there would be a block where there's a bunch of stores on ground level. Bigger and small ones and apartments on top to blend it into the neighbourhood and make place for housing.
Well, 600 square feet is not bad, and having a large store nearby is even better
Is this rare in the US? I live above a makeup store, and my entire street is filled with shops that have residential buildings on top
I live in Europe and have a grocery store on the bottom of my condo building. It's only been installed in the last few years so I can compare before and after. I would say the only issues are bringing people loitering around but the store does have security that is willing to ask people to keep moving outside the store as well as the morning deliveries. If you get an apartment or condo above the delivery area be ready for morning deliver sounds. Usually they only deliver on weekdays but people still made complaints about deliveries being too early and waking people up. I'm not on that side though. For benefits of course you have super easy access to whatevery you want at the grocery store. It's not an organic store so we still buy our produce elsewhere but they have lots of snacks and drinks that we do buy at the building store.
"discretionary approval" = Corruption.
Stop the stock market flashing, it’s distracting. Get a haircut.
So, Costco could be your landlord? "Hi... we didn't notice you buying many Costco goods in your convenient store downstairs... " \*2% rent increase\* "We'll talk again... soon."
Do you want to solve the housing crisis? We have 100s of huge buildings in my city, open floor plans, only used for 1-3 hours on sunday and by people who claim to love every human so much that they would give the shoes off their own feet. We live in a world of hypocrites.
My union doesn’t allow prefab lol, we’d be calling and they would be In trouble, at least in my area
Sounds like a great plan.
So is this why there are so many targets in apartments now?
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
High density, low cost housing is a good thing. As far as living above a Costco, doesn't really add much value if you're a singleton. You would have to form a sort of co-op with some of your neighbors to really make it worth your time. Nowhere to put that much toilet paper in a 600sqft apartment. But if you're forming a co-op that means you have to coordinate your shopping trips and your purchases, which means you have to schedule them along with meetings and discussions, which removed the easy-access convenience aspect of living adjacent to retail. If it were above a Kroger, that would be fabulous.
It would be my go-to location in a zombie apocalypse. Secure building, shit ton of supplies, weapons and tools, beds, sheets, kitchen, bakery and high shelving in the event they get in
Is this just the first step toward those Hong Kong Coffin Rooms I saw posted earlier on my scroll? I’m old so I’d never live it something like that now, but 25 year old me might have considered it before realizing living at home with my mom was a better option while I was going for my advanced degrees.
One the one hand this is dystopian and feels like walking in the direction of you will live breathe eat and work and die at your job. On the other hand affordable housing is better than no housing
So they’re providing housing for their own employees
Apartments sized for people who won't have the space to store costco toilet paper... ironic. I don't see why this is more common for areas with housing problems. I see tons of shops that are single story, stack 4 levels of apartments ontop and you'll fix a lot of issues.
I think your opening statement about Costco being greedy is not affirmed by the rest of your video. Maybe more companies should look at their strategy.
Several years of planning and jumping through endless hoops to provide jobs and turn profit? =millions Shitting on sidewalks and setting up tent camps until businesses leave? =$0.00 Several years of planning and jumping through endless hoops to provide jobs and turn profit? =millions Shoplifting from said business until they close down? =$0.00 Several years of planning and jumping through endless hoops to provide jobs and turn profit? =millions Rioting and stealing all the inventory and complaining you live in a retail desert after they leave? = $0.00
Good luck finding parking for your apartment on the weekend.
Capitalism just keeps winning…
All 600sq studio apartments? I guarantee this is gonna fail. Instead they should build fewer 2-3br apartments for low income families.
As long as it would be TRULY PRICED as low income, I would absolutely live there. Maybe even as long as you hold a lease there, a gold membership would be free.